BlogmyQuery – BMQ

Hope you’re ready to power on—and take on—the next generation of customer support.

Enter gamification: a game-changing strategy that has transformed businesses across the globe.

The Mario-inspired work dream has become a reality. We’ve entered a dimension of excitement, innovation, and intelligence when it comes to motivating not just customers, but especially customer service agents.

Imagine, for a moment, a world where customer support isn’t just a task, but a competition that breeds excitement and higher performance.

If you can picture this scenario, you’ve just unlocked the first level of understanding the universe—and potential—of gamification in customer support. ??

Step aside, traditional customer service. There’s a new player in the game. And this is a whole new arena. One filled with challenges, levels, rewards, and achievements, all geared toward enhancing customer engagement and agent performance.

Hold onto your controller. This will be a wild ride through levels of loyalty, side quests of satisfaction, and bonus points of brand engagement. All are focused on the power that gamification holds for your company’s customer support.

1. Understanding The Magic Potion Of Gamification

What is Gamification?

Gamification is the wizardry of incorporating game-like elements into non-game scenarios. Think about earning points, leveling up, or unlocking achievements—all wrapped up neatly in the customer experience. It’s like turning a mundane task into something like a Mario Kart race.

But gamification isn’t just about adding game mechanics to boring to-do lists. Nor is it just about making work fun, either. Behind it all is very real science.

Gamification relies on human psychology, tapping into our innate desire for competition, achievement, and recognition. Striving for victory, to achieve more, to be recognized—it’s a universal language that transcends age and geography.

This unique mix of fun, competition, and rewards helps to make even the most mundane tasks more exciting. Turning your customer support agents into next-level performers and your customers into long-term loyalists.

Why Use Gamification in Customer Support?

Because since Atari, 40+ years of history have shown us that people like games. Sometimes they love them.

More often than not, even if they don’t, they add a little more personal “oomph” to their efforts when it comes to getting results. No one wants to finish in last place—in Pong, in Tetris, in the contact center. Or even in the middle of the pack.

From points and badges to leaderboards and challenges, gamification elements can truly blend into a potent potion that can awaken a whole new level of customer and agent engagement. For more on this subject, take a look at this recent post on the LiveVox blog.

It makes the process of problem-solving more engaging for customers. Plus, you’ll never hear an agent, and by extension, a customer, say: “I had a boring time getting my issue resolved.”

2. The Epic Quest of Enhancing The Customer And Agent Experiences

Points + Rewards

Ah, rewards! Who doesn’t love to collect shiny things? Incorporate a system where customers earn points for engaging and watch how they turn into relentless treasure hunters.

Every customer ticket turns into a quest. Every resolution into a victorious battle. Your agents aren’t just solving problems anymore. They’re on an epic journey to provide the ultimate customer experience.

And what’s a quest without a guide? Agents also become the wise mentors, the skillful support ninjas, guiding customers through challenges.

Challenges + Missions

By creating challenges and missions for customers to solve, they are no longer mere users but valiant heroes on an epic quest. Check out how businesses are doing this right now!

It’s not just the customers who are on this quest. Agents are motivated by rewards, leveling up, and public recognition, fostering a more collaborative and positive work environment.

Leaderboards + Achievements

Incorporating gamification requires state-of-the-art technology that enables seamless integration of game mechanics into customer support processes.

In the customer support space, especially inside call and contact centers, dynamic Wallboard solutions like the ones we offer at LiveVox help agents and managers visualize KPIs in real-time. And literally keep everyone eyeing the same goal.

Successful, industry-leading brands have successfully implemented gamification in their customer support efforts. See how they’ve done it in this in-depth article from G2.

3. The Eternal Bond Of Customer And Agent Loyalty

Make Customers Part of Your Kingdom

Treat your customers like royal citizens in your corporate kingdom. Gamification in customer support ensures that every interaction is a celebratory feast, fostering an eternal bond of loyalty.

Gamification builds a deeper, longer-lasting bond between your customers and agents. And the more engaged everyone is, the more loyal everyone becomes to your company.

Beyond enhanced customer loyalty, there are other results that make this strategy worth plugging into—namely, increased engagement and motivation, both of which we’ll cover in more detail below.

The Power of Community

By encouraging customers to compete and cooperate, you create a thriving community. Like a guild in an MMORPG, they rally together, defend the brand, and share experiences.

Gamification has the power to create an exclusive community between your customers. One that shares experiences, challenges, and rewards. It’s a connection that can, and often does, goes beyond mere transactions.

Data-Driven Analytics Insights (A.K.A. The Oracle’s Wisdom)

The wisdom of analytics in gamification is like having a prophetic oracle. It provides insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends, guiding you like the North Star.

Through smart analytics, you can see how gamification positively impacts customer satisfaction and agent performance. It’s an insightful glimpse into the inner workings of your magical new world. For a look into the future of analytics trends for gamification, GrowthEngineering has you covered all the way until 2025.

It’s Time To Set Your Sights On The Final Boss Level For Your Customers And Agents

We’ve ventured through the magical land of gamification in customer support, and it’s clear that this isn’t just a trend—it’s the future. It’s about making customer service more than a duty or requirement or need-to-have.

This is the chance for you to make support an adventure filled with challenges, rewards, and camaraderie. For everyone involved with your contact center.

In this day and age, you’re no longer just a company. You’re a game master, orchestrating epic adventures for your customers and agents. Now, isn’t that something to strive for?

With gamification, we’re not just solving problems; we’re engaging minds, capturing hearts, and creating loyal brand warriors. So, pick up that virtual sword, shield, or customer support tool, and join the revolution.

The realm of gamification is here, it’s real, and it’s taking the customer support world by storm. It’s more than just about making things fun. It’s about creating unforgettable experiences, nurturing everlasting bonds, and turning both customers and agents into champions of your brand.

This is a time-tested, yet innovative, strategy for boosting your customer ROI, exciting your agents, and seeing more positive results from everyone at the same time. Now go forth and conquer the world of customer engagement like never before. ?

featured image by Berkeley Communications on Unsplash

The post Gamification in Customer Support: Leveling Up Customer Engagement and Loyalty appeared first on noupe.

Society is growing to rely on Artificial Intelligence more and more. Over the years AI has become embedded in everyday life, such as our smartphones and devices that control smart technology in our homes. One of the major components of AI is its ability to continuously learn so that it is constantly getting better and becoming more efficient. There are so many capabilities and it’s hard to imagine the limits of this technology. One such capability is to help businesses better understand their customers.

With customer expectations higher than they have ever been, it is important for companies to adapt and continue to be aware of those expectations. One report shows that about 80% of customers would prefer not to do business with a brand after just one bad experience. This shows that the bar is extremely high for companies to get it right from the beginning. That’s where AI can help.

There are plenty of people who have already come to embrace the idea of AI-enhanced CX (AI/CX). It has been found that 70% of executives believe their industry is ready to adopt AI/CX and three out of four predict AI will have a vital role in the future of their organizations.

When used in a contact center, artificial Intelligence can also save a business time and money, which is always a plus. However, being able to tap into the knowledge behind what drives customer engagement is key to success. The great thing is that AI will do the work for you and you get all the benefits. So, this is what AI can do for you.

Improving Customer Service

Having a responsive and helpful customer service department is essential to any business that wants to be successful.  90% of consumers say “immediate” response time is very important when they have a question. Customers need to be able to have direct access to businesses to file complaints or resolve any issues they may have. So having different channels where people can express those things is necessary for companies to retain customers. Multiple kinds of AI-powered software have been developed to enhance the customer experience.

Chatbots are one way that artificial intelligence can improve customer service. They are very relevant in today’s world, as 67% of people expect to use messaging apps to talk to businesses. They can easily answer frequently asked questions or simpler questions that do not require intervention from a customer service representative. They’re also available 24/7 so people have access at all times, without the need for shift workers. 

Receiving feedback from customers is one of the best ways for companies to know how they are doing and what they need to improve. AI is a tool that can exceed what the standard survey provides. For example, AI can facilitate online focus groups in real-time and opens up a channel for communication, where you can have a conversation with people and participants don’t have to give one-sided responses. 

Predicting Behavior

Being able to predict customer behavior has a major impact on the way companies conduct their business. In predicting behavior, brands can offer a more personalized experience and drive sales. Artificial intelligence can capture and analyze customer data to a much higher extent than ever before.

Programs, like Google Analytics, Facebook Ad Insights, Adwords, and CRM data are designed to track customers across platforms and generate reports with information about people’s online habits. They will track things such as which websites people visit and specifically what products they are looking at. They can get very detailed to even include how long someone stays on a page and how often they return.

By knowing ahead of time how people shop and what products/services they are looking for, brands can plan accordingly. They are able to design their websites in a way that draws people’s attention to exactly what they want and makes them more user-friendly. They can also put their time and effort into funding the design of products that they know people want. 

Targeted Marketing

Marketing has drastically changed over the years. Traditional marketing no longer makes the cut and now people listen more to ‘influencers’ and spend so much of their time on social media, where they are seeing ads bombarding them in a whole new way.

It’s no coincidence when someone logs onto Instagram and sees ads for products they specifically like. That is because these ads are tailored for and targeted at each individual. AI is to thank for that. Algorithms are built into these platforms that run based on AI technologies and machine learning to make recommendations on content for users. It can almost be eerie in the ads that users see, especially if someone has just been searching for that very product being advertised.

Having AI keep up with customer data allows brands to know exactly how to customize their marketing tactics for each person. This keeps the customer drawn in and clicking that add to cart button. It also helps prevent churn and retains the best customers by detecting when they are starting to lose interest and can launch new campaigns to keep their attention.

Artificial intelligence is only going to continue improving and has so much potential in businesses. Brands are in a unique position, compared to those in the past, in the way they can use technology to tap directly into customer insights. By having a better understanding of customers’ expectations and habits, a company can completely transform itself to cater to its customers. The customer experience is everything. And AI is a powerful tool that can revolutionize the way customers interact with a brand. So, to get started with integrating AI to create a better customer experience, check out your options with LiveVox.

Images by LiveVox Team

The post How Will AI Help You Better Understand Your Customers appeared first on noupe.