Gamification uses game mechanics and game design techniques to create a game like experience while achieving work goals. The main purpose is to make work more appealing, motivating and fun while working towards tight deadlines and targets. Anyone who plays internet or mobile games will be familiar with this motivation system, which has been shown to work in a wide variety of environments ranging from dieting to exercising and even online revision.

The question of course is - how does this make sense in a call centre environment?

Well, call centres often employ young employees and have problems with staff retention. This means that anything that makes the work environment more "fun", based on an interaction similar to what young employees are used to in the virtual world, results in increased motivation and employee loyalty.

Many contact centres attempt to mitigate the problem by offering awards and prizes in an ad hoc or structured manner. However it is possible to make this more transparent and create a greater sense of urgency by using structured leader boards, quests, challenges and achievements - piquing the interest of your staff and increasing competition.

Customer support agents often are not aware of the possibilities of progressing within a call centre. Providing a clear roadmap showing how they can evolve from trainee to junior to senior, with experience and awards leading to promotion, will lead to your people appreciating their options and working hard to realise their potential.

This can be done using the Collab 2.5 suite - OneContact and OneWorkforce - which makes possible a total call centre workforce optimisation process starting with Quality Monitoring and Workforce Management, and continuing with E-Learning and other technologies available. The gamification engine offers the perfect flow, continuously feeding these different technology blocks.

To start a gamification platform one must first decide which events to include and what purpose they will serve. The Collab approach is to have three different types of events: Quests, Challenges and Achievements, each one serving a different purpose.

A Quest is a target that must be reached in order to get a reward. This is not a competition between employees - in fact the idea is for as many call centre agents as possible to complete the Quest. A simple example of a quest is - "The early bird catches the worm. Get to work on time every day this week and get 10 points!"

Challenges, on the other hand, are competitions. The idea behind this is to create a challenging environment where call centre agents strive to improve their performance and in the process outperform their colleagues. Challenges only reward winners. An example of a challenge is the following: "Beat the average! Answer more phone calls than 75% of other call agents and you will get 20 points!"

Achievements highlight feats and milestones. This type of event rewards expertise or consistency. For example the following could be an example of an achievement "Congratulations you have been working with the company for a year! Here are 20 points to thank you for your hard work and dedication."

Obviously the system will only work if the points are actually worth something. In the Collab solution points are called CC Credit and can be redeemed against a selection of prizes. In essence the points become a workplace currency that can be used in your in-house prize store. Prizes can range from chocolate bars to weekend breaks or even additional days of vacation. It is ultimately at the discretion of the conctact centre what prizes to make available, however of course it would make sense to ensure that attractive prizes are on offer to make it well worth everyone's while and increase motivation loyalty, competition, teamwork, productivity and fun.

Collab's OneContact solution is a multimedia call centre software solution, offering  complete and integrated communications management for call centres, including voice, video, email, instant messaging and social networks. For more information, you can contact Alert by visiting our website on www.alert.com.mt or +356 2060 1234

Ludwig Micallef is the General Manager of Alert eBusiness, local resellers of Collab Communications solutions. www.alert.com.mt