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Explore how gamification can enhance business metrics for banks and food delivery services through real-world case studies.
On April 23rd, the International CX Meetup delved into key aspects of analytics and digital product development. Experts discussed the role of gamification in mobile apps and analysed the gaming mechanics implemented by major companies. Here are the key takeaways from the event.
Mobile apps within a niche often look similar. When one company innovates, competitors quickly follow. To stand out and capture customer attention, businesses implement gamification.
Analytics from deeep.app reveal an interesting trend: banks in the top ten, though not industry leaders, are catching up by emotionally engaging with customers. Consequently, businesses are heavily investing in gamification to stand out, offer unique experiences, and build customer loyalty, ultimately increasing their revenue.
To achieve business goals, it's essential to optimise key metrics. Gamification helps by:
Boosting Engagement. It encourages clients to spend more time on the app, use its features frequently, and participate in events and promotions.
Increasing Conversion Rates. It motivates users to perform significant actions more often.
Building Loyalty. It creates "brand advocates" who recommend the company to friends and leave positive reviews.
Retaining Customers. It promotes repeated purchases by offering engaging opportunities.
Trust Issues. Promising easy rewards through gamification can mislead users, resulting in disloyal customers with negative impressions of the company.
Technical Challenges. A thorough understanding of the client's business processes and technical stack is crucial. The company may lack the resources needed to implement gamification.
Legal and Ethical Standards. Certain mechanics may not be suitable due to governmental or cultural restrictions. For example, gambling themes might be banned in some regions, while religious themes might be restricted in others.
Yulia Sarapulova, head of analytics at deeep, presented gamification strategies developed by our specialists for Emirates NBD bank.
This mechanic rewards clients with achievements for financial operations.
The game appears on the loading screen during payments, where users control a paper plane, pass challenges, and earn points, making the wait more enjoyable.
This mechanic allows clients to share preferences with the bank, enabling personalised offers from partners.
The client research team leader shared a case of gamification in a delivery service app, illustrating how gaming mechanics motivated clients to order food more frequently.
Problem: Clients overlooked promotions on the main screen and ignored marketing push notifications.
Task: Find an effective way to engage current users.
Solution: Implement gamification in the app.
Analytics showed that users preferred simple tasks. A Pre-MVP test launched straightforward push notifications with discounts for orders, testing user engagement.
Post-launch, some clients didn’t understand why they received discounts, simply making purchases without knowing about the task. However, among those who completed tasks, orders increased by 18%.
The "Your Discounts" section was developed to consolidate existing promotions and include personal tasks.
Choosing where to place the section presented challenges. The service tested two options: the main screen and the profile. As part of the experiment, tasks were displayed in both locations.
Testing revealed the need to prominently display benefits to attract interest. It was also essential to use less text, placing details inside the card.
Our partner used the simple mechanic previously tested in pushes and achieved the following results:
The team identified time constraints for task completion, giving clients 5 days plus an extra 2 days to use discounts. Extending the time to 7 days for tasks and 5 days for discounts worked, increasing the average order value by 2-3% and boosting completed tasks and orders per month.
The third speaker discussed gamification in a brokerage app.
Tournaments in the app are competitions where the winner earns the most money over a specific period. The project was based on the assumption that investors enjoy competition, so creating a space for financial contests was worthwhile.
Initially, regular daily, weekly, and monthly tournaments received positive feedback, leading to a large national tournament held twice a year with a £1 million prize pool in 2023.
During the tournaments, the company recorded impressive gains in:
Tournaments significantly increased revenue and helped build a community around the organising bank, ensuring customer loyalty and reducing the chances of experienced investors switching brokers.
Large User Base. The service already had many users, making competition appealing.
Focus on Active Investors. Instead of motivating an inactive audience, the focus was on active users, offering them more benefits and combining everyday investments with an intellectual hobby.
Good Prizes and User-Friendly Interface. Users valued rewarding efforts and praised the app’s interface.
Experimentation with Rules and Formats. Variation kept users engaged, though some ideas were limited by central bank regulations.
Margin trading allows experienced traders to earn significantly, but accessing it requires passing a test. The problem was the test's complex language, which could confuse even knowledgeable users. The wording couldn’t be changed due to strict central bank regulations.
The bank team tried to improve the UX without gamification but saw no results. Then they decided to gamify the test.
Most users are aged 25-45, so characters in the style of Super Mario were chosen, with pixel art graphics. The start screen invites users to battle the boss Marginalus, who taunts the main character, but the character confidently replies they will win.
The final screens were also gamified without fundamental changes.
This experiment resulted in a 15 percentage point (p.p.) increase in test starts and a 12 p.p. increase in completions. However, it didn’t improve the pass rate. The team introduced a hint character, the dragon Shpunya. This new mechanic increased the pass rate by 18.3 p.p. Now, the brokerage app plans to scale gamification to other advanced tool tests.
Before implementing gamification, conduct detailed analytics. Study the product, audience, competitors, and company processes thoroughly. Define the implementation goals and key metrics to measure effectiveness. Careful preparation reduces risks and delivers the desired results.
Gamification should provide real value to users, not just be an aesthetic or trend-driven addition. This approach ensures that clients engage with new features more frequently, positively impacting company metrics.
