Loyalty 3.0: How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification

by Rajat Paharia

The new secret to driving LOYALTY THAT PAYS Once revolutionary, loyalty programs designed to differentiate products quickly became commoditized. And yet, billions of dollars are still spent every year on programs that are doomed to fail. These programs, it turns out, don't inspire long-term loyalty. Once a better deal comes along, customers will gladly defect. Can you blame them? Silicon Valley start-up Bunchball, the pioneer and innovator in gamification, is light years ahead when it comes to the concept of loyalty--and using it to drive business profits and growth. Focusing not only on customer loyalty, but also the loyalty of employees and partners, Bunchball combines behavioral economics, big data, social media, and gamification to inspire loyalty that lasts--from everyone involved in the success of a business. Now, in Loyalty 3.0 , Bunchball founder Rajat Paharia reveals how you can use these same techniques to seize the competitive edge for your business. Paharia shows you how to create a system powered by human motivation and digital technology that creates ongoing, persistent engagement among customers, employees, and partners. Loyalty 3.0 arms you with everything you need to know in order to build a loyalty and engagement program that drives a sustainable advantage for your business, including:

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Management, Technology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Alan Kang · Rating 2 out of 5]

Didn't like it - not deep enough and full of buzzwords.

[Michael Becksfort · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty good text. I was interested in the psychological elements of gamifying material because I am a high school teacher. The best thing I took from this text was a list of sources that I could pursue more in-depth reading.

[Aaron Aoyume · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a book that has not seasoned well... while trying to provide readers with a panoramic view of how behavior can be influenced, most of the comments here are pretty shallow, if not totally naïve. I did enjoy a framework to take into account when designing games, but that was basically it.

[Roy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good intro for the idea and benefits of gamifying things.

[Carl Furry · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a chance to read an advanced copy, and I was taken by the link the author draws between video games and behavioral science, and how companies can use that link to motivate people to participate in something as mundane as an employee portal.

Big data plays a huge role here, too, and with the NSA finally putting this in the brains of people who don't work in IT, the timing seems perfect to talk about using big data for purposes other than ferreting out bad guys.

Some facts are true eye-openers. The pace of digital data growth is jaw-dropping, and its implications for businesses leave you wondering if and how companies are applying these techniques to you.

It's an easy read, and the science on which its concepts are based is put into a useful context that later folds nicely into the case studies you'd expect from a business book.

Gamification makes its appearance after the foundational concepts are described, but Paharia, who is a gamification guru, does an admirable job of dialing down the role his seminal company played in the evolution of that industry. Good thing, too. Only Apple can get away with talking about itself incessantly. Paharia seems to know this and wisely lets the concepts and the case study subjects tell the story for him.

The final chapters offer tips for implementing Paharia's concepts. It seems clear that many of these are the result of his experience in gamification, and to his credit, he doesn't settle for weak platitudes or generic "envision, plan, execute, measure" bromides. Paharia views crafting a Loyalty 3.0 campaign as "a design problem" because participants will find themselves inside an experience, almost as if they're inside a story. These are the kind of viewpoints, in addition to practical do's and don'ts, that I was hoping for here.

"Loyalty 3.0" reminds me a bit of Paco Underhill's terrific "Why We Buy," which also showed how behavioral science can be used to help companies understand and anticipate what people want -- and then design environments that encourage the results those companies want. In a way, that's what this book is about.

[Kirsten · Rating 1 out of 5]

While I enjoyed this book significantly more than The Loyalty Leap, I can't give it more than 1 star because it's not something I would ever choose to read for myself. I don't really know what I was expecting from this one - I mean, I thought I knew what he was going to talk about and he kind of did but also not really? - so I can't be too harsh on it it terms of content. When you don't know what something's supposed to deliver, how can you tell it it didn't? I will say that the case studies went on for way too long, he tooted his company's horn waaaaay too hard in the middle (why you could ever be proud of a company called "Bunchball" I just can't say), and even though he said gamification isn't games, that's basically what he instructed businesses to start. Look, I know you're trying to make it seem like badges and points and missions can be used outside of a game context, but the reality is that your customers are going to see it as a game and that's OK. Games are like, ridiculously intelligent and complicated and way more impactful than most other schemes you could come up with to encourage loyalty so just suck it up and admit you're designing (pretty boring) games to try to get people to like you.

Or don't admit it. Who are we kidding I don't really care #loljokes

[Gary Paulson · Rating 4 out of 5]

NetGalley offered this book for review. I am always looking for ways to engage both employees and customers at my business and gamification, the subject of this book, would be great if I can figure out how to do it.

Quote: "I wrote this book to share what we’ve learned with you and arm you with everything you need to know to build a loyalty and engagement program that drives a competitive advantage for your business."
Page: 18

My Blog: http://www.dogberrypatch.com/?p=5346

[Trever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read on how to incorporate loyalty 3.0 into a workplace. Although, I am looking for ways to incorporate gamification into my classroom instead of the workplace it gave a good understanding of gamification and its principles. It would have been nice to see more on the gamification side of it, but this book was more based towards companies instead of me.

[Keith Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Weak in the middle with too many shallow case studies, but the framework is solid and well argued, and the example in the appendix is worth the price of the book if you are paying attention. A lot of these elements have become obvious through their extensive use, but there is still a lot of value to be wrung from them.

[Erik Dewey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent read. Like many how-to books it is strong in setting up the problems but a little less strong in the execution. There is some gamification here, but mostly it is about customer engagement. There is good structure here and the real world examples did help solidify the points.

Not the quintessential book on the subject, but a good one to read none-the-less.

[Alexander K · Rating 2 out of 5]

The case studies were the big take away for me as I had already read a book that, I feel, did a better job of explaining how to setup a system like this.

This book had the extra little insight to focus on apply the gamification towards the employees as well, hence the 3.0. I feel a lot of the better companies were already on that route.

[Tina Hou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a bunch of of "ah-ha!" moments while reading Loyalty 3.0. Chock full of interesting, real-life examples, this book provides a practical guide for leveraging motivation techniques to drive true loyalty.

[Onur Yılmaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a perfect book to start on topic gamification.Its internal structure (chapters and their orders) makes it efficient while reading. It's not a deep work in technical meaning, contains no implementation or code, but it's a good guide and a good starting point.

[Graham Mumm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Painfully basic overview.

This might be a good introduction if you've never been exposed to the internet/digital space before, but for those familiar with even basic terms/ideas/companies in this industry, this book has little to offer.

[Bert Janssens · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice part on intrinsic motivation and the most important aspects of gamification. The big data part is too high level though.

[Brian Stevenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Helped me connect the dots between gamification, big data, and motivation. Information will be helpful in my new business venture.

[Pawan kumar Adda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely must read book. give a very insightful perspective about engaging your stakeholder.

[Shakir Sharfraz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Made me understand intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Had nice case studies.

[Carrie Farina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting topic. Examples all within the companies clients (although this is disclosed at the beginning). Would like to read more on the topic from other case studies or authors.

[Anton · Rating 5 out of 5]

We'll be stealing from here :)