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Why Gamification In Call Centers And Contact Centers?

by Karen Hsu, VP Marketing, Badgeville - November 18, 2015

Why Gamification in Call Centers and Contact Centers?
By Karen Hsu, VP Marketing for Badgeville

I just came back from a conference where people running the largest hotel call centers gathered. They discussed challenges due to the changing workforce and current labor market. Common issues kept coming up that led them to either use gamification or look at using gamification in their call and contact centers. We also talked about how Badgeville customers have addressed these issues and seen significant gains. The issues we talked about in the these call/contact centers are:


1. Ramping up people quickly when there’s a labor shortage

In states like Nebraska, unemployment is at an all time low. First, it’s challenging to find talent. Once you have people, it’s challenging to get them up to speed quickly… and then to retain them. Gamification is being used at call centers to get people proficient more quickly, stay on the job and engaged. On top of a scarcity of agents, there’s a scarcity of management. So many call centers are looking for ways to grow talent from within to fill those management ranks.

A Badgeville customer training new contact center agents saw a 24% increase in attendance. That means the new customer care professionals are working one more day a week when they are motivated and recognized for their work. That increases productivity!

To grow talent from within, another Badgeville customer with call center agents is providing a particular series of training classes. Those agents that complete these training classes then move on to become managers. But the challenge was getting people to take these training classes. By using Badgeville, they were able to not only get their agents to complete the training classes but also complete more training classes. This company saw an over 50% increase in training class completion.


2. Engaging the growing number of remote/virtual agents

Many call centers have added remote agents because it has been so difficult to find full-time employees. Others have found that hiring remote agents has helped them be more selective. Many remote agents are quite skilled but need to be remote for family or personal reasons. By offering virtual solutions, call centers have been able to increase the quality of their team. But the challenge with virtual agents is engaging them. If they’re remote, how do you give them the praise on a good call? How do you quickly give them the feedback they need? How do you motivate them?

That’s where digital motivation comes in. Badgeville customers have been able to increase engagement with employees over 20% on collaboration platforms. In addition, employees have been able to receive recognition for the good work they’ve done. For example, EMC used Badgeville to drive and reward valuable behavior. People score points for completing particular activities and receive badges and recognition for completing business goals. Unlike gamification “apps” that are limited to a pre-packaged set of activities and rewards, Badgeville allowed EMC to gamify virtually any user behavior across its ecosystem.


3.
Increasing retention

Retention has been an issue with many employees staying a year or less. Many of the newer employees in these call and contact centers are millenials. In addition to retaining the younger employees, these centers need to continue to retain more tenured employees.

For one Badgeville customer, millenials make up close to 50% of their contact center employees. As a result, the business wanted a new and innovative way of helping these employees learn in an enriching and engaging way. The company needed to engage differently from the traditional eLearning approach. More tenured employees required another approach. This Badgeville customer was looking to help these more tenured employees develop more personally and professional. By using gamification to help these employees develop more holistically, they see higher retention and job performance.

All these call and contact centers had multiple types of agents working in different applications. The managers wanted one solution to address call and contact center professionals. The answer? Gamification.





 
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