Jump to ↓

Incorporating call center gamification into your workforce management strategy increases employee engagement, reduces agent attrition, and improves performance standards. Especially when coupled with agent recognition and rewards programs, gamification boosts overall call center productivity and incentivizes team members to provide a quality customer experience.

In this post, we’ll teach you how to gamify the agent experience and explore the data-backed benefits of call center gamification. We’ll also highlight performance gamification best practices and help you choose which KPIs to gamify.

 

What Is Call Center Gamification?

Call center gamification is a workforce engagement strategy that uses popular game design elements like rewards points, leaderboard rankings, goal-based countdowns, worldbuilding simulations, and team competitions to incentivize optimal agent performance. In call centers, gamification involves assigning point values to essential performance metrics and KPIs like CSAT score, first call resolution rate, average handle time, and sales rep closing rate.

call center gamification

 

Gamification makes tedious or challenging tasks more engaging and rewarding, reducing agent burnout and increasing productivity. Gamifying the call center agent experience helps businesses meet sales and customer service goals, increase agent retention, and maintain excellent performance standards.

Contact center leaders use gamification to pinpoint gaps in agent training, identify struggling and top-performing agents, and evaluate the customer experience.

To further improve agent engagement, use gamification alongside other call center quality management tools like agent performance scorecards, in-call coaching, real-time Agent Assist, and call recording.

 

Data-Backed Call Center Gamification Benefits

Call center gamification has a positive impact on nearly every aspect of call center operations. The data-backed benefits below illustrate how gamification increases employee engagement, profitability, productivity, and more.

  • Increased Agent Engagement: Engaged agents are motivated, have higher job satisfaction, and are 18% more productive than disengaged employees.[*] Gamification increases agent engagement by 48%.[*]
  • Decreased Agent Attrition: Happy, engaged employees are 89% less likely to leave a company–and agents working in call centers that leverage gamification report high engagement levels[*] Although call centers are known for high employee turnover rates, gamification increases agent retention by 36%.[*]
  • Higher Profits: Businesses that incorporate gamification into their workflows are seven times more profitable than those that do not.[*] Gamifying the sales process can increase sales by up to 40% in one year.[*]
  • Better Customer Experience: Using gamification to increase agent engagement can improve customer satisfaction scores by 10%.[*] Making gamification a part of the employee training and coaching process increases retention of skills-based knowledge by 14%, and fact-based knowledge retention by 11%[*]
  • Increased Productivity: 89% of employees say gamification makes them more productive at work.[*] Further, 72% of employees say gamification motivates them to work harder.[*]

 

Key Call Center Metrics To Gamify

Choosing which call center metrics to gamify depends on your specific workforce optimization goals and usually varies by department. For example, call centers that want to improve customer satisfaction scores could gamify KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) like average speed of answer or First Call Resolution rates. Businesses looking to increase sales and generate more revenue could gamify outbound call volume and lead-to-converstion percentages.

five9 wfm gamification

 

Popular metrics to gamify include basic KPIs like average talk time, missed call ratio, call transfer rate, and average customer hold times. Additional call center KPIs to gamify include:

  • Average Handle Time (AHT): AHT measures the average amount of time it takes contact center agents to completely resolve a customer conversation, including follow-up calls, hold time, talk time, pre/post-call work, etc. Gamify AHT to encourage faster customer service and minimize follow-up calls.
  • Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): Call center CSAT scores measures customer satisfaction levels and provide insights into customer service quality and agent performance. Gamifying CSAT encourages sales teams and customer support agents to go the extra mile to improve the customer experience.
  • Sales Revenue per Agent: Gamifying sales revenue per agent over a set time period increase conversions and motivates agents to make more outbound calls. Sales revenue gamification also encourages agents to improve sales pitches and make more personalized product/service suggestions. Additional sales KPIs to gamify include upselling and cross-selling rates, average purchase value, average conversion rate, number of sales made, number of calls made, and sales cycle length.
  • Agent Performance Scores: Gamified agent onboarding and training makes the process more engaging, but gamifying continual agent performance scores is equally important. Assign points based on agent scorecards, customer feedback, script adherence, talk:listen ratio, and even customer sentiment. Gamified performance management increases workforce engagement rates, boosts CSAT scores, and encourages agents to provide high-quality customer service.
  • Schedule Adherence: Combat agent absenteeism and last-minute shift changes by gamifying agent schedule adherence.
  • First Call Resolution (FCR) Rate: FCR measures the percentage of customer service requests that are completely resolved during the first interaction between a customer and a live agent. Gamifying FCR minimizes excessive call transfers, long hold times, and call abandonment.

When choosing metrics to monitor, select ones agents can truly control–not those primarily influenced by outside factors like customer availability, supervisor schedules, or software malfunctions/downtime.

 

Potential Call Center Gamification Challenges and Solutions

Agent burnout, hurried customer interactions, and toxic competition are common challenges to successful call center gamification. However, choosing the right metrics, collecting agent feedback, and setting limits on gamified experiences help prevent major issues.

 

Degraded Customer Experience

The Problem: Gamifying certain performance metrics–like the number of leads contacted or average handle time–can cause agents to rush through customer interactions to gain more points. In addition to degrading the customer experience, this could lead to a damaged business reputation and increased customer churn.

The Solution: Be choosy about which metrics you gamify, place limits on the maximum amount of points agents can earn per shift, and only award points to agents that meet specific performance KPIs or CSAT scores.

 

Agent Burnout

The Problem: Gamification undoubtedly increases agent productivity levels and motivates agents to improve performance scores. However, hyper-productivity in the hopes of winning challenges can cause agent burnout, absenteeism, and increased attrition.

The Solution: Vary the types, lengths, and frequency of game mechanics, and limit the number of challenges. Create department-specific challenges that involve some agents, and rotate which agents participate throughout the year.

 

Toxic Competition

The Problem: Gamification can bring out the best in some call center reps, and the worst in others. Especially when high-value rewards or prizes are involved, friendly competition can quickly turn to cut-throat tactics that damage team dynamics and agent morale.

The Solution: If you notice excessive competitiveness starting to creep in, make wallboards and performance scores private. If the same agents keep winning every time, limit the number of challenges per quarter agents can compete in. In extreme cases, you may need to end challenges early, pause gamification, and bring in HR to address tension between team members and center healthy competition.

 

Best Practices For Call Center Gamification

Choosing the right call center KPIs to gamify and the ideal games to play is key, but numerous other factors influence gamification success.

Follow the best practices below to get the most out of your call center gamification strategy.

gamification genesys

 

Set Clear Gameplay and Scoring Rules

Most WFM solutions with gamification features include games with preset rules and scoring metrics that can be adjusted according to your call center specifications. When creating your own games, keep things simple. Avoid gameplay with overly compex rules and confusing scoring, and ensure this information is easy for agents to find.

If rules need to be adjusted, wait until the challenge is complete–do not change them in the middle of a gameplay scenario.

 

Keep Targets Realistic

Gamification increases agent engagement and helps call centers reach goals faster–but setting unrealistic targets and performance standards has the opposite effect.

To ensure expectations and game objectives are realistic, study past call center data and collect agent feedback. Create sever smaller, “milestone” challenges instead of one giant long-term goal to keep agents energized.

 

Recognize Top Performers

While it’s nice to win competitions, employees also want to be recognized for their efforts. Call center agents cite a lack of recognition and appreciation as their number one reason for quitting.[*] Congratulate winners publicly and privately, and let them know how their work positively impacted KPIs and business goals.

Company-wide leaderboards allow top performers to shine in front of their colleagues, as do employee recognition tools that let team members celebrate each other’s accomplishments.

 

Develop A Rewards Program 

Employee recognition goes hand-in-hand with employee rewards–and a gamification program without compelling incentives simply isn’t as effective.

Develop a tier-based rewards program to truly incentivize agents, and vary the type and value of available prizes. Most importantly, ask agents what motivates them when creating your reward system: extra vacation days, gift cards, cash bonuses, or new technology.

 

Incorporate Other WFM Tools

Contact center gamification is most effective when used as just one part of your overall workforce and performance management strategy.

Most WFM platforms include agent coaching tools, customer satisfaction survey builders, and customizable agent scoresheets with automated post-call training module assignments. This ensures that gamification boosts productivity without compromising performance standards, leading to continuous improvement and a more engaging work environment.

 

Continually Monitor Performance Analytics

Call center managers usually implement gamification initiatives to improve specific performance metrics like CSAT scores or lead conversion ratios. However, call center activity and KPIs are constantly in flux. Gamifying the same KPI over and over again causes stagnation and can have the opposite effect. To keep things fresh, switch up gamified KPIs and leverage performance data to identify new opportunities for gamification and optimize call center workflows.

 

Balance Solo and Team-Based Competitions

Team-based competitions help managers identify trends in call center activity, customer sentiment, and employee performance. However, too many team-based competitions can cause contention between agents, especially if some feel like they’re worker much harder than their teammates.

Strike a balance between solo games and teamwork challenges to keep everyone happy.

 

Diversify Game Types  

The novelty and fun of gamification is what makes it so successful–so be sure to switch up game types as often as you do KPIs.

Popular gamification ideas include:

  • Worldbuilding: Agents can create their own avatars and move through simulations, purchasing virtual products and upgrades or undergoing new challenges
  • Goal-Based Challenges: Set specific goals like “The first agent to sell $500 of product wins.” Use leaderboards and wallboards to display agent progress team-wide.
  • Time-Based Challenges: Set time constraints for gameplay and use countdown timers to keep agents on task
  • Puzzles: Agents earn “pieces” of the puzzle per point, and complete the game when the puzzle is finished
  • Badges and Trophies: Agents compete to win badges/trophies that are displayed on their profile or in a virtual trophy case

 

Popular Gamification Use Cases

Call center gamification is now a standard feature of contact center software and workforce management solutions. This makes sense, given that gamification boosts performance and productivity levels across numerous industries and business sectors. Popular game elements and use cases for gamification include:

  • Employee Training: Employees are guided through gamified training and compliance materials, earning points for each section/chapter completed. In-training quizzes and tests are also awarded point values.
  • Education: Within the education sector, gamification helps keep students engaged, reinforces core academic concepts, and helps teacher identify areas where students are struggling. Students earn points for letter grades, test scores, completed homework assignments, and more.
  • Healthcare: Healthcare professionals use gamification to encourage patients to follow pre/post-appointment guidelines and as medication reminders. Patients are rewarded for booking appointments, refilling prescriptions, and even when IoT monitoring devices reflect exercise or step count goals.
  • Retail: Retail customers and employees both benefit from gamification. Shoppers can benefit from rewards programs, create avatars, and earn points for every purchase, increasing customer loyalty. Retail employees take part in sales competitions and use simulations to train for real-world scenarios.

 

FAQs

Below, we’ve answered some of the top call center gamification FAQs.