Gamification in eCoupon Management System: Improve customer engagement & retention
On her way to work one day, Amelia noticed a new coffee shop – The Hide-Out Café. What caught her attention and drew her in was a huge poster announcing a coffee quiz. Curious, she walked up to it. George, a friendly attendant, eagerly explained her the process of winning a customer loyalty card on her very first visit! Intrigued, Amelia found herself following the instructions, scanning QR code, signing up, and taking the online quiz at a colourful kiosk. She scored a whopping 9 out of 10 and got her name on the leader board. A few weeks later, on her birthday, she received a message from the coffee shop with a free, top-up eVoucher. Now, Amelia is a regular at the Hide-Out Café. It makes her feel special and pampered, when the café’s baristas remember her favourite coffee flavour – extra sweet, piping hot with a dash of hazelnut.
Today, global markets are flooded with umpteen options in every product category – apparels, cosmetics, jewellery, health care – you name it and there will be at least a dozen, well-recognized brands. No wonder, wooing, and retaining consumers has become a major challenge. More and more companies are resorting to game playing in conjunction with dynamic, loyalty programs, eCoupon and eVoucher strategies to effectively build, retain, and enhance customer engagement. And it has been bearing fruits, as is shown by Amelia’s positive experience of gamification in eVouchers. Plenty of industry research support this as well. As per the Gallup statistics, brands that use gamification to engage customers, experience 63% lower customer attrition rates and 55% higher share of wallet.[1]
What is Gamification?
Zichermann, in his book Game-Based Marketing: Inspire Customer Loyalty Through Rewards, Challenges and Contests, defines gamification as “The process of using game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems.” Simply put, it is making something more game like – fun, engaging, challenging, and social.
In the retail sector, gamification has worked like magic because it:
- Addresses the human need to explore, compete, and achieve mastery.
- Gives rewards and recognition to users, thus triggering a sense of achievement. Who doesn’t like to be a winner! I certainly do!
- Increases the time users spend on an App or Website. It’s a playful experience that leaves a happy, lingering feeling. As a result, users associate the brand with a feel-good memory.
- Allows companies to engage with customers, understand them, and gather customer data.
Turn Your E-voucher or eCoupon Management System Into a Game!
The days of loyalty cards are long gone. They have given way to eVouchers & coupons. Customers, looking for immediate gratification, want incentives that can be redeemed easily and immediately either online or at stores. Therefore, to stay ahead in the competition, companies must adopt creative and interactive incentive strategies. Here are some effective tips for gamification of voucher systems:
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Understand Your Audience
Customer analysis – Identify your customer base, know the age group they belong to, understand their needs, what drives their decision making, etc. This will help you to make wise choices of games. Nike’s Nike Run Club app taps into the competitive spirit of its target audience through weekly and monthly challenges.
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Invest in Market Research
Invest in doing a thorough study of products and strategies employed by your competitors in different market segments. Tailor your research to your customer segments to identify games that would be the most effective.
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Keep it Clear and Simple
Have a simple, easy-to-navigate, easy-to-understand registration page. Long, drawn-out questionnaires are never too popular. Choose a simple game with clear goals and reward points. Ensure your registration page is not device-specific. And last, but not the least, do a trial run at focus groups and user testing sites before going alive.
Like Voucher and eCoupon management systems, loyalty programs can also be gamified. Here are some innovative ideas to get you started:
- Brighten tedious onboarding activities with rewards for completing registrations.
- Use quizzes and personality tests to gather customer information.
- Make it social with challenges that target specific customer segments and reward users through leader boards and badges.
Up the Game With Personalization
Andy buys a camera online from a retailer. A few months later, the retailer notifies him about an up-coming sale on camera accessories and lenses. This is an excellent example of personalization.
The simplest form of personalization is remembering your customer’s preferences. When you walk into a shop and the owners recognize you, doesn’t it make you feel special? The 1970’s saw shopkeepers taking the personal touch to the highest level. They would club customers based on age or gender and talk to them accordingly and engage them in conversations that would go a long way.
However, we are now in the digital age. And personalization is much more complex. It involves tracking customer behaviour – online and offline – and offering suggestions based on the data collected. Accenture, the global IT giant, conducted a study that showed “44% of consumers are frustrated when companies fail to deliver relevant personalized shopping experiences.”[2]
Benefits of Gamification and Personalisation
Here is an excellent example of how Target Corporation boosted their kids section Christmas sales. They designed a Holiday Wish List App.[3] It was a 3-D animated Disney-style game with in-store augmented reality elements. Further, It was linked to the Target login account so that parents could view and manage the list. Users got a voucher code for discounts on all items added to the wish list. They could also apply other applicable vouchers during purchase. The Target App was an instant hit.
Kids and parents loved it. It had about 75,000 downloads and more than 100,000 wish lists. The total sales potential of the campaign was more than $92 million.
Many other such success stories can be sited supporting the effectiveness of gamification strategies. Applying a well-designed gamification strategy to your voucher or eCoupon management system will be beneficial for you in the long run. Here are some of the benefits you will reap:
- Automatic Data Collection – Email addresses and other important customer details are collected whenever the QR code is used to access a game or apply an eVoucher. This data must be collected, managed, and analysed effectively for tangible benefits. Thus, it is essential to use an effective voucher / eCoupon management system, such as Vouchermatic by Inventrik.
- Effective Customer Engagement – Innovative games keep your brand on the customer’s mind. It is a great way to build a community that is invested in your brand. For example, if you are in the green products segment, you can build games around eco-friendly living. Customers with lower carbon footprints get rewards, vouchers, and badges.
- Increased Sales – An effective rewards and loyalty program will have customers coming back, instead of choosing cheaper or newer options. For example, the Starbucks Loyalty system engages customers and makes them feel a part of their chain. Getting a free, special edition mug gains significance in comparison to the number of purchases needed to avail that free mug!
- Brand Loyalty – Brand loyalty is the catch phrase. Foster brand loyalty through a smart, and effective gamification strategy. When users get hooked on to something, such as a challenging game, they are certain to keep coming back!
Summing It Up
Gamification and personalization are no longer a luxury – you must incorporate these strategies into your marketing system to survive and thrive.
And, the successful use of gamification in eVoucher & eCoupon management can be achieved only by using an effective tool, like VoucherMatic. The VoucherMatic tool offers a user-friendly interface with multiple options to create, distribute, and track eVouchers. It allows you to design an eVoucher Management System that’s perfect for your business.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started and stay ahead of the game!
