Loyalty 3.0: How to Revolutionize Customer and Employee Engagement with Big Data and Gamification
Rajat Paharia
McGraw-Hill (2013)

How to build a stakeholder loyalty and engagement program that drives a competitive advantage for your enterprise

According to Rajat Paharia, the title of this book refers to the Holy Grail of stakeholder loyalty and engagement, one that consists of three separate but interdependent enabling components: Motivation, Big Data, and Gamification. Breakthroughs in diagnostic technology (such as fMRI) have enabled social scientists to explain what compels and motivates human behavior. Moreover, consumers now have more and better information about products and services just as those who market them now have more and better information about consumers. With regard to Gamification, Paharia explains that game designers have been using data-driven motivational techniques for years. “Our new understanding of motivation, combined with the emergence of big data streams, has enabled these techniques to be used outside the gaming world, where they can be powerful tools to drive engagement, participation, and high-value activity for customers, employees, and partners alike.”

I commend Paharia on his skillful use of various reader-friendly devices that include a summary of key points section at the end of Chapters 1-9. Also, dozens of bullet point checklists as well as dozens of Figures inserted strategically through his narrative. Some of the most valuable material is provided within mini-case studies on customer engagement in exemplary companies such as USA Network, Chiquita Brands, Warner Brothers, Foursquare, and the SAP Community Network; also, mini-case studies of employment engagement in other companies that include LiveOps, BOX, Bluewolf, Nitro, and Salesforce.com. These and other structural devices will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.

These are among the dozens of passages of special interest and value to me, also listed to indicate the scope of Paharia’s coverage.

o The Three Faces of Loyalty, and, The Road to Loyalty 3.0 (Pages 9-15)
o Deep Dive into the Five Intrinsic Motivators (27-36)
o How Can We Use Big Data? (41-49)
o Workforce Analytics (59-61)
o The Ten Key Mechanics of Gamification (73-84)
o The Four Types of Intrinsic Motivation (86)
o Driving Without a Steering Wheel (91-92)
o More Loyalty 3.0 Communities (123-129)
o Innovating in Education with Loyalty 3.0 (153-157)
o Going Social with Bluewolf (167-170)
o Innovating in Reputation with Loyalty 3.0 (171-173)
o The Loyalty 3.0 Roadmap (190-204)
o Design of a Loyalty 3.0 Program (207-219)
o Ten Tips from the Expert’s Playbook (220-227)
o Forward in All Directions! (241-245)

Here in a single volume is just about all the information, insights, and counsel most readers will need to build a stakeholder loyalty and engagement program that drives a competitive advantage for your enterprise. Some of the material can be put to immediate use, other material should be considered “for future reference.” This is not the definitive primary source for Motivation, Big Data, and Gamification but I know of no other that is of higher quality in terms of explaining how all three can — and should be — correlated and coordinated to achieve the given objectives. Bravo!