For many businesses, the biggest challenge to uncovering consumer sentiment can be encouraging individuals to interact more frequently with the brand; gathering information on their preferences and consumer behaviour through tweets and Facebook comments.
In a move to overcome this barrier and deliver increasingly tailored customer experiences, some companies are turning to gamification strategies in order to inject an element of competition into the customer dynamic.
Gamification strategies in the world of CIM rely on providing a system of rewards for various actions, creating an incentive for customers to engage with the brand on a more regular basis.
US florist Telefora has designed an online community featuring a leaderboard, where points are awarded for leaving reviews, answering user’ questions and mentioning the brand on Facebook. Through this system, Teleflora now sees ten times as much activity on its online forum than it did previously.
In addition to driving sales for the retailer, this change has generated a wealth of information on attitudes towards the brand’s product range and services. If integrated with CIM data for each individual consumer, including previous purchase behaviour, this would then enable Teleflora to improve the accuracy of its product recommendations and deliver a more personalised level of customer service.
As the brand’s use of gamification techniques motivates users to answer other consumers’ queries, this could also reduce the burden on Teleflora’s customer support staff.
Finally, by rewarding social media activity related to the brand, this customer engagement strategy not only drives customer retention, but also exposes the brand name to a new audience. As marketing and customer interaction management become more intertwined in 2013, this dual strategy is likely to prove increasingly important, with early adopters set to enjoy significant advantages.
Discover further insight into the evolving role of customer interaction management through numero’s blog page.
