5 Gamification Predictions

written by MO.com Subject Matter Resource Kris Duggan

Gamification has gone from an unknown idea to a well-established and sustainable business strategy, chosen by top analysts and business executives as a key technique to measure and influence user behavior. According to Constellation Research, more than 50 percent of all social business initiatives will include an enterprise gamification component by 2013.

In 2012, Gamification continues to prove itself as one of the most impactful strategies for enhancing customer and employee-facing experiences. Here are five predictions for where the gamification industry is headed:

Gamification Will Spread to Every Industry. Our customers come from a variety of backgrounds and industries—from education, to healthcare, to IT and beyond. We realize that gamification is unique because it can be easily adopted by any brand, in any industry, to drive any user experience. Based on our customer growth, we predict that some industries, such as retail & ecommerce, technology, telecommunications, education, health & fitness, media, travel and online communities, will grow their usage of gamification immensely in the coming years.

Gamification Programs Will Shift Focus to Business Results. In its earliest stages, gamification appeared as a quick way for a business to add a few points or badges to its site, or reward users for short-term engagement. Moving forward, global business leaders will turn to gamification in search of a sustainable and viable way to get desired business results. With these expectations set higher than ever before, gamification programs will shift their focus to helping customers see real business results.  In the past 18 months, Badgeville customers have experienced 20 to more than 200 percent increases in key business objectives, such as increased ROI, user activity, loyalty and engagement.

Gamification Will Be Used as a Primary Tool for Sifting Through Big Data. With so much data providing insights into user behaviors, successful businesses will need to turn to tools that capitalize on these insights to influence future behaviors. There will be rapid advances occurring in behavior-based analytics as part of gamification platforms, and we predict that business leaders turning towards gamification to sift through big data and turn this data into actionable insights. Businesses will push for richer insights based on individual user behavior, user types and what incentivizes specific behaviors linked with key business objectives.

Gamification Status Will Be Portable Across All Digital Touchpoints. 
User reputation and ranking systems, also known as gamification techniques focused on rewarding behavior taken on your branded experience, will surface the requirement for gamification programs to connect disparate websites, mobile experiences and enterprise applications. For example, these programs will surface user status earned in a CRM system and showcase that status in the company’s community platform, as well as their blog network.

Employee Behaviors Get Gamified. 
Internal enterprise gamification will continue to grow. Internally, enterprises will see the need to monitor and reward employees who go through corporate training programs, engage with CRM systems, and complete daily tasks in support systems. Badgeville customers such as Deloitte and Appirio, are already using gamification techniques to reward employee engagement, performance, and productivity.

Badgeville, the gold standard for gamification, is the world’s first Behavior Platform.  Launched in 2010, Badgeville has secured more than 165 customers across virtually every industry, including numerous Fortune 1000 enterprises that are seeking to measure and influence their customer and employee behaviors. Visit www.badgeville.com for more information.