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2.
Transform all customer-service survey activities
into engaging social media. Do you personally
stop to fll out every customer survey you come
across? Why not take this opportunity to give your
visitors/customers a thrill and gather some valuable
information in the process?
3.
Collect customer ideas for products and/or ads
via gamifcation processes by ofering big rewards to
the winners. Giving your customers the opportunity
to introduce product ideas or create advertisements
accomplishes a number of tasks. For starters, it can
provide you with a product/ad campaign that really
connects with the desires of your target demographic,
but it can also open up new avenues in terms of
product direction and message. Consumers also tend
to gush more about rewards programs, especially
when the stakes are higher. There is also the hidden
beneft of perhaps gaining insight into a more direct
and groundbreaking advertising scheme and for
a fraction of the costs associated with hiring new
staf or setting up benefts packages. It’s a bit like
contracting work out to your customers, and why
not? Customers often have a certain insight into your
business or products that you simply cannot grasp;
through them, you can use this knowledge to your
advantage.
Online Gamification
The most obvious place to begin implementing
gamifcation en masse is in online sales (of course).
No one could have predicted that social media
gaming (like that on Facebook) would become as
big and widespread as it has become. Overnight,
thousands of games and apps began springing up
across various social media platforms and sites. Soon
thereafter, businesses began scrambling to tap into
this potential market. To put it simply, gamifcation
has revolutionized customers’ expectations.
It’s simply not enough to get visitors or generate
a moderate amount of interest these days;
organizations are looking to capture consumers and
keep them coming back for more on a regular basis.
But we’re not talking about physical addiction or
the need for regular maintenance here; this is about
positively motivating customers to seek out your
services, products, and materials on their own accord.
This is done by means of providing them with highly
entertaining and/or thought-provoking materials or
apps and, perhaps, ofering up the occasional reward/
incentive program. Because consumers often connect
to a company’s gamifcation resources free-of-charge,
they literally have nothing to lose and everything to
gain through participation in your program(s).
Gamifcation represents yet another step in the
evolutionary ladder of sales and marketing. Sure, the
basic principles behind both (sales and marketing)
haven’t really changed, but the internet has absolutely
permeated nearly every aspect of our lives and
transformed the way we do business. It has also
changed our expectations; now, we may only come to
trust or know those businesses that are able to supply
us with the entertainment value and incentives
(which we’re acclimated to). Organizations that are
able to integrate gamifcation processes both inside
their operation as well as outwardly in their products,
services, and promotions are going to be the most
successful in today’s market(s).