There’s no denying the popularity of gaming among Gen Zers, but they’re gaming for different reasons than previous generations. Of course they’re drawn to the games themselves but, more than any group before them, they increasingly see gaming as a means of connection and self-expression.
According to research from Deloitte, 70% of Gen Z teen gamers and 58% of Gen Z adult gamers say gaming keeps them connected to others, with most (69% of teens and 55% of adults) saying those connections are important to them. And 81% of teen gamers and 73% of adult gamers say personalizing their game characters or avatars help them express themselves.
This represents a huge opportunity for gaming brands looking to grow their customer base and loyalty. Once you understand what’s motivating Gen Zers and bringing them to your games, you can craft a player experience that keeps them engaged.
Improve player experience through community building
Since Gen Zers are drawn to games largely for the connections they make there, one way to deliver a great player or customer experience (CX) is to create an inclusive community where players feel welcomed as part of the group and free to express their individuality.
Crafting and maintaining this type of environment can be challenging, especially in light of bullying and inappropriate behavior that can occur in-game, but investing in community building will pay dividends well into the future.
Consider having a designated community manager or gaming relations manager and a team of people dedicated to ensuring your in-game environment stays the way you want it. There’s a lot that goes into this: a community that players want to remain a part of needs content moderation, policing, account recovery processes, and ways for gamers to easily and continually deliver feedback to your brand.
Focusing on community building will help you stand apart from your competitors, grow your brand reputation, and increase player loyalty.
Inform CX strategy by collecting gamer feedback
By and large, Gen Zers aren’t contacting customer support when they’ve got a gripe about one of your games or communities – they’re taking it to social media or applications like Reddit, Twitter, and Discord.
If you wait for gamers to contact your customer support team regarding problems, you’ll be missing out on valuable insights. Instead, make sure your community manager or gaming relations team has a presence where your players are gathering and talking. You’ve got to have a presence on Reddit, Twitter, and Discord.
Beyond that, let gamers in those forums know you’re there and listening. Show them that someone from the gaming brand is actively monitoring in those discussions and paying attention. Even if you have no immediate solution for the problems they’re encountering, just acknowledging that you hear your gamers goes a long way.
Transform findings into actionable insights
It’s important to always be collecting feedback from gamers – within the communities you build and through social channels and apps where players congregate – but merely compiling it isn’t enough.
You need the right technology, people, and processes in place to share that feedback where it makes sense within your brand. The insights you collect from your players mean nothing if they aren’t then used to inform decision making and improve player experience.
Establish a clearly defined process for incorporating player feedback into conversations and CX strategy at your brand. Tools like data analytics and intelligent automation can help ensure feedback is captured in a way that produces actionable insights.
A CX partner can help
It can seem daunting for gaming brands, especially smaller ones, to invest in the people and technology needed to level-up their player experience. Even if they wanted to, many brands don’t have that expertise in-house.
That’s where working with an experienced gaming CX partner can help. The right partner can help you strategize around community management and content moderation, analyze gamer feedback, and much more. And working with an outsourcing partner lets you to tap into the talent, technology, and processes that will take your player experience to the next level, while likely cutting costs along the way.
