As Richard said it’s good to see someone taking a critical look at how Gamification is applied to Customer Service.
Running a Call Center is not an easy task. The easy part is adapting to and using the technology needed to run it. The big challenge comes down to people related issues that are more psychological than technological. Call Centers are driven by metrics, which in itself is not a negative thing. The issue appears when managers forget how their agent’s emotion and motivation are behind the metrics. At the end of the day, business success depends on people’s performance, how Call Center managers and directors are able to manage employee expectations, motivation, and align their personal goals with company goals over time.
Call Centers are capable of generating large volumes of information every day, but this data is only available to a select few people. What about the Agents? I believe that data should be available on a personal level to empower learning and performance. Giving them access to this data will transform the Call Center by bringing transparency and meritocracy. Recognition becomes easy when this information is available.
Most Gamification platforms lack the necessary focus to understand business processes and problems that add real value to their customers. Instead, they are in the business to Gamify everything. I think this is wrong, you can’t transform the Customer Service industry just by giving points or posting agents on leaderboards.
We created PlayVox with the idea to make Call Centers better places to work. I know how difficult the work is and strongly believe that little changes will help transform this workplace and generate great results. We believe in a more meritocratic and more transparent place to work, where recognition, promotion and pay are based on performance and not politics. Gamification or not I think Call Centers need to humanize the metrics and recognize people for their contributions.
At the end of the day, I don’t think Gamification is right or wrong, it simply depends on the context, the problem and how techniques are applied to change people’s behavior for the better.
Running a Call Center is not an easy task. The easy part is adapting to and using the technology needed to run it. The big challenge comes down to people related issues that are more psychological than technological. Call Centers are driven by metrics, which in itself is not a negative thing. The issue appears when managers forget how their agent’s emotion and motivation are behind the metrics. At the end of the day, business success depends on people’s performance, how Call Center managers and directors are able to manage employee expectations, motivation, and align their personal goals with company goals over time.
Call Centers are capable of generating large volumes of information every day, but this data is only available to a select few people. What about the Agents? I believe that data should be available on a personal level to empower learning and performance. Giving them access to this data will transform the Call Center by bringing transparency and meritocracy. Recognition becomes easy when this information is available.
Most Gamification platforms lack the necessary focus to understand business processes and problems that add real value to their customers. Instead, they are in the business to Gamify everything. I think this is wrong, you can’t transform the Customer Service industry just by giving points or posting agents on leaderboards.
We created PlayVox with the idea to make Call Centers better places to work. I know how difficult the work is and strongly believe that little changes will help transform this workplace and generate great results. We believe in a more meritocratic and more transparent place to work, where recognition, promotion and pay are based on performance and not politics. Gamification or not I think Call Centers need to humanize the metrics and recognize people for their contributions.
At the end of the day, I don’t think Gamification is right or wrong, it simply depends on the context, the problem and how techniques are applied to change people’s behavior for the better.
Oscar Giraldo, Founder & CEO, http://PlayVox.com