KlikNGift
KlikNGet
KlikNRoll
KlikNKnow
KlikNBlast
KlikNDesk
KlikNHub
KlikNPlug
Consultation 
Development
Data
Integration
Member 
Marketing
Customer 
What Exactly is Gamification in Loyalty Programs?
Gamification, in this context, is the use of game-like elements and mechanics in a loyalty program to make it more engaging, motivating, and rewarding for customers.
It uses the psychological aspects of gaming, such as competition, achievement, and rewards, to make the customer experience more fun and interactive.
Gamification also encourages specific behaviors and outcomes that benefit both the customers and the business. For example, gamification can help you:
- Increase customer loyalty and retention by making them more attached to your brand and products.
- Collect and analyze data about your customers’ preferences, habits, and feedback to improve your loyalty program and offers.
- Influence customer behavior and decisions by offering incentives and challenges that align with your business goals.
Gamification can be applied to any type of loyalty program, such as points, stamps, tiers, or referrals.
You can use different gamification elements, such as badges, leaderboards, quests, or rewards, to suit your target audience and objectives – which we’ll talk more about later on in this article.
Gamification can make your loyalty program more dynamic and compelling, and help you stand out from the competition.
How Gamification Can Drive Customer Loyalty - Does It Work?
We’ve already explained how gamification works and why it’s effective. Now, let’s look at some evidence and examples to support this claim. According to BCG, companies that personalize their engagement with their customers can increase their revenue by 6 to 10% more than those that don’t.
This is especially important as more Gen Z’s are joining the workforce and gaining spending power. They are looking for gamified and personalized loyalty programs that suit their needs and preferences.
One of our clients, Chow Sang Sang, a leading jewelry company in Hong Kong, wanted to increase their customer loyalty through gamification, among other things.
We helped them design and implement a gamified loyalty program using WeChat’s mini-program features.
The program included lottery games, puzzles, and check-ins as gamified elements. We also used our AI system to collect and analyze data and measure engagement.
The results were impressive: purchases by members increased by 40% in Q1 of 2023 and the program reached over 8 million people across Hong Kong, Mainland China, and Taiwan.
Chow Sang Sang is still running this gamification program and is seeing steady growth in their loyalty and membership.
This shows how gamification can help you attract and retain your customers and grow your business.
Gamification Ideas for Customer Loyalty
Gamification can come in many forms, depending on your industry and your loyalty program structure.
So, we’re going to go through some of the best ones that are proven to work as well as applicable to a wide range of industries.
Daily Check-Ins for Customer Retention
Daily check-ins are a fun way to make CRM and loyalty programs better, as they encourage users to open your app or program daily.
By looking at how customers act, these check-ins can be changed to fit what each customer wants, changing when and how they check-in.
For example, one day members can just tap a button to check in whereas another day they can play a mini-game to do so.
By making the check-in challenges different, you can keep customers excited and active, not letting them get bored with the same things.
Also, advanced loyalty platforms can use customer geolocation, making sure that check-ins are not only daily but also fit the situation.
For example, Foursquare lets users check in at different places and the more they do it, the more likely they are to rank higher on the leaderboards.
You can copy this idea for your daily or weekly check-ins, offering bigger rewards if they check in at your physical store or location instead of online!
This feature lets businesses make challenges that go with where customers are, joining the online and offline customer experience.
The data from daily check-ins is very useful, helping to make marketing better, change things for customers in real-time, and match rewards with what customers do.
In summary, daily check-ins, when done right within a CRM and loyalty program, are a good way to connect with customers, learn more about them, and make them like the brand more.
Daily Missions & Give Rewards
The next thing we’re going to talk about is similar to daily check-ins, but it requires users to complete daily missions.
These missions will reward virtual currencies that users can use to redeem vouchers, gifts, and other rewards.
The trick is to keep these tasks limited, usually, 4 a day is good in our experience. To keep engagement, you should make tasks simple.
Here are some examples:
- Complete a feedback form. (20 points)
- Share a campaign with a friend. (20 points)
- Select and play a mini-game. (20 points)
- Finish the quiz of the day. (20 points)
Ideally, these missions should be refreshed every day, and random ones will be given depending on the day. This makes sure that users won’t get bored easily.
By doing it this way, customers can anticipate when they can claim certain rewards.
So if users can claim 80 points per day if they complete every mission, they’ll be able to claim an 800-point discount voucher in 10 days – this incentivizes them to complete and engage every day!
Reward Through Gamified Challenges like Quizzes and Puzzles
Quizzes and puzzles are another great way to gamify your loyalty program.
You can use them to remind your users about your brand’s history and educate your customers about your industry while rewarding them.
You can also make these quizzes and puzzles dynamic, and increase in difficulty for different customer segments.
Smart loyalty platforms use machine learning to look at not only if quiz answers are right but also how customers solve puzzles.
his lets them change difficulty levels, making sure that challenges are both fun and doable.
Rewards in this case are connected to not only finishing challenges but also using hints or working with others, giving a better way to appreciate them.
Also, these gamified challenges can give you very useful data on how customers think, helping businesses to improve their products, make things more personal, and keep making the gamification better for lasting customer engagement and loyalty.
Interactive AR Filters on Instagram & Your App
Gamification can happen outside your app or loyalty program too. You can use platforms like Instagram and TikTok to make customer loyalty more fun and get more attention there.
These platforms are popular now, so you and your brand can find new ways to gamify customer loyalty that is different from your loyalty program.
Here’s an example that we did with one of our clients, Shiseido Hong Kong: We ran a campaign with Instagram Interactive AR Filters, where we made the filter and ran the “Ultimune Eye” campaign.
This not only helped them improve their branding position but also gained impressions while making it enjoyable for followers to join in.
If you’re interested in learning more, feel free to read the Shiseido case study to find out more!
Friends & Family Group Missions
Gamification and engagement can also involve groups, not just individuals. You can use games and challenges that include your member’s contacts like friends and family.
This way, you can get more loyalty program members or app downloads by word-of-mouth – and also make group bonding stronger.
This is a win-win situation. With this, you can reach sales goals and also offer discounts or rewards if your customers spend a certain amount or hit a certain goal!
Here’s another example with one of our clients that we’ve helped with friends and family group missions:
Omusubi, a famous Japanese restaurant chain in Hong Kong, wanted to boost its sales and loyalty program members.
So we revamped their app and implemented gamified missions like eating 20 plates of sushi at a certain time with their customers’ friends and family to get benefits.
This made single-basket growth go up by 125% and we’ve also helped them get more than 40,000 new sign-ups per month in their program!
QR Code Treasure Hunts for Your Brand’s Customers
Using treasure hunts, especially QR code treasure hunts is another way to make loyalty more fun. You can just put different QR codes in your chosen location!
All your users need to do is scan the QR code on their mobile phones to redeem the rewards. However, make sure that the reward is only claimable through your app or loyalty program. This is a great way to get more signups and downloads!
You can also add a story or a theme to make your customers more involved.
This gamification idea works well with roadshows or events you might do, where members and others can join and get rewards. Or, you can have it as a regular and lasting campaign if you run a restaurant or a fitness center!
You can also make the rewards bigger with harder challenges, to make customers more immersed! In our experience, this is a proven gamification way that can increase brand engagement and a great way to make customers more loyal!
Lucky Draw to Encourage Brand Loyalty
Using a lucky draw system is another great way to have it in your loyalty program.
A good lucky draw system is closely connected to CRM data, using customer data to make the experience more personal and fun for each customer.
This way matches their customer journey with the brand. Also, the CRM system is important for dividing customers based on how loyal they are, letting them have different or special draws that fit different groups.
A discount voucher would likely please a loyal brand customer more than a new one. But a new one would likely prefer a freebie to test it out first before buying!
This way not only makes customers keep participating but also gives useful information about how loyal customers are to the brand – based on how many times they enter and how frequently.
The lucky draw, when combined with CRM skills, becomes a powerful way to plan, use data, and make loyalty programs better – while introducing an exciting way for your members to win rewards.
Daily Step Counter & Gamify Lifestyle
A step counter can be a great and new way to make your loyalty program more fun, depending on your industry.
To use a step counter in a loyalty program, you may need to ask your members for more details like their health levels, and other personal data – which you can store in your CRM. You can also adjust step goals based on how fit customers are, what they did before, and even when they like to exercise.
This way makes sure that the gamified fitness challenges fit each customer’s lifestyle, making them keep participating and reducing member churn!
Restaurants can use this feature to motivate their customers to be healthy and also reward them with vouchers when they buy meals that fit their goals.
This way, restaurants can gradually make health-conscious people loyal customers – even if their main food is not the healthiest!
Try Out the Leaderboard System
Last but not least, let’s go on more about the leaderboard system! All of the gamification ideas that we’ve talked about earlier can be tied to a leaderboard system.
Whether it’s daily check-ins or missions – you should have it listed for all your users to see.
You can make this in different ways, but the usual way is to show your user’s scores and tiers to their friends and family.
This makes them compete with each other and will make your engagement better. You can also make the leaderboard system bigger by country, where people can join your loyalty program for their countries!
This gives a lot of rewards and you can have a monthly season that changes the leaderboards. Every month, you can give prizes to the top members in their country or friends list. This makes people want to be the best every month!
Why Gamification is Important for Your Loyalty Program?
Gamification plays a crucial role in any loyalty program by achieving three key objectives: increasing customer engagement and loyalty, boosting customer lifetime value, and expanding membership.
Creative gamification is essential for creating a sustainable and effective loyalty program that drives profitability for businesses.
For instance, strategies like the friend and family challenge, mentioned earlier, can effectively achieve all three goals simultaneously. The key lies in making it enjoyable, rewarding, and motivating members to refer others and earn rewards.
If you’re looking for a loyalty program provider that excels in these strategies, consider exploring our loyalty program features for more information!
