Despite the overwhelming focus on badges in the gamification community, badge-only solutions have minimal impact on long term customerengagement. Big brands have discovered that the secret to driving customer loyalty is allowing customers to redeem points for tangible and intangible rewards. Discover both why redeemable rewards work to build loyalty and engagement, as well as how to successfully integrate a rewards system into a gamified loyalty program. Using examples from the NFL, Yamaha Corporation and Adobe, find out what customers are looking for, and how rewards fit into the gamification puzzle.
18. WHAT Are Some Best Practices?
1. Dollar backed or non-dollar backed?
2. Leverage rewards for onboarding
3. Always have a “sink”
4. Sweepstakes as rewards
5. Provide experiential rewards
6. Redeem early, redeem often
7. Highlight progression
4/25/2013 BigDoor 18
Hi, I’m Gavin Hewitt and I’m the VP of Sales at BigDoor. Today we are going to dive into why rewards are such an important part of any loyalty and engagement effort.
Let me start by telling you a little bit about BigDoor.At BigDoor we power consumer facing gamified rewards programs for large brands. These reward programs give users compelling reasons to register, engage more deeply and remain more loyal to your brand.We work with some amazing partners, including; xxxxx
Many people think that gamification is just about badges and leaderboards, but we’ve found that rewards are a critical part of driving long term customer engagement. Today we’ll talk about:Why rewards matter.We’ll look at some brands who are currently using rewards to drive customer engagement.And then I’ll share 7 best practices for gamified rewards programs.
The bottom line is that consumers want rewards, and as a result providing relevant and authentic rewards drives more impact on user behavior and does a better job of deepening customer engagement.A redeemable currency provides Brands with a granular enticement mechanism. (Tell the story of why you give up room cleaning to get 500 hotel points. This makes the customer feel green, and it gives the hotel a non-cash way to save money on cleaning services.)A core part of any gamified rewards program is a redeemable currency; points, coins, etc. that are used to redeem for rewards. The earning of this currency creates a sense of equity with your customers that keeps them coming back to earn more and to be sure they spend it. Nobody likes leaving points unspent. {Bring back the hotel example, and the fact that now that you earned 500 points you want to earn more and be sure you get the value from those points.)Giving back to your customers is core to the thank you economy. Switching costs are very low these days, so creating lock in by recognizing and thanking your customers will help differentiate you from your competition.
Earlier this year Forrester conducted a consumer survey where they asked adults who spend time online: “How interested…”The results of the survey made it clear that rewards are important:2/3rds of respondents would join if they got discounts and savings, while over half would if they received loyalty points that can be redeemed for products and services.1/3rd responded favorably to points that can be spent in an online shopping mall.And I don’t know what this says about the American consumer, but only 17% would join if their points could benefit a charity.The summary take away here is that consumers want rewards like discounts and redeemable points.
In that same survey, Forrester also asked; “Which of the…Of course cash rewards ranked the highest, but loyalty points, exclusive access, VIP perks, sweepstakes and faster customer service all ranked high. We consider each of these items to be classified as “rewards,” and they are clearly important to consumers.
And our own data confirms this. At BigDoor we take a highly scientific approach to measuring the efficacy of our implementations, and regularly do A/B cohort testing. In a wide ranging test across tens of millions of users and multiple client implementations, we tested the effectiveness of badges only versus badges and rewards. The results were astonishingly clear.The cohort of users who saw badges only:Averaged less 1% registration rateHad less than 2 rewardable actions per dayAnd returned to the brand’s site less than 2 times per monthHowever, users who were presented with badges and rewards:Were over 4 times more likely to register with the sitePerformed an averaged of 3.5 rewardable actions each dayAnd returned to the site an average of almost 4 times per monthThis test provided clear proof that offering gamified rewards, rather than just gamification, has a significantly stronger impact on user behavior over the entire lifecycle of the user.
We’ve seen WHY rewards are important, now let’s walk through some examples of how some premium brands are currently using rewards in real-world gamified rewards implementations.
NFL uses clear value based onboarding that shows the visitor exactly the types or rewards available to them. This alone increased their registration rate from 3% to 24%
Here is another great example from Yamaha of using rewards as a way to entice registrations.Hopefully some of you were able to attend Jeff (from Yamaha’s) session yesterday. He has had a ton of success with this program.
This value based onboarding is easily extended to mobile.As is the customer interaction with the rewards center.
Many of you who were here last you may have seen Chamillionaire speak (he was great!) He has consistently used experiential rewards with amazing effectiveness, as in this case where his fans clamor for a chance to enter a sweepstakes to have a 30 minute call with him.This is a great example of a low cost high perceived value reward.
The use of Discounts and Access is also a great way to reward customersIn this case MLB used discounts to the store and paid content on MLB.com – And you can see in this case that the 25% discount was actually sold out.
Fame as a reward –In this case onMaddenTips.com they are giving rewards members a chance to achieve a level of fame by being featured on their LiveStream Show. Think of this as a Customer of the month or wall of fame approach
Even Generic Rewards work really well.Especially for B2B customer implementations.
Sweepstakes is another great way to offer low cost high perceived value rewards This screen shot shows what that could look like within a rewards center.
Showing Progression is also criticalWe are quite proud to be powering the Gamificatio.co rewards programAnd I think their implementation does a great job of showing a members progression toward a desired rewardAnd letting folks know when they have earned enough to redeem for that reward. Also, this is a great use of the progress bar.
Let’s wrap up with 7 very simple best practices that BigDoor has uncovered through our own testing across hundreds of clients and tens of millions of users.It is important to decide up front whether you want to have a dollar backed, or a non-dollar backed reward currency. A dollar backed currency is like an airline mile or a Starbucks Star. They are typically redeemable for products or services and therefore carry a financial liability for every point that is earned. Because of this, it only makes sense to have a dollar backed currency when you are rewarding purchases or behavior that directly drives revenue for your company.BigDoor typically uses a non-dollar backed currency, which means that the financial liability of the rewards is set at the point of redemption, not at the point of earning. Rewards that have cost associated with them must have inventory and flight-time limitations, and there needs to be rewards that have no direct cost associated with redemption, such as; sweepstakes or experiential rewards.As we’ve seen from both BigDoor’s own testing and from Forrester’s research, rewards provide a great incentive for users to register – so be sure to highlight rewards as an enticement to signup and register with your company. It is hard to monetize or establish a relationship with a user if you don’t even know their name, so leverage rewards to significantly increase your registration rates.Always provide a way for your users to spend their points. If you are using a non-dollar backed currency, then make sure there are non variable cost rewards that can provide a bottomless sink of redemption points.Sweepstakes is a great example of a non-variable cost, bottomless sink reward. Experiential rewards are another great example. And when done right, these experiences serve to deepen user engagement with your brand. What better way to figure out who you should follow on Twitter than by offering a “Twitter Follow” as a reward?Our data shows that users who redeem any reward at all are far more valuable, engaged and loyal. So have some low priced rewards that can and will be rewarded early on in a customer’s experience.We all like to know where we stand, so use game mechanics to highlight progression toward a goal is important. The all important progress bar is simple, but when applied properly and presented at opportune times, it can have a huge impact on users continuing to stay engaged.