Amidst the burgeoning landscape of fintech mobile applications, the quest for innovative differentiation intensifies. In this rapidly evolving financial ecosystem, gamification in banking emerges as a compelling strategy.
Not just to enhance engagement but fortify customer retention and instil distinctive characteristics within your platform.
Elevating customer experience is the linchpin of triumph in today’s dynamic markets. With the accelerating tide of digital transformation, financial institutions seek novel methodologies to delight their clientele.
Enter, gamification in digital banking — a captivating and remarkably potent approach. It injects a delightful sense of challenge and amiable competition into the mundane landscape of financial management tasks.
However, its prowess extends beyond mere entertainment: gamified finance apps set new benchmarks in acquiring and captivating customers.
The Significance of Gamification in Banking
The prevalence of gamification within modern business landscapes is undeniable. To gauge its magnitude, let’s delve into some compelling statistics.
The global gamification market, valued at USD 10 billion in 2022, is slated to soar, reaching approximately USD 116.68 billion by 2032.
This meteoric rise forecasts a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 27.9% during the forecast period spanning from 2023 to 2032.
Amidst this surge, the role of gamification in banking emerges as a paramount necessity to retain relevance, amplify conversion rates, and usher in a new stream of clientele.
Over 70% of companies in the prestigious Global 2000 incorporate gamified elements (Forbes). Esteemed institutions such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Bank of China, among others, stand as exemplars within the banking realm, actively leveraging these techniques.
Gamification Techniques in Banking
Financial management and transactions need not adhere to dull or monotonous standards. In a landscape where client engagement is paramount, banking institutions risk losing their clientele if these experiences fall short of captivating.
To cultivate and expand their customer base, modern banks can leverage an array of gaming strategies and techniques:
1. Rewarding Progress with Points and Badges
Simplicity often harbours brilliance, especially in the realm of gamification. Points serve as an intuitive metric, measuring and rewarding user progress.
This virtual currency incentivises task completion, milestone achievements, or levelling up by offering exclusive perks, complimentary services, certificates, and more.
Badges visually showcase user accomplishments, promoting recognition and a sense of achievement that bolsters loyalty and retention.
These elements tap into extrinsic motivation, employing external rewards to foster positive behaviours while establishing a transparent feedback system.
2. Empowering Engagement with Levels and Leaderboards
Like the techniques above, levels and leaderboards infuse a sense of accomplishment into banking services. They introduce gamified progressions, transforming routine tasks into financial challenges and quests that unlock rewards.
This approach breeds loyalty, encouraging customers to invest more in digital banking experiences. Leaderboards serve as social engagement tools, visually representing user progress and ranks, fostering friendly competition and a positive social environment.
Balancing ranks is crucial to prevent discouragement among lower-ranking users, ensuring encouragement and continual progression for all.
3. Personalising Interactions with Virtual Characters
Virtual characters—animated avatars, virtual assistants, chatbots—inject personalised interactions into financial gamification. They guide users through account setups, transaction management, and financial applications, offering a more tailored experience.
These characteristics also extend to providing personalised financial recommendations, aiding users in curbing negative spending habits, and reducing fees.
This 24/7 friendly support streamlines self-service and resonates with people’s preferred humanised technology.
4. Enhancing Learning with Banking Tutorials
Complex aspects of online banking, like tax management and transactions, can pose user challenges. Gamifying financial services through interactive tutorials—learning modules, quizzes, simulations, and video guides—offers a rewarding learning experience.
These tutorials also serve as a proactive tool for showcasing upcoming services and fostering user-centric engagement and interaction.
By implementing gamification strategies in banking tutorials, financial institutions can boost client involvement and retention of crucial information, making learning swift and enjoyable.
Benefits of Gamification in Banking
As disclosed above, gamification can do wonders for modern banking. Namely, it can transform the monotonous routine of fund management, making it more appealing and efficient.
Let’s see some of the top benefits of gamification for the banking sector:
1. Enhanced Customer Engagement
Gamification revolutionises fund management, making it more engaging and efficient. Users spend more time on banking apps, interacting eagerly with services, and fostering brand loyalty, with gamified engagement strategies resulting in a significant 22% increase.
2. Increased Client Acquisition
Interactive experiences in banking apps prompt positive word-of-mouth referrals, leading to a surge in new clients without inflating marketing costs. In the retail sector, gamification witnessed a remarkable 700% boost in customer acquisitions, a trend ripe for adoption by financial institutions seeking innovation.
3. Improved Financial Literacy
Gamified banking tutorials redefine financial literacy. Complex concepts become digestible through interactive courses, facilitating better information retention—up to 90%, compared to 10% through reading and 20% through hearing—making digital banking education engaging and effective.
4. Effective Service Promotion
Gamification serves as an engaging avenue for promoting new features and services. Interactive discoveries, presentations with virtual characters, or feature trials as challenges generate higher appeal than traditional banners and pop-ups. Remarkably, gamification led to a 54% surge in usage and a 15% increase in buy clicks for a trial solution.
5. Enhanced Customer Data Collection
Interactive engagement yields invaluable insights into customer behaviour and preferences. Implementing gamification in banking allows for detailed analysis of client-related data, aiding in comprehensive business improvement planning without burdening clients with extensive surveys.
Examples of Gamification in Banking Services
The banking industry has witnessed remarkable success stories through gamification. Let’s explore some standout examples:
1. Emirates Bank Fitness Account (UAE)
Emirates NBD bank in UAE launched the NBD Fitness Account to motivate users towards fitness while intending to increase savings account openings and deposits.
In 2015, the bank encouraged customers to open a fitness account and win up to a 2% interest rate on savings. All they had to do was reach and log 12k steps per day on the Emirates NBD Bank’s mobile app.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Emirate Bank’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
The Emirates banking app gamification helped them get 53 million steps and $4.37 million in savings.
2. BBVA Game by BBVA (Spain)
BBVA redefined financial literacy by gamifying its digital banking services. They crafted engaging videos showcasing online services and transformed transactions into a “game,” rewarding players with points.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent BBVA’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
The bank established a virtual economy around these points, offering digital downloads and football tickets, witnessing a surge of 100k participants within six months and earning the 2013 Bank Innovation award.
3. Banking Challenges by Monobank (Ukraine)
Monobank’s all-virtual banking approach didn’t just introduce a cute app mascot but gamified mundane tasks like deposits and account setups with badges.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Monobank’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Users earned mascot-themed achievement badges for specific activities, leading to increased daily app engagement and substantial improvement in client retention, ranking #3 in Ukraine’s finance app chart by June 2023.
4. Gamified Onboarding by Revolut (EU)
Revolut innovatively gamified its onboarding process to boost first-day retention figures. The registration video mimicked popular Instagram stories, incorporating progress bars and simplifying the signup process.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Revolut’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
Revolut’s University Race also encouraged student involvement by gamifying onboarding, offering a free premium package as an incentive.
(Disclaimer: This image is for informational purposes only. Opinions or points expressed represent Revolut’s views
and don’t necessarily represent the official position or policies of Gamize by OGL.)
These strategies contributed to Revolut reaching 20 million annual registered users in 2022.
These pioneering instances highlight how gamification elevates user engagement, enhances financial literacy, and drives remarkable growth within the banking sector.
Wrapping Up!
In conclusion, the integration of gamification within the banking sector has emerged as a transformative force, enhancing customer engagement, revolutionising financial literacy, and propelling client acquisition.
These ingenious gamification strategies, exemplified by Emirates NBD Fitness Account, BBVA Game by BBVA, Banking Challenges by Monobank, and Gamified Onboarding by Revolut, underscore the immense potential of gamified experiences in reshaping the banking landscape.
To embrace this evolution and infuse banking services with unparalleled engagement, platforms like Gamize stand as indispensable solutions. Gamize offers an innovative, cutting-edge approach, empowering financial institutions to gamify their services seamlessly.
With tailored solutions designed explicitly for the BFSI sector (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance), Gamize paves the way for enhanced customer interactions, heightened engagement, and strengthened loyalty.
As the industry pivots towards gamified experiences, Gamize as a SaaS gamification company emerges as the essential catalyst, empowering banks to amplify customer satisfaction, drive innovation, and elevate the overall banking experience.
Embrace the future of banking with Gamize.
