Mashable shares Seven Wining Examples of Game Mechanics in Action. The article talks about “Gameification,” which is defined as:
the use of game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems. In other words, it means taking the best lessons from games like FarmVille, World of Warcraft and Angry Birds, and using them in business.
My favorite example in the article was this way game thinking can be applied to common problems, like getting drivers to slow down on the roadways:
[The] innovative Speed Camera Lottery idea rewards those drivers who obey the posted limit by entering them into a lottery. The compliant drivers then split the proceeds generated from speeders. Richardson used gamification concepts to turn an negative reinforcement system into a positive, incremental experience. When tested at a checkpoint in Stockholm, average driver speed was reduced by 20%. If the plan were scaled across the U.S., the results could mean thousands fewer injuries, millions of dollars worth of reduced costs and substantial environmental benefits.
Could you use a similar theory with your monthly bills? Instead of just offering the traditional discount on bills paid within 30 days, offer much larger discounts to the first handful of your customers who pay. For instance, give the first customer to pay their bill a 20% discount, offer a 19% discount to the second customer to pay, and so on.
Instead of hounding customers to pay, you may instead be faced with judging which of your clients paid first — a tremendous problem to have!