How to Boost Customer Engagement With Gamification In Loyalty Programs

There’s something undeniably magnetic about games, whether it’s the thrill of unlocking a reward or the friendly competition of a leaderboard. This psychological pull doesn’t just apply to traditional gaming; it even extends to shopping experiences. A study also shows that over 60% of customers are more likely to increase their purchases from a brand if they enjoy its gamified interactions (Advertising Week).

However, have you ever wondered why gamification works so well in loyalty programs? The answer is simple: the ability of games to tap into core human motivations such as achievement and instant gratification. For example, if customers earn points or badges through playful challenges, their engagement will transform from passive participation to active participation with that particular brand. The result of which will reflect in the brand’s strong public perception, more repeat customers and enhanced loyalty.

In this blog, we’ll explore how gamification takes customer engagement from being ordinary to extraordinary to keep more and more shoppers coming back. So, without further ado, let’s get started!  

What is Gamification?

Gamification refers to the process of adding game-like elements, mechanics, and principles to boost engagement and participation in non-gaming contexts. It can include having gaming features such as scoring, points, badges, and a rewards system. 

What are Gamified Loyalty Programs?

Gamified Loyalty Programs are significant and entertaining loyalty programs that work on the mechanism of gamifying the pattern and insides of the program. This kind of loyalty program is very much enjoyed and appreciated by customers, as games have always been proven to heighten competitiveness and spike dopamine levels. 

Let’s find out how gamified loyalty programs can be advantageous for your brand.

How is Gamification in Loyalty Programs Beneficial?

These are some of the ways by which loyalty program gamification can be beneficial;

1. Keeps Customers Engaged and Entertained:

The first and the former is that gamified customer loyalty programs keep the customers hooked and engaged for a long time. More customer engagement means more changes and a higher sales volume for your brand.

2. Boosts the Customer Retention Rate:

Repeat customers are like boons for your brand recognition and popularity, along with sales. Gamified loyalty programs ensure that your customers are firmly able to distinguish between you and your competitors, which can eventually lead to a boost in your customer retention rate.

3. Enhances Customer-Brand Interactions:

Gamified loyalty programs also ensure that the channel of communication between the customer and the brand remains intact.

4. Gives a Brief About Customer Behaviour 

Based on the interaction patterns of customers brands can get a brief idea about their behaviour and preferences. This can later help them create more personalized experiences for them. 

5. Improves Brand Loyalty

Games hook customers like no other way; thus, when a customer keeps coming back to a brand and interacts with them frequently, it develops a strong bond and eventually improves brand loyalty.

 6. Acts as a Differentiating Factor

Lastly, when a brand curates a specialized loyalty program that resonates with its brand identity, it acts as a differentiating factor from the other brand competitors. 

Let’s shed some light on the most popular types of gamified loyalty programs.

Most Popular Types of Gamified Loyalty Programs

Here’s a glimpse of some of the most popular and leading types of gamified loyalty programs big retail giants and brands are using to boost their customer loyalty and engagement;

1. Contests and Challenges

The first and most popular type of loyalty program gamification is an infusion of exciting questions and quizzes that spike the customers’ attraction quotient.

2. Points, Badges, and Trophies

Including different and exciting levels in the gamification process, along with giving valuable points, stickers, badges, and badge recognition, can do wonders for loyalty programs.

3. Levels and Milestones

Games are all about unlocking levels and achieving new milestones. These gamified features add a new dimension to the loyalty programs and keep engaging customers even more at each different levels.

4. Spin Wheels 

Who doesn’t like to get instant gratification and rewards right after the purchase? Spinning to win gamification in loyalty programs gives precisely that. This also includes the formation of streaks with the customers for more validation. 

5. Scratch and Win

Talking about the “games of luck or chances,” what’s better than the scratch and win games? Customers can scratch and win some interesting prizes such as exclusive discounts or some freebies that help the customer stay intact with the brand.

6. Leaderboards

Leaderboards promote a competitive spirit within the customers by showcasing their names/ rankings based on their performance and achievements. The customers compete with each other for better positions on the leaderboards based on the gamified elements of the loyalty programs. 

Some Successful Gamified Customer Loyalty Program Examples

Here are some of the most popular examples of businesses that are successfully running their gamified loyalty programs:

• Domino’s

  There was a  popular  challenge introduced by Domino’s, by the name Domino’s Pizza Chef. the customers had got a challenge to design their pizza better than the chef. This was done to intrigue customers about the brand and its product.

• Starbucks

  Starbucks has point-based levels and point-based rewards such as “Starbucks Reward” to attract Customers earn “Stars” for every purchase made through the app or registered card. Once the accumulated count of starts reaches a certain stage, it allows users to redeem them for free drinks, food items, or merchandise.

• KFC

  KFC’s Rewards Arcade program took gamification to the next level by integrating actual mini-games into its loyalty program. Accessible through the KFC app, customers earn a chance to play a game after a purchase of any significant amount.

• Fitbit

  Fitbit gamifies fitness tracking to keep users motivated and loyal to its wearable devices and app ecosystem. Users set daily step goals (e.g., 10,000 steps) and earn badges for hitting milestones, such as walking a certain distance or climbing several stairs.

• Kinder

  Kinder, known for its chocolate eggs with surprise toys, extends gamification into its loyalty program through initiatives like the Kinder App. It allows its customers to scan QR codes from Kinder product packaging to earn points and unlock exciting virtual rewards.

Having seen the real-world examples of gamified loyalty programs, let’s figure out how one can create engaging gamified loyalty programs without any hassle.

Best Practices for Gamification in Loyalty Programs

If you want to make your gamified loyalty program a massive success, then these best practices are a must to follow:

1. Define Your Objectives Clearly

Firstly, sit down with your concerned teams and clearly define your objectives as to what types of gamified plans you would want to introduce for your brand. Ask these questions for more clarity:

• Does the preferred one resonate with your brand identity? 
• Will your customers perceive it well?  
• What technologies are you going to use while planning your program?

2. Ensure Fairplay

It is important to ensure fair play and convey the same to your customers. You can do the same by following these practices:

• Clearly state the rules of participation.
• Keep the customers informed about the terms and conditions well in advance.
• Be transparent and gain the trust of your customers.

3. Rewards Should Be Meaningful

Ensure that the rewards you offer align with your brand’s image. Let’s be honest: No one enjoys receiving outdated and meaningless rewards, such as “upgrade to premium membership and get a free cup of coffee after purchasing 50 cups.” Sounds boring, right? It certainly does, and no one is likely to be enticed by that, even if the gamified version of the program is thrilling!

4. Remember, Experience Matters

Focus on optically pleasing and high-on-fun quotient games, as no one wants to participate in dull, boring, and generic games. Moreover, speed also plays a crucial role in making the gaming experience memorable, so make sure to pay more attention to the game mechanics and don’t buffer or lag.

5. Have Mobile Accessibility 

The most effective way to reach a broad audience is to offer mobile accessibility for your customer loyalty program. People are less likely to carry their laptops or PCs everywhere, but they usually have their phones on hand. If you’re interested in developing a custom app for this purpose, the expert developers at Cyntexa can help you get started in a remarkably short time!

Salesforce Loyalty for Gamification and Beyond

Achieving seamless gamification in customer loyalty programs can be a tedious task for many brand managers and marketers. Most of the time, they fail to understand their customers’ perspectives and lose track of their customers’ progress in the gamification process.

Here’s when Salesforce Loyalty Management saves the day. It comes as a one-stop solution for curating, creating, and running a gratifying customer loyalty program.

These are some of the ways through which gamification in Salesforce loyalty can help in delivering fantastic experiences; 

1. Centralized Management For Better Customer Insights: 

The Salesforce ecosystem provides utmost transparency concerning customer insights. With Loyalty Management, you get a comprehensive view and the ability to centralize all customer data in one place, helping you better understand your customers.

2. Tracking Progress: 

Most brands that use gamified loyalty programs often complain that they find it challenging to keep a record of their customers’ progress in the game processes, but they do not anymore. With this solution, they can get rid of this problem forever. It ensures that the user can track the progress of their customers promptly.

3. Flexible And Customized Program Designing: 

Customizing and designing a gamified loyalty program has become easier than ever. With multiple design templates, designers can incorporate excellent and visually appealing games into their brand’s loyalty program.

4. Personalized Rewards: 

This platform can help give personalized rewards to the customers effectively based on their previous brand interaction, participation, and performance. This ensures a validated and better customer experience.

While Salesforce Loyalty Management provides a solid foundation in building gamified loyalty programs but to fully integrated journey it requires more than backend logics. This is where Salesforce experience cloud steps in. If you want to learn more we’ve written a detailed guide on experience cloud.

How Salesforce Experience Cloud Supports Gamified Loyalty Journeys

Well, gamification isn’t just limited to points or levels; it is also about driving engagement, fostering loyalty, and delivering personalized experiences at scale. With experience cloud, businesses can seamlessly integrate gamified loyalty programs into their customer journey while leveraging the full power of the Salesforce Customer 360 platform.

Salesforce Experience Cloud offerings for loyalty management:

• Easy Customer Enrollment: Salesforce experience cloud allows customers to easily sign up and access loyalty programs through branded, self-service portals. Since Loyalty solutions is natively integrated into Customer 360, businesses can automatically sync customer profiles with loyalty tiers.
• Boost Omnichannel Loyalty: Teams can utilize the capabilities of the experience cloud incorporated with Customer 360 that help them track the customer’s progress, activities, and participation across all channels. It also adjusts the game mechanics, such as badges and levels, based on real-time analytics.
• Enhance Hyper-personalization: Integrating Marketing Cloud with Experience Cloud enables enhanced customer personalization through tailored rewards, dynamic challenges, and real-time notifications, creating a memorable gaming experience.

Final Take

To sum up, gamification in loyalty programs is here to stay as it benefits not only the customer in terms of lucrative incentives, offers, and discounts but also the brand by differentiating it and its loyalty program from its competitors.

So are you ready to deploy a gamified loyalty solution tailored to your brand’s needs, powered by Salesforce’s robust capabilities? Get in touch with experts at Cyntexa to get Salesforce loyalty implementation today and witness engagement into growth!

AUTHOR

Vishwajeet Srivastava

Salesforce Data Cloud, AI Products, ServiceNow, Product Engineering

Co-founder and CTO at Cyntexa also known as “VJ”. With 10+ years of experience and 22+ Salesforce certifications, he’s a seasoned expert in Salesforce Data Cloud & AI Products, Product Engineering, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, ServiceNow, and Managed Services. Known for blending strategic thinking with hands-on expertise, VJ is passionate about building scalable solutions that drive innovation, operational efficiency, and enterprise-wide transformation.