Customer service reps are no strangers to contests and leaderboards, which have long been a motivational mainstay at call centers.  Unfortunately these old-fashioned poster-boards aren’t the most inspiring type of contest, especially in this digital age. In an industry that is tough enough when you consider the disgruntled phone calls reps take on a daily basis, how do you inspire them to provide the best, most efficient customer service possible in a fun and fulfilling way?

That’s where gamification comes in. Think of it as a new and improved version of the classic, old poster-boards, where instead of updating contest results with a Sharpie marker, you’re able to integrate an exciting competition app, integrated within Salesforce, with real time updates, to motivate and incentivize employees to focus on what matters most in customer service. There is a ton of buzz around gamification in the sales industry, but the very same tactics can benefit call centers as well. Goals may differ between sales and customer service, but motivational techniques don’t have to.

5 Areas where Gamification can amp up your call center

1) First Call Resolution (FCR): Though it has been noted in previous Salesforce blogs that “service is a cost center” is a myth, the old adage “time is money” is what we’re talking about here. An average call center with 250 customer service representatives can save $234,451 by increasing FCR by just 5%.  FCR is the most important metric for measuring cost performance and customer service because there is a direct 1:1 correlation between improving FCR and improving customer satisfaction.

Though important, measuring FCR is not as simple as it seems - meaningful data necessarily takes into account several different factors, from getting routed to the correct rep to customers’ demographics. While other tools may miss out on some of this data, gamification systems can do double-duty: motivating reps to record all of that important information from the initial point of contact by tapping into the competitive nature of the team. How to implement your gamification program here? Create a contest where the rep with the highest number of calls resolved without needing further follow-up receives a reward directly related to his or her team or area of expertise.

2) Average Handle Time (AHT): On the other hand, every call center is different and metrics on first call resolution may not be helpful to your specific needs. AHT also is closely related to customer satisfaction - if you have an issue to be solved, you want it to be resolved as quickly as possible without sacrificing quality. Gamification or competitions that reward agents points for a first call resolution or based on handle time help get people focused on this critically important metric to improving call center efficiency. How to implement? Depending on your needs and industry, hone in on an application that recognizes the rep with the lowest average handle time per month, or the rep with the highest number of calls resolved in less than ten minutes.


3) Coding: High-volume customer service organizations and divisions often use coding systems to differentiate between past issues, identify trends, highlight common incidents and generally organize data.  While this information is critical to improving a company, it is often collected half-heartedly due to the dry nature of the work. It’s just begging for the incentivization that gamification can provide. How to implement? Create a contest where the rep entering the most accurate data in the most categories at the end of each period earns extra vacation hours.

4) Turnover Rates: Call centers are notorious for having high turnover rates, and it’s one of the greatest challenges of the industry. Industry-wide, turnover hovers around 26%, and up to 33% for part time employees. Agents often feel stressed by angry customers and disconnected from the organization since most of their day is spent on the phone without face-to-face interaction with peers. By bringing in real-time contests with high impact leader boards, reps can put a face to their coworkers and engage with colleagues, strengthening your company culture in a real way. Gamification brings an element of fun to an otherwise boring job and leads to happier employees. How to implement? Keep your gamification app easily accessible on the home screen of reps’ computers so that they can have a running tab of their coworkers’ profiles. Encourage out-of-the-box profile pictures to bring a smile to the faces of your reps. When your employees are happy, your customers are happy, which leads us to…

5) Upselling: A sign of a good service representative is his or her ability to turn a positive service experience, or even a negative one, into a sales lead. If a customer has their question answered or problem resolved quickly, they are more likely to be interested in continuing their engagement in the company. Or, if a customer is dissatisfied with a product but engaged in a positive, constructive conversation with the service rep, there is an opportunity to offer that customer a different product. Agents can hand the client off to a sales representative as an inbound lead and upsell opportunity. One of the most successful client uses of our gamification product has been using it to motivate salespeople to take a new product to market. Whenever there is a new idea it takes people out of their comfort zone and they need a nudge to help create new habits. This same concept can apply in a call center to support upselling where your goal may simply be to motivate agents to ask a client if they would like to learn about a new service offering or ask for a referral. Creating friendly competition around it will get everyone rallied around it and spike this new behavior. How to implement? Reward the employee who has the highest dollar value from upselling with two tickets to your local sports team’s game.

Jerry Gregoire of Dell Computers correctly predicted that, “The customer experience is the next competitive battleground.” You can empower your customer service representatives with the tools they need for this battle through gamification technology. Used thoughtfully, it can change the way your employees think about their work, and in the process streamline data collection and reporting to lead to a more efficient and fulfilled customer service organization.

 

Kevin O'Hara, CTO LevelEleven & Force.com MVP
Starting to program at age 10, Kevin O'Hara considers himself a lifelong developer and technology enthusiast. He is currently the CTO of LevelEleven, a Salesforce.com ISV partner focusing on building apps in the gamification space. Prior to joining LevelEleven, Kevin spent many years as a Force.com consultant through his own company & Threshold Consulting in Florida. He's a regular speaker at Dreamforce & is very active within the Force.com community. In April, Kevin was recognized as a Force.com MVP. Kevin currently runs the Detroit Force.com Developer User Group.