Keeping employees satisfied with their work can be tough – so instead of asking them to grind through their tasks, why not make work more enjoyable with a little healthy competition?
At least, that’s the thinking behind Splice Software Inc.’s new app, Leaderboard. Launched on Oct. 9, the app takes the idea of gamification and puts it into the workplace, encouraging employees to compete with each other to do better at their jobs.
Splice provides customer relationship management (CRM) software to retailers, as well as solutions for the financial services industry, like banks and insurance companies. What sets Splice apart is they also provide professional voice talent to make their customer service messages seem more personal and therefore, more human.
Making work more human was also one of the ideas behind Splice’s new Leaderboard app, which was launched Oct. 9, says Tara Kelly, the company’s president and CEO. After all, the people doing the work itself are also human, she points out.
“When you’re talking about human beings, you need to make it fun, and you need to make it engaging if you’re really going to drive results,” she says. “The number one way you get results, I believe, is gamifying things and creating competition. Playful competition, which is why I say gamifying first, but really those things both have to be present.”
The way Leaderboard was designed was to show employees their sales results, the number of calls they’ve made, or whichever metric the company wants to measure through a mobile app. For example, if a chain of retail stores wants to measure which store location is moving the most product, they can track that through the app. Splice has also used the app in-house, with its sales and marketing team tracking how many emails and cold calls its staff send out everyday.
However, what’s especially key about Leaderboard is that it doesn’t reveal any customer data. For example, if a store has sold a sweater to a customer, that customer’s name and credit card number will not appear in the gamification app, Kelly says.
“When people tie in dashboards to too much information, it becomes dangerous and there’s no reason. You really just want an aggregate number rolling out, and you want your staff engaged in fun competition for the initiative,” she says. “You don’t need to overdo it, and I think the simplicity of the architecture is one of the things that makes us a powerful application.”
To get access to Leaderboard, businesses need to be Splice customers. Getting access to Splice’s API costs $1,500. After that, there is a $750 monthly service cost, while the Leaderboard app costs $2.99 per mobile download.
Splice is currently a finalist for Calgary’s Small Business Week Innovation Award. To vote and check out the other finalists, head on over here.
