Gaming the System: Using Gamification to Drive CPG Productivity

Gamification has become a hot topic in the consumer goods industry and for good reason. Mobile apps with built-in gamification features are now offering CPGs a significant competitive edge. In fact, the potential for sales growth alone is so promising that Gartner estimates global investments in enterprise gamification will be in the billions in 2016.

Why The Demand?

Some companies simply do not have an effective system for measuring field performance. Others are tracking KPIs, yet lack the ability to see those numbers in real time. By the time managers and field workers gain this insight at the end of a performance period, a common employee reaction is to say, ‘I’ll just have to do better next performance period.’

Gamification Technology in Mobile Apps

Having the right mobile app with gamification technology can be a real difference maker. It motivates employees in real time to improve their performance, accomplish important tasks, meet stated goals, solve pressing problems and align their behavior with organizational objectives. Research shows that gamification works best when you use the technology to:

• Increase competition among people in similar roles – be it sales, merchandising or delivery
• Encourage collaboration and best practices across geographically isolated teams
• Enable low-performing employees to seek out high-performing mentors for coaching

Spring Global is Leading the Way in Gamification

Spring is a pioneer in delivering field apps with gamification to consumer goods companies. In a first for the industry, we have implemented gamification inside our field sales and field merchandising applications – mobileSales and mobileRetail. By so doing, we’re empowering mobile workers to achieve new levels of productivity and profitability.

When our performance metrics are placed front and center in the work tool they use every day; it becomes clear to reps what they are being measured against and what they need to do to achieve their goals. Spring delivers real-time visibility of competitive data through two key gamification features:

1. RANKINGS allows reps to see how they rank in performance compared to the top three field reps in areas such as Sales Volume, Visit Compliance and Visit Efficiency.
2. KPI REPORTING lets field personnel see how they are performing day-to-day versus their own KPIs and objectives.

‘We have seen gamification work across multiple industries,’ explains a Spring VP of Customer & Partner Solutions, Donna Tellam. ‘What we’ve found is that customers consistently report a 30% increase in employee productivity when this type of challenge is built into the user experience of the app that reps use every day to perform their work.’

If you would like to learn more about how Spring is using gamification to improve field rep performance, send an email to solutions@springglobal.com.