Editorial
The Gist
- Gamification boosts enthusiasm. Survey reveals gamified elements in personal finance and other areas increase engagement and drive user enthusiasm.
- Positive reception. Most respondents feel positive or neutral about gamification, with tangible rewards significantly enhancing receptiveness.
- Generational preferences. While gamification is popular across all ages, younger generations are more open to it, suggesting a gradual introduction for older customers.
Gamification is an increasingly prominent part of digital platforms. Gamified elements, like point systems and leaderboards, are appearing everywhere from financial services to fitness, healthcare and even retirement services.
The overwhelming popularity of video games — over 83% of internet users played video games of some type in 2023 — suggests that users like these gamified elements. But does the enthusiasm for gamified elements in video games extend to these other areas?
How Gamification Can Impact Customer Experience
Gamification emerges as a powerful strategy to captivate and retain customers across various industries. For customer experience leaders, understanding and implementing gamified elements within their strategies can mark the difference between a passive consumer and an active, enthusiastic participant. This shift toward incorporating game mechanics into non-gaming contexts, particularly in sectors like personal finance, healthcare and even retirement services, offers a unique lens to view and enhance customer interactions.
The trend according to data (more on that in a bit) is clear: gamification is not just a fleeting buzzword but a foundational element in building a compelling customer experience. Its ability to drive engagement, foster loyalty and encourage positive behavior change is particularly pertinent as businesses strive to stand out in crowded marketplaces.
For customer experience leaders, the adoption of gamification signifies a move toward more interactive and rewarding consumer journeys. By aligning gamified experiences with customer expectations and preferences, businesses can unlock new dimensions of customer engagement and satisfaction. It's crucial for customer experience leaders to note the broader implications. Gamification's success in driving enthusiasm and engagement in various domains underscores its potential as a versatile tool in the customer experience toolkit.
This article aims to shed light on how gamification can transform the way businesses interact with their customers, making every interaction not just a transaction, but a meaningful and enjoyable part of the customer's day.
Related Article: Customer Retention Strategies for Driving Loyalty in Uncertain Times
Driving Engagement and Enthusiasm
This past fall, Corporate Insight fielded a survey to explore individuals’ attitudes and behaviors around gaming and finances. We asked over 2,000 respondents about their financial situations, video game habits and personal financial management app usage, as well as their feelings about financial wellness programs and the integration of various gamified components within financial planning and education.
The results? Gamification can boost enthusiasm and drive engagement in personal finance and a host of other areas.
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The main takeaway from our survey: People who like video games tend to like gamification in other platforms — and almost everyone likes video games.
We are a nation of gamers. Among all survey respondents, 88% played video games. Video games are popular across age brackets, with over 90% of millennials and Gen Zers playing video games and even a majority of boomers playing some kind of video game. Video games, as used here, include everything from console-based games like Call of Duty, to mobile games like Candy Crush and desktop games like Minesweeper.
Firms can harness their customers’ desire to game. Our survey was particularly interested in gamified personal finance apps, and an overwhelming majority of users (87%) of these apps will log in just to check their score or points. This suggests that the same dopamine bursts that encourage people to water fake crops in Farmville can also get them to open a personal finance app or increase their 401(k) contribution.
Related Article: Loyalty Marketing 3.0: 8 Transformative Ideas Defining NextGen Loyalty Programs
People Like Gamification (or Are at Least Open to It)
Gamified elements also appear to have minimal downside risks. Even for a topic as serious as personal financial planning, most respondents felt positive or at least neutral about gamified elements, and only 21% disagreed or strongly disagreed that gamified elements would make financial planning more engaging. Firms can add gamified elements to their customer experiences knowing that most people will like or tolerate their introduction. (And the above usage stats suggest most users will come to use and like the gamified elements.)
There was, however, a predictable generational gap with these sentiments: Gen Xers, millennials, and Gen Zers were more likely than boomers to feel positive about gamification. Firms with larger contingents of boomer-aged customers may want to introduce gamified elements slowly.
Tangible Rewards Are Key
While users were interested in gamified elements in all forms, individuals were significantly more receptive toward those with tangible rewards. Among respondents, 46% were very or extremely interested in competitions for cash prizes, while 45% said the same for vacation days. Gamification is effective, but gamification for tangible prizes is even more effective.
Digging deeper into the increased engagement from prizes, we asked respondents to indicate how much they agreed with the statement, “I would read articles or complete a quiz for a chance to win a cash prize.” Most people agreed or strongly agreed across demographic groups. But some patterns did emerge:
- Non-Boomers tended to agree much more than older respondents, with Millennials agreeing the most (78%).
- Respondents who play video games at least once a week (76%) and/or use a PFM app (80%) were much more likely to agree.
- A high percentage (43%) of respondents who feel extremely confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement strongly agreed with this statement.
Competition Can Drive Further Engagement
Gamified elements open the door to other engagement drivers, particularly competitive ones. In video games, competition comes in the form of player-vs-player (Call of Duty, online Chess) or player-vs-game (Tetris, Super Mario). In the case of personal financial management apps and other traditionally non-competitive areas, competition can come in the form of player-vs.-peers benchmarking.
Firms can adopt gamified elements from all three types (player-vs.-player, player-vs.-game, player-vs.-peers) to boost customer engagement:
- Player-vs.-player: Platforms can invite users to challenge friends or other users to one-on-one competitions. For example, in the Virgin Pulse Healthcare Navigator, a wellness app, users can create challenges, like increasing daily step counts, and invite friends and peers to compete with them.
- Player-vs.-game: Giving users the chance to “level up” is a particularly effective engagement tactic. Our survey found that among video game players, leveling up drew the most focus while playing games, besting other seemingly more important areas, like winning matches. Outside of video games, this player-vs.-game system can take the form of a points system that rewards users for completing certain actions or offers increased benefits with higher spending levels in a loyalty program. Users often find leveling up more rewarding than any other option.
- Player-vs.-peer: Leaderboards or peer-group comparisons can introduce gentle competition to otherwise non-competitive areas. These leaderboards or comparisons can be combined with tangible prizes, such as giving the top finishers cash prizes or discounts. Our P&C insurance research team has been tracking telematic insurance programs for years. These programs, which use in-car monitoring devices, effectively function as a “player-vs.-peer” game for drivers, where safer-than-average drivers “win” lower insurance premiums.
Final Thoughts on Gamification and Customer Experience
We have seen these gamified elements appearing across the verticals we cover: Wellness apps that offer cash rewards for exercise in Life Insurance and Healthcare, telematics programs from P&C firms, and gamified financial apps from Fintechs. Gamified elements are a reliable way to boost brand engagement and increase customer satisfaction.
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