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Can Gamification Make Customer Support Fun?

This article is more than 10 years old.

Help desk software company Freshdesk launched its new gamified help desk product, Freskdesk Arcade, on Monday.

The platform enables agents to win points and earn badges for completing customer support tasks, including customizable games that can be created to align with business goals, as highlighted in the video above. Agents can level up from "Support Newbies" to "Help Gurus" and earn all kinds of digital bling, such as the "Speed Racer" and "Customer Wow Champ" trophies. Potentially the most coveted trophy of all, is the "Most Valuable Player" trophy, awarded monthly to top scorers.

Now, the question stands: Can gamification actually make customer support fun? That is, after all, the key differentiator with Freshdesk Arcade.

As a startup employee, I've put my fair share of time in to answering customer support tickets, and believe me, the work is never done. But, hey, some of those tickets are gold mines, bursting at the seams with great feedback. For the most part, though, support tickets are a flow of repeat questions that are usually easily answered in the FAQ. Oh, the woes of being at the other end of the ticket!

At the end of the month, though, I can't help but get a twinkle in my eye when I take a peek at all of the analytics that prove my team is awesome. Most help desk services -- we use Zendesk at Contently, where I serve as Director of Community -- provide some sort of look at how a customer service team is doing with tickets. Zendesk, for example, provides information on the amount of time it takes to assign a ticket, send a first response to the customer, and resolve that ticket, among other data points.

Freshdesk Arcade, though, takes its analytics to the next level, providing detailed information about each agent's performance, as visualized on a leader board. For companies down to get competitive about customer service, gamification may just be the way.

Of course, as consumers, we've all been a bit bombarded with gamified experiences over the past few years, though. So, what do you think? Would you be more excited to trove through support tickets if you knew there'd be points and badges at the end of the tunnel? Speak your mind in the comments below!

And, lastly, if you work for a funded startup with less than $1 million in revenue, check out the Freshdesk Future Fund. Launched in May, the fund was set up to provide $10 million worth of support tools to startups and small businesses. Having already benefited 200 startups, the fund is still open for 300 more startups in need of help desk software.