How can gamification benefit property management? – The Four S’s of gamification

Granlund’s property management game, developed by Finnish game company and full-stack digital agency MeKiwi, is playable at the Finnish Pavilion in the Dubai 2020 Expo. In the Be the manager of this building game you can act as a property manager and test how the decisions you make in cooling or ventilation, affect the wellbeing of the people inside the building. Or even the whole planet. As a player, you get instant feedback and learn about your decisions.

“Property managers around the world constantly make decisions that affect both our wellbeing and the wellbeing of our environment. With the game, we wanted to highlight this”, says Minna Huuhka, Marketing and Communications Manager at Granlund.

What other benefits can gamification offer for property management? Here are a few examples!

Safe

A reality-based game creates a safe learning environment where actual property management processes can be simulated. MeKiwi’s game developer Riikka Kilpeläinen encourages companies to embrace the possibilities of gamification: “The game is a great simulation platform. Things that are impossible to test in real life, for instance in a real building filled with users, are perfectly safe in a game”.

Simplified

Through gaming, difficult, and complex things can be illustrated and simplified. One of the key benefits in creating a game, is that the processes have to be logical and simplified.

As a biproduct of a game, you get even more clarified and focused processes.

Scalable

One advantage of gamification is scalability. The content is always the same and infinitely scalable despite the place, time, or number of players.

MeKiwi’s Customer Success Manager Jonna Ranta brings up the idea that gaming is an ideal tool when orientating your staff or customers to the workplace or new processes. A great scalable orientation experience will leave employees feeling excited and motivated to start their job.

Standardised

When using gamification for a professional purpose it is an advantage that the content is always the same and all the necessary information is presented. In certain industries, there is absolutely no place for confusions or errors. In addition, it is an easy way to test new ideas and functions in secure and standardised platforms.

Plus, along with these S words – playing is super fun!Games give immediate feedback and reward. The exciting elements of the game keep the player active and motivated.

Future of gamification?

Although utility games are on a smaller scale compared to entertainment gaming, the future looks bright for gamification.

“Now that the technology for virtual reality is affordable and easy to access, VR will see a significant rise in popularity”, predicts Jonna Ranta. “As we are even more attached to our smart phones, the number of web-based solutions and mobile apps will also continue growing.”