Online games and CRM

Towards a more bespoke customer relationship in online games?

Online games companies are all about e-business, and yet the level of CRM initiatives is still surprisingly low. Most MMO newsletters I receive are not customized for me, but they could easily use my character’s data in interesting ways to motivate me. They could show me what my friends have accomplished in-game, point me to wiki articles with tailored tips about how to conquer areas where my character keeps dying, and even tempt me to buy the last piece of a matching cosmetic outfit set I have already bought.

To be fair, a few of them did: I remember an Age of Conan newsletter using my character’s level, name and class to address me and highlight what I could do in-game in the area where I logged off, Aeria Games sent me a nice “get back in-game with a free XP stone” Shaiya promotion after I hadn’t logged in in a while, and most subscription games now have veteran rewards of some kind. However, these efforts are still fairly rare, and are still far from realising the potential of the ton of available data that these companies have amassed about customers.

It is possible to combine game and business data and detect retention issues even before they appear. For instance, welcome emails to new players can include particular things to do in-game just after they register (or at day +3, day+7, etc), outline solutions to issues that players frequently encounter at those stages, contact players with offers when they start logging in less, or make use of “social CRM” to keep them incentivised if their friends stop playing (perhaps by suggesting group incentives, or directing them to a “people you may know” friends-of-friends feature). Virtual worlds seem more familiar with these techniques than online games; for instance Gaia Online and IMVU immediately point towards things to do in-world in their post-registration emails (probably addressing a churn issue from new registrants not knowing what to do), and Habbo includes a “forgotten your password?” box in the “we miss you” email they send to people who haven’t logged in for a while. Interestingly, certain types of account data that is easy to use is almost never used to incentivise players. I didn’t find many games who would send me a birthday gift for my real-life birthday, give me a special party hat or an emote that I could use only that day and that would tell people in game it’s my birthday.

That’s a wasted opportunity.

Many games also don’t seem to employ a lot of CRM techniques in order to increase monetization, but there’s obviously a lot to be done, especially for micro-payment games which are shops as well as games. Very few suggestions for item shops based on previous purchases, on “customers who bought this also bought…”, on items tried in the shop and not purchased, or social CRM initiatives like friends’ wishlists and suggestions based on friends’ behaviours exist, as far as I know (although most Facebook games allow you to share purchases, achievements and events to your friends).

Another field of CRM that has potential for games is customer tiering, in which, for instance, the best customers in a luxury clothes shop are sent personalized birthday cards, invitations to fashion shows and private sales offers — or even classic airline tiering, with miles and private lounges. This is especially relevant for micro-payment games, where a small number of customers spend a lot. So far, I’m not aware of any game operators that offer a ‘red carpet’ program for these special customers, or of very many loyalty schemes rewarding players for their purchases. Admittedly, these would need to be done tactfully in order to avoid the implication that the game is biased towards big spenders, but there are a lot of outside-game or cosmetic things that can be done to thank and nurture important customers.

It’s quite possible that the lack of CRM initiatives is largely due to inadequate data capture and storage legacy systems than a lack of belief in the usefulness of the techniques. However, in an increasingly competitive environment, it’s only going to become more essential for companies to focus on maximizing retention and monetization, as the acquisition optimization tricks are becoming increasingly mastered by everyone in the marketplace.

If you have good examples of clever CRM use by online games, please tell us so in the comments!

Tags: CRM

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