Customer engagement: The role of Gamification

Practitioners and researchers are seeking efficient mechanisms to stimulate and manage customer engagement. From this perspective, gamification - defined as the use of game mechanics in traditionally nongame contexts - appears to be particularly promising. This chapter offers an overview defining what gamification is and how it operates. A subsequent and quite important section is dedicated to the consequences of gamification and, more particularly, its effects on customer engagement. Building on the definition from Huotari and Hamari (2017), three key aspects of gamification are discussed in regard to customer engagement: motivational affordance, gameful experience and value realization. Benefits and drawbacks of gamification in terms of engagement are then provided. This chapter contributes to the ongoing debate about gamification by identifying additional and underresearched issues related to the implementation and management of gamification. Finally, given the increasing popularity and adoption of gamification in the business world, guidelines for practitioners on how to appropriately implement and manage gamification to engage customers over time will be provided throughout the various sections.