GC08: Creating Loyalty 3.0 at Work | with Rajat Paharia of Bunchball

Rajat Paharia is Founder and Chief Product Officer of Bunchball. He is the author of Loyalty 3.0: How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification, scheduled for publication in June 2013 and available for pre-order right now. Back in 2005, when almost no one had heard of gamification, Rajat Paharia founded Bunchball. Since then, Bunchball has helped engage customers and motivate employees at a wide array of companies, including Toyota, T-Mobile, and ESPN. In this episode, Rajat explains how Bunchball’s Nitro platform works, and how employee motivation has become the fastest-growing part of Bunchball’s business. In addition, he explains how loyalty has evolved since the original “loyalty programs” introduced decades ago: * Loyalty 1.0: These are rewards programs focusing on “the deal” (think frequent-flier points, cash-back credit cards, and “buy 10 get 1 free” coffee cards). Once a better deal comes along, customers and employees will defect. * Loyalty 2.0: These are more segmented and personalized, based on a customer’s specific demographics and buying habits, but still transactional and focused on “the deal” (think direct-mail and email coupons and ads). * Loyalty 3.0: Combines social-science research about motivation, plus user-activity data, plus tactics that videogame makers have been using for years, to create persistent engagement and win-win value  (think Amazon and Netflix). “Shaped by big data culled from the platforms employees use every day,” says Rajat, “these gamification experiences use motivational techniques – like goal-setting, real-time feedback, competition, virtual rewards and leveling up – to keep users participating, progressing, collaborating and achieving.” These techniques marshal intrinsic and powerful motivators that exist in all of us: the desire for autonomy (to direct our own lives), for mastery (to improve), for purpose (to make a difference), for progress (to achieve), and for social interaction (to connect with others). Resources Mentioned in This Episode * Rajat’s book: Loyalty 3.0: How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification * Bunchball website:  Bunchball.com * Follow Rajat and Bunchball on Twitter: @rajatrocks and @bunchball * Eloqua press release: Eloqua Sees Customer Engagement Soar 55 Percent After Deploying Bunchball-Powered Jive Gamification Module * Report from Aberdeen Group: Sales Effectiveness 2013: The Rise of #Gamification To stay up on the latest news and trends in employee gamification, join the Game Changer group on LinkedIn. Subscription Links iTunes Stitcher