Qstream Powers AMS Employee Knowledge Retention
American Medical Systems (AMS) has found a new way to boost employee engagement for sales personnel by using a gamified application called Qstream (@qstream). The app aims to improve employee engagement by presenting employees with challenges and rating their responses on a company-wide scoreboard.
The Problem
AMS was trying to solve a specific problem with this app: sales knowledge retention. It found that most salespeople would forget important information just two weeks after each Plan of Action sales meeting. AMS tried implementing post-event quizzes, but these quizzes on their own did not affect retention of important information by employees.
Using Gamification to Boost Memory
Pairing simple challenges with scoring was the key for AMS, which saw employees’ mastery of knowledge jump from 68% to 92% after implementing the app. Gamified scoring gave employees an incentive to do better at the challenges, which required them to use what they had learned at the event. This concentration on using information instead of just absorbing it helped improve their memory.
Matching Gamification to Audience
AMS credits the success of the app to the competitive nature of sales reps. Ryan Casey, manager of global curriculum design and development at AMS, told TechTarget: “The competitive nature of it – that’s one of the things that drives 99% of sales reps. They don’t want to be at the bottom of the list.” By making employee scores public, AMS gave sales reps a company-wide scoreboard to try to beat, which worked perfectly with their competitive drive.
Gamification As A Part Of Company Culture
Another factor of AMS’s success is how they integrated the gamified app into the company culture. Casey attributed the company-wide adoption of the app to it being fun, non-intrusive, and mobile. For sales reps, being able to participate while on the go is particularly important.
Lessons from AMS’ Success
AMS found success with this gamified app largely because using information to improve memory is a well-proven tactic. Incentivizing employees to practice using their knowledge will definitely help them remember important information.
However, in AMS’s case, this incentive relies on competition, which varies widely between audiences. Sales reps already work in an extremely competitive environment, but if your employees need to regularly collaborate with each other, this kind of competition can do more harm than good. In such cases, you might need to apply coopetition principles to engage your players.
What is a good alternative to pure competition if you want to give employees an incentive to practice using their knowledge? Let us know what you think in comments.
