By Caroline Japic , Vice President, Marketing
@carolinejapic
When it comes to gamification, success is about starting with objectives and then designing a tailor-made experience that will help you reach them. That experience needs to make sense for your business – and to your users.
It has to fit.
J. Hilburn understands this notion well. The world’s fastest growing luxury men’s clothing brand, J. Hilburn makes its clothing by hand for every customer, ensuring that the experience they it delivers is always made to order. One size fits all? Not here.
The company recently extended that philosophy to an initiative aimed at engaging and motivating its network of 3,000 style consultants. Those consultants are crucial to the company’s success, so encouraging them to take actions that drive business – such as booking orders, cultivating repeat customers, building their consultant networks, enhancing their style expertise – benefits everyone involved.
J. Hilburn consultants book orders and manage their business through an online portal known as the Green Room. This, combined with the upcoming 2013 J. Hilburn Rewards Trip to Cancun, provided an excellent opportunity to motivate consultants with made-to-order gamification.
Using Bunchball’s solution, the company quickly and easily added game mechanics to the Green Room as part of a contest that ran for four months this year. Customized gamification elements like badges, missions, levels and leaderboards kept consultants focused on earning real-world rewards redeemable on the 2013 trip. A special Trip Tracker page within the portal gave consultants a place where they could check on their progress and compare it to that of their colleagues.
The idea was simple: Consultants earned points for a wide range of daily activities. For instance, they earned 20 points for a customer’s first sale and another 20 for a customer reorder. Monthly sales ranging from $1,250 to $20,000 triggered an array of points levels, with top performers earning thousands of points a month.
As points added up, participants moved through ever-increasing levels designed specifically for the contest. The Margarita Sipper level, reached at 5,000 lifetime points, unlocked three free nights at the Ritz-Carlton Cancun. The Surfer level, reached after acquiring 6,000 points, unlocked airfare reimbursements, spa packages and more. Leveling up to Parasailer (7,000 points) and Salsa Dancer (8,000 points) made more free hotel nights and benefits available to consultants. Contestants redeem points at a custom Cabana digital store.
Because Nitro for Web Engagement gives companies the ability to assign point values to specific actions, consultants acquired points automatically without having to take any additional steps. That meant user adoption was immediate. “Our business is offering clothes constructed by hand for every customer, so we at J. Hilburn understand the importance of making an experience seamless, engaging and easy,” notes Neal Patel, J. Hilburn’s vice president of technology. Patel says Bunchball delivered the same kind of experience, resulting in “a complete value-add that required no extra effort on the part of our consultants and delivered only upside.”
Best of all, he says, the gamified contest “lets our network of style consultants know that every action they take is recognized and valued.”
Patel says the company plans to gamify additional aspects of the Green Room to keep consultants motivated and to encourage and reward participation in the company’s online community. But no matter where game mechanics are applied, it’s certain that the experience will be carefully designed to support the company’s goals and address the specific interests and motivations of its 3,000 consultants.
Because as J. Hilburn knows, one size doesn’t fit all.
J. Hilburn style consultants can view how they are progressing in their contest challenges.
A newsfeed and profile snapshot on the Green Room’s Trip Tracker page keeps J.Hilburn style consultants updated on the progress of their colleagues.
At its Cabana digital store, J. Hilburn style consultants can redeem points earned in a gamified contest known as the Trip Tracker for real-world rewards such as hotel nights, airfare discounts and spa credits.