The days of the whiteboard and sales “pump-up” may soon be a thing of the past, courtesy of a tech tool that brings gaming and engagement to team motivation.
Spinify is leaderboard software that integrates with CRMs to combine tasks, targets and achievement with a game-based ethos. Its aim is to bring fun, engagement and motivation to the heady world of sales, and already it’s rolling out in real estate offices, with noticeable effect.
Spinify is the creation of entrepreneur Matt Bullock who successfully launched and sold global payment gateway eWAY. But while building his business he encountered the very real challenge of motivating a team.
His solution was staff engagement, and the result is Spinify.
Mr Bullock explains Spinify uses virtual leader boards that can be customised to suit an individual business’ goals and targets. These “gamified” leader boards are then broadcast to office TVs, mobile phones and computers.
The software features a game-like feel to set visually compelling challenges and foster friendly competition between staff, departments or offices.
As leader boards can be relayed across TVs and devices, it quickly engages members of the team and ensures each staff member understands the mission at hand, can see exactly who’s achieving what and can identify what they need to do to improve their own performance.
It also allows teams to celebrate success and notch up milestones with fun features like audible gongs, songs, winner’s podiums and graphics. Tasks and targets can be updated to reflect different challenges that occur in real time.
That means standard KPIs like monthly sales goals, listings, and appraisals can all be tied into different challenges with staff members recognised as they meet or work towards their goals.
Mr Bullock explained the main priority of the software was to achieve targets in an engaging and fun way that offered positive reinforcement.
“Fun is a serious word for us,” he said. “This is about pulling together offices. You can have personalised messages, countdown metrics…all the stuff that leads to a positive culture in the workplace. And in any office, positive culture is one of the hardest things to understand and build.”
Mr Bullock said the creation of Spinify commenced in 2016, involving significant trials, and users immediately loved the results. The software is now available in eight countries with revenue doubling every six months.
Ray White Canberra was one of the first agents to trial Spinify, and Director Scott Jackson said its adoption had a positive effect on morale, results and the customer experience across its three offices. Mr Jackson uses Spinify to chart a whole range of different achievements including listing numbers and appraisals.
“I love it. The team loves it. It’s had a really positive impact. Everybody can see what’s going on. It’s engaging, it’s fun, and it’s way better than a whiteboard.”
He continued there are also some surprising benefits that he hadn’t initially anticipated.
“Rather than being competitive, it’s leading to real conversations between team members that’s having a positive effect.”
A welcome perk is that staff can see what other people are achieving and lift their game when necessary. This self-correcting relieves Mr Jackson of the task of having “that conversation” with staff who may be struggling.
“It allows our team to have clarity and visibility as to what their own numbers are. They can see it because it’s in front of them and correct their own performance.
“We had one staff member achieve an amazing 23 appraisals in two weeks. That’s not usually an achievement shared across the three offices. But with Spinify all agents got to see it, with many asking, ‘how did he do that?’ and thinking ‘if he can, I can’.
It also allows for different types of challenges and different sectors of the team to be recognised for their skills. For example, a leaderboard might accumulate net promoter scores where members get five points for an appraisal, and 10 for a listing, but are also be able to acquire points in other ways.
Mr Jackson has different leader boards for junior staff so they’re not competing against the established “big dog” of the office and can attain points through a variety of tasks.
“Now they have the opportunity to shine in different areas. The upshot is, this fosters a good feeling in the office that ultimately leads to a better customer experience.”
Spinify offers free trials of the software, with further information and demonstrations available at www.spinify.com
