Comparing Gamification Tools & Software

Definition of Gamification Software: What are Gamification Apps?

Gamification software allows companies to integrate typical mechanisms from video games into a business context. The main goals are to increase attention, engagement, and motivation among the recipients through these features, ultimately enforcing certain actions. These concerns or respective measures often refer to customers and steering their buying behavior. But partners or employees can also be influenced accordingly. Then it's mostly about pushing the achievement of certain work or business goals.

Why should companies use gamification software?

Selling playfully or generally achieving specific concerns and (business) goals: This is the dream of many businessmen and women, but also of their customers. With the principle of gamification, companies can make use of this fact. Everyone who has deal with video games in their life is familiar with typical gamification mechanisms. These include, among other things, leaderboards, bonuses or trophies. These are issued to give players a better, more individual gaming experience. For example, if you complete a level and its final boss particularly quickly in a jump-and-run game, you benefit from a higher score and a star on the leaderboard. In addition, you may subsequently gamble in a bonus round for better defensive opportunities, life, even more points, etc. These benefits often contribute significantly to the fact that players deal enthusiastically and highly motivated with a game for hours on end. Many company directors would of course also like to see such motivation and such commitment among their customers. However, achieving such conditions is becoming increasingly difficult in more and more industries. The main reason is the vast choice of alternatives. Nowadays, a quick search on the internet yields an enormous selection of suitable solutions for the same concern in almost every business area. This fact is combined with constantly dwindling time. In the end, interested parties hardly need to deal with individual brands in the long term - and the generally increasing time pressure makes it almost impossible. In order to stand out as a provider company from the crowd, to receive more interest or time from their own target customers and to continually one-up the competition, gamifications can be very helpful. Ideally, the game mechanisms are unique and stimulate certain actions that are useful for the advertising company. The people mentioned shouldn't ideally notice that this is about marketing or sales measures. The same applies to dealing with employees and partners. Well-implemented gamifications make a business or a workplace more interesting. They animate and contribute to more dynamic, productive work. In the end, they favor a reliable achievement of the company goals and last but not least, a commitment to the company that provides work or assigns a job.

How do gamification tools work?

What is central to achieve with gamification software has already been outlined. For this purpose, there are usually different features available that in turn determine how such tools ultimately function. The following elements and the effects to be achieved with them are typical.

Badges and Rewards Gamification software often allows the implementation of badges and corresponding rewards. These offer a visual recognition for positive customer or employee behavior. These badges are usually electronic images that people can collect, among other things to show their progress within a business relationship or in the intensity of using an app. Badges of users can be published or provided for collection in a private gallery of a profile. Anyone who collects enough badges can receive a reward for it - a physical manifestation of their progress. Customer loyalty programs often offer rewards in the form of digital coupons or free items. In the employee relationship, bonus money or free days are sometimes offered as goodies for achieving certain business goals.

Leaderboards Leaderboards create a sense of competition in a group. Here all participants are listed and classified according to progress in a certain context. Companies that want to increase the competition among their sales employees, for example, can publish a sales ranking with the five best sellers of the month. Such leaderboards are usually maintained in the digital space today. Of course, it is also possible to use leaderboards in the consumer context. In this way, the use of an app or even buying frequency can be signaled. Both can be very helpful for social projects, for example, to get more donations. But be careful: Especially when it comes to publishing personal data and behavior, data protection is quickly brought into play. It should also be noted that these tools, when used in-house, often help the already most performance-strong individuals to make an even greater effort. But on the middle and lower performance level they sometimes have the opposite effect - keyword "resignation".

Maps and Progress Bars Gamification tools can use virtual maps to track a person's progress towards a goal. Starting from a starting point, these maps are then expanded and offer new goals and paths again and again. Following the example of many video games, the maps show completed modules, allow the repetition of levels to improve a score and/or award badges or other reward-related rewards after successes. The possibilities are huge. Other tools allow the integration of progress bars into certain business processes. Here, the progress of individual participants is tracked, which is achievable by completing certain tasks. Progress bars are often a very efficient solution. They can be easily displayed across different screens and do not take up too much visual space. Furthermore, they are of course much more resource-saving than more comprehensive map models.

Reporting Many gamification software offer differentiated analytics and reporting features. Companies can use corresponding reporting tools to understand the initial situation of engagement and then measure the increase in it. The reporting can provide helpful insights into the ROI company-wide or also in relation to other economically important values. Managers are enabled to better understand the performance of their teams or partners and the needs of their customers. This finally makes it possible to improve overall results based on data and/or solve specific problems. Analytics for customer behavior and user engagement in connection with gamifications can be directly connected to marketing automation programs. This way, customers can quickly and automatically be rewarded for desired behavior, such as recommendations to friends and regular purchases, or served with suitable marketing steps.

What are advantages and disadvantages of gamification apps?

Some clear advantages of gamification software or gamifications as such have already been hinted at above. Below is an overview of the central benefits.

• Promotion of Engagement: Who doesn't like to play? Even in adulthood, our urge to play is still present. Companies can use this with gamifications to push engagement. Scrolling through simple websites, occasionally clicking "next" and reading long texts, however, is hardly conducive to this. Anyone who wants to benefit from more engaged customers and employees on websites or within apps or in company processes should weigh up specific gamification options. Gamification transforms boring internet pages, weak marketing measures, and everyday internal processes into captivating and interesting experiences. They can promote friendly competition among colleagues or address customers' desire for public status. They give people the feeling of being proud when they achieve certain goals associated with them. Ideally, this leads to repeated new motivation to participate.
• Subtle Marketing or Employee Control: The playful challenges and tasks in gamifications make the benefit that springs out for the respective company recede into the background. When the recipients see their interests ideally taken up in the measures and they really enjoy them, their motivation to act in the sense of these increases. At the same time, however, their attention to the marketing or internal competition context behind it decreases.
• Instant Feedback: When the recipients of gamifications advance in the respective "game", immediate feedback is created, whether negative or positive. This is a big advantage. It keeps the respective people in line with their buying or working behavior. Linking feedback with the typical goals of customers or employees allows those involved to track and identify with their progress during the "game". This motivates them and makes them want to continue working towards the preset goals of the processes behind the gamifications.
• Increase Motivation: Motivation is an important driving force in getting customers or employees to act in the sense of the company or certain (marketing) processes. Awards or other attentions on this path form useful motivational elements as rewards for individual points in the purchasing decision or in the internal process. Corresponding badges can be displayed in the "game" or on the company's website. Among other things, they are so helpful because they can give the recipients (publicly) the feeling of being particularly important and/or competent. They also convey to the people that they have achieved something. All this can work wonders for boosting motivation.

Of course - as with practically any software and the associated processes - there can also be certain difficulties when using gamification tools. The following problems are typical.

• Costs: Gamification software and its implementation can be associated with significant costs. The more complex the requirements, the more expensive it gets. In this context, it should be ensured that the tool or its use do not "eat up" too much of the potential profit. It's not uncommon for the respective solutions to play out many of their advantages, but companies to benefit far less from them than thought due to the costs.
• Maintenance of Benefits: In the context of the previous point, maintaining the benefit is an important topic. Of course, even gamifications occasionally have to be adjusted to keep them interesting. However, this usually involves more effort than, for example, carrying out a "simple" design update of a website. Outdated gamifications can quickly lead to negative effects - they are boring at the simplest. Interested parties should therefore make sure that the gamification tool continuously keeps up with the prevailing requirements and is as user-friendly as possible.
• Data Protection: Especially when it comes to presenting gamifications or awards, bonuses or other goodies and their recipients publicly, there can be difficulties with data protection. In general, gamification processes are often associated with the use of personal data. In this regard, care should be taken that the chosen application already takes into account the applicable data protection regulations on its own. Interested parties are on the safe side if they stick to gamification apps in German or from Germany or at least from the European area. However, additional data protection and security measures may be required.

How to Choose a Suitable Gamification Tool?

Gamifications and corresponding gamification tools can be used in a wide range of application areas. Ideally, they provide numerous strong advantages. To maximize benefits, interested parties should choose the best gamification software for their purposes. The following points highlight what is particularly important.

• Easy Integration: A gamification platform must be easy to integrate into an existing system or application. The ability to simply implement a gamification strategy and the associated application can be essential for a company. Often there is no time or personnel resources to fundamentally develop gamifications or to individualize them extensively through programming.
• Versatility: A gamification platform must be versatile and should ideally be adaptable to every application case in one's own company context or any strategy. Not to be forgotten is that gamifications can be effectively used in a wide variety of business contexts. Therefore, there are applications specifically tailored to individual areas. For example, solutions for external or customer or sales specific purposes and those for the support of internal processes can be chosen.
• Functional Scope: A gamification platform enables the application of typical game mechanics in business contexts. There are some basic elements that make up a gamification strategy and that should be adjustable via such software. The features mentioned above are elemental here. Ideally, these can still be flexibly scaled - depending on the company's current needs.

What Does Gamification Software Cost?

Gamification software is mostly offered as software-as-a-service (SaaS) today. But there are also still on-premise solutions, which are sometimes bought once and then integrated directly into existing systems on site. However, subscription models are more common – both with SaaS solutions and on-premise. In these cases, a license fee is then payable monthly or yearly. Generally, services are billed according to functional scope and per user. Therefore, costs can vary. Prices per user and with average to slightly extended functionalities are to be calculated at around 30 to 70 euros per month. Some providers even offer free versions. However, these normally come with a strongly limited number of features and permissible users. Especially with developer companies that offer larger suites, within which gamification tools are only a small part of the whole, an individual pricing structure is often underlying.