How can you motivate account managers using gamification?

1 What is gamification and why does it work?

Gamification is not about turning work into a game, but rather applying some of the principles and features that make games fun and rewarding to work situations. Some of the common elements of gamification are points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges, feedback, and rewards. These elements can tap into the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of account managers, by providing them with a sense of achievement, autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Gamification can also increase the engagement, learning, and retention of account managers, by making their tasks more interactive, meaningful, and enjoyable.

2 How to design a gamification strategy for account management?

Before you start gamifying your account management processes, you need to have a clear goal, audience, and metrics. What do you want to achieve with gamification? Who are your account managers and what are their needs, preferences, and behaviors? How will you measure the impact and effectiveness of gamification? These questions will help you define the scope, objectives, and outcomes of your gamification strategy. You also need to align your gamification strategy with your account management strategy, by identifying the key activities, skills, and competencies that you want to enhance or develop in your account managers.

3 How to choose the right gamification elements for account management?

Once you have a clear gamification strategy, you need to select the appropriate gamification elements that will support your goals and suit your audience. Points, badges, levels, leaderboards, challenges, feedback, and rewards are all possible options that you can mix and match according to your context and needs. For instance, points can be used to track and reward the progress of account managers, while badges can recognize their achievements. Levels can create a sense of advancement and challenge for account managers, while leaderboards can foster a healthy competition. Challenges can stimulate and test their creativity, knowledge, and skills. Feedback provides constant and constructive information about their performance. And rewards incentivize and motivate account managers.

5 How to avoid the pitfalls and risks of gamification?

Gamification can be a powerful and effective way to motivate account managers, but it can also have some pitfalls and risks if not done properly. To maximize the effectiveness of gamification, you should avoid overusing or misusing elements, lacking balance or diversity, not aligning or integrating with your account management strategy, and not having support or involvement from stakeholders. For instance, you should not use points or badges that are too easy or too hard to earn, leaderboards that are too competitive or demotivating, gamification elements that are too similar, inconsistent with your strategy, coercive, or unfair. Instead, you should use a combination of different gamification elements that appeal to different types of account managers and motivate them in different ways while aligning with your account management strategy and having the support of stakeholders.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?