“Gamification? In my financial services company?” you might ask.
Yes, yours. The gamification market size is expected to grow at 27.4% to reach 30.7 billion USD by 2025, according to MarketsandMarkets. Gamification in financial services offers a way for banks and financial institutions to go head-to-head with fintech and stand out from the competition.
But what exactly is financial services gamification, and why should traditional financial institutions care?
Introduction to Financial Services Gamification
From start-ups to leading global institutions, financial companies are hopping on board the gamification trend.
Gamification in financial services involves transforming everyday financial processes into rewards-based and milestones-based activities. These are further simplified and made more gratifying through the use of mechanics typically used in video games.
With financial services gamification, the financial sector is enjoying increased customer engagement, all the while improving the customer experience via enjoyability. Some banks even include multi-app integration, social collaboration, and other elements to increase brand awareness.
Here are some changes in the banking industry regarding gamification:
Some banks are utilizing digital platforms to promote financial literary among customers through videos and learning-related tasks.
Others are developing game-like environments in their apps and websites that encourage finishing financial tasks such as transferring assets to an investment portfolio or savings account. Every tasks levels the customer up or earns them a point.
In some instances, banks are creating new digital worlds for customers to compete in games.
Generally, such games and challenges have a tangible reward, such as cashback in savings accounts or tickets to live events. The end goal of the bank is essentially to get users hooked to the game or gaming model, and take advantage of the engagement to introduce those users to other services and products.
Should Financial Institutions Go for Gamification?
Just because gamification is a shiny new trend doesn’t mean you need to develop a gamification program. It helps to assess your goals if you’re contemplating financial services gamification.
Ask yourself these questions:
Do you have the financial and human capital to sustain a long-term gamification program without driving your users to boredom or burnout?
Is the gamification more about the business objective or more about the game?
Are there any ethical or legal concerns around developing a program that could potentially trigger addiction?
Furthermore, gamification can risk making products or services appear less credible or “serious” and hence create reputational risks. You should think long and hard about what you want the gamification to look like. Making it too childish or cartoonish may turn your target audience off.
There’s also the legal aspect of gamification in financial services.
Benefits of Financial Services Gamification
Financial services gamification brings many benefits to both financial institutions and customers, from engagement to attracting investors.
Digital transformation: This is crucial not just for banks, but for nearly every industry. Gamifications can act as a starting point for digitization for employees, customers and stakeholders.
New clients: New clients can be attracted with a banking app that offers more than just traditional “serious” features.
Awareness of new products & services: With gamification, banks can promote and spread information to users about their latest products, services and updates.
Data insights: Digital transformation allows institutions to collect customer data and gain valuable insights to create future strategies.
Customer engagement: Gamification encourages users to spend more time using the banking app. Hence, users are more likely to interact with the bank’s services.
Financial literacy: Many people have gaps in their financial literacy, whether it’s about investments, debts or inflation. Gamification in financial services helps raise awareness about topics in finance in a fun and engaging way. This way, users will be able to make better financial decisions.
In general, financial services gamification helps financial institutions to improve regulatory compliance, provide enhanced customer service, sell more products and services, track performance, motivate employees, and improve innovation.
Examples of Gamification in Banking
Gamification can take many forms. Some of them include:
Assigning points and levels
Options to compete or team up
Celebrating actions such as leveling up or opening new accounts
Giving cash prizes
Creating countdowns and quizzes
Some banks gave experimented with gamification. For instance, PNC Bank gamified saving money in the 2010s via its “Punch the Pig” feature. When customers want to add money in their savings accounts, they can instantly transfer funds by tapping the virtual pig.
Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), a Spanish bank, has developed many games, including the BBVA game, which allows users to win movie tickets, music downloads, or even tickets to BBVA La Liga football matches. Such incentives encourage users to learn more about BBVA and its services and products.
And of course, there’s the AR Monopoly game by Ally Bank that launched in 2019.
These are just some of the ways you can utilize gamification to your advantage.
Conclusion
Gamification is the next level of digital banking. It can make monotonous actions, like learning about finance or saving money, enjoyable and more simplified. In many industries, gamification has been a successful model that has increased customer loyalty and retention.
It can range from making quizzes to setting up leader boards with special events. Just ensure that the gamification elements suit the tone and purpose of the business and client.
Successful gamification can be a long road and will require time, resources and money. To ease the load, NextGen Accounting offers credit card reconciliation services, bank reconciliation services, reconciliation automation, financial consulting, financial reporting, and audit and anti-fraud assurance. Our services are specially tailored to firms with vast amounts of data that are extremely difficult to reconcile. .
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