Gamification is the application of game elements and techniques to bring about .. well, mostly substantial customer behavior change. It has been applied to improving sales productivity, increasing tool and product adoption, frequency of product use and retention (think airline frequent flyer miles) among other applications in business.

Everyone likes to play games. Games that string us along to achieving milestones, rewarding users with higher level of play or more capability within the game itself are usually most popular. Certain games like Angry Birds that tap into an urge that most of us have sometimes,  “shoot it down”, use fresh organic graphics, and rack up points along the way are hugely addictive to boot.

So why not apply some of these elements that find us addicted to business? It has been done before, is being researched as we speak and bodes well for the future. The key, according to a research paper published by Aberdeen Group on using gamification for improving sales effectiveness, is in tapping into the right type of “non-cash motivator” for the salesforce. Most of the time it is as simple as recognizing the sales people! Some value it a close second to financial rewards. Another effective motivator is “peer competition” and the race to “funnel exit” which is really movement of a lead down the sales funnel.

The important asset that differentiates how well gamification can be deployed within the firm is the deployment ability. Bunchball pioneered gamification solutions, but now there are more players in the market such as Hoopla and iActionable, among others. Interesting items to consider when deploying the gamification initiative to the field include:

1. Are the game mechanics easily configurable, and changes effective on-the-fly?
2. Is there an obvious way to measure the return on investment of the gamification environment?
3. Is the system transparent in determining the winners and the losers in the game?
4. Does the leaderboard data integrate with the customer relationship management system?

These factors when thought through well during the planning phase will serve to enrich the gamification environment and provide for more feedback for the iterative process, that implementing business gamification really and truly is. More on that on this blog site.. later!