Gamification and how it can be implemented to drive better KPIs - Case Study 1

The next few articles will focus on gamification - one of the recommendations from my previous articles on Critical Success Factors and KPIs. I will share detailed examples from projects I have implemented over the years where gamification has driven positive behavioural change and improved performance outcomes.

Gamification

The core principle of gamification we aim to leverage lies in harnessing the end user's intrinsic and extrinsic motivations to drive behaviours that align with the organization's objectives for improved performance outcomes.

Case Study 1 - How a Company improved their Profiling & Segmentation accuracy by rethinking the Coverage@Frequency KPI

Background: The majority of Markets around the world (US excluded) do not have accurate prescriber level data at the HCP level. This leads to a heavy reliance on Sales Representatives to capture profile data about their HCPs*.

Knowing full well they will be measured on call activity metrics based on the data they collect about each HCP, there is a very real danger that inaccessible HCPs are demoted, while accessible HCPs are promoted - irrespective of their brand advocacy or patient potential, in order for the Sales Rep to achieve their Coverage@Frequency objective (a weak KPI mandated by Corporates worldwide).

How often have you heard the term A Segment HCP = Accessible and D Segment HCP = Does not see Reps (DNSR)?!

It was determined that 50% of the total patient potential pool were assigned to 'Non-Target Segment' HCPs and over 50% of the 'Target Segment' HCPs were driving a negative return on promotional investment (see my earlier article on how to calculate ROPI).

Key Drivers that diluted Profiling & Segmentation accuracy

1. Financial remuneration for achievement of this KPI. This KPI formed a significant % of the non-sales target payout for Reps, meaning achievement of this KPI had a significant bearing on take home pay for every Rep. I have often seen emphasis on payment for achievement of this metric impacting profiling data capture accuracy - even where achievement of this metric accounted for <5% of total annual salary. The fact it is reimbursed at all signals its importance across the organisation (and therefore the importance of achieving the target!). The higher the % of payout, the higher the probability that profiling accuracy will be low.
2. The threshold of % achievement expectation is set extremely high. Whether the achievement of this metric is reimbursed or simply set as a qualifier for other remuneration, as soon as it becomes visible within the organisation (e.g. reported vs other Reps in a Dashboard), it lends itself to data manipulation. Call activity is harder to manipulate but Rep feedback on the HCP Value/ Potential is often entirely in the Reps hands, with little validation from Managers or Commercial Operations. Setting target achievement above 80% opens the door to HCP profile data manipulation in order that Reps can achieve this target.

What did they do?

The gamification in this case study was relatively simple but highly impactful to the business. In consultation and agreement with the Senior Leadership Team, three actions were taken and these were clearly communicated to the First Line Sales Managers who were then responsible for driving the messaging and actions to their Sales Reps (which they fully supported - that was also a key to this project success!).

1. A new profile element was introduced = "Accessibility", where Territory Managers were asked to flag HCPs they could not see in person. Any HCP flagged as DNSR was removed from the Coverage@Frequency calculation for call achievement and these HCPs became the responsibility of Marketing to drive other channel engagements.
2. The Coverage@Frequency expectation (to achieve payout based on achievement) was reduced from 95% to 80%, leaving room for some HCPs to be under-called.
3. Representatives were also asked to update/ reprofile all of their HCPs knowing they were responsible to help marketing identify high potential DNSR HCPs (and knowing these profile updates would not impact their own KPI achievement!).

What were the outcomes?

1. Accuracy of HCP profiling (validated via third party data) went from 50% to >80%.
2. This doubled the addressable Patient Potential pool the Client was able to target.
3. The number of HCPs flagged as inaccessible was manageable due primarily to realignment of Call Frequency achievement for the HCPs deemed accessible (Achievement Target reduced from 95% to 80%).
4. Feedback from First Line Managers was the Sales Team felt the changes were achievable and fair - great communication from Sales Managers and buy-in from the sales team.
5. This was the Clients first step towards capturing Channel affinity / preference and tailoring HCP engagement strategies and targets based on and this information.
6. Sales performance to budget was achieved and there was significantly more engagement with the segmentation process from the sales team where they were able to honestly allocate a calling target based on both potential and access.

* NOTE: I would strongly recommend Sales Reps do NOT update the HCP segment directly, but this process be managed by a back-office function (CommOps) or automated rules-based process using the Profile elements captured by the Reps and other data sources.

What next?

Consider ways to drive better behaviour and performance outcomes through gamification. In the next several articles I will outline other case studies where various aspects of gamification were used to great success in real life Client projects.

If you would like to better understand the concepts outlined here and more, feel free to reach out to me at Varese Group.

David Ledger

Founder & Managing Director @ Varese Group | Transforming complex data into actionable insights with AI that speaks your language