How can trainers and coaches make their e-learning more successful with gamification? Alexandra Nagy from Kunde 21 virtually climbed a mountain with participants in her online course on customer experience. In the article, you'll learn how she led her course participants to success playfully with "Reach The Top".
Many have different ideas about gamification: Many immediately think of virtual reality and the like. However, gamification actually means one thing – to enhance the motivation and, therefore, the learning progress of course participants through the fun factor. No high-tech devices are needed for this! Even simple playful elements make your course more exciting and interactive. This way, your gamification course appeals to a broad customer segment and motivates participants to successfully complete the online course!
Customer Orientation in the 21st Century
The company Kunde 21 advises businesses in Austria – as the name suggests, with a strong customer focus. Since 2019, Kunde 21 has been working with blink. it to provide its clients with maximum learning transfer. The term Customer Experience (CX) describes the path businesses take to align themselves with the needs of customers in the 21st century.
Managing Director Alexandra Nagy told us more about the Customer Experience (CX) Challenge in an interview. This took place over the entire last year and pursued the motto “Climbing the CX Mountain Together.” Alexandra Nagy connected storytelling and gamification in her blink.it course. Thus, she virtually “hiked” up the mountain together with her course participants.
About the person: Alexandra Nagy is the Managing Partner of Kunde 21 GmbH and Managing Director of Communications Hub Austria. She has been active in the management industry for over twenty years and has helped build various international brands and companies. In her work, she has specialized in customer experience and customer centricity.
Playfully Climbing the Mountain of Customer Experience
The CX Challenge from Kunde 21 consisted of the following components:
Over the entire last year, a new knowledge unit (a blink) on the topic of customer experience was published in the online course each month. The blinks marked twelve stations on the way to the goal. To reach the goal – the mountain summit – participants had to complete the twelve blinks. Additionally, a prize was drawn each month to continuously motivate the participants. This was consistent with the overall challenge and included, for example, a package of cereal bars and nuts.
This is how Alexandra Nagy presents the project in the video:
Alexandra Nagy presents the Customer Experience Challenge from Kunde 21
"We put everything under one motto and maintained it throughout the entire challenge." – Alexandra Nagy
To participate in the prize draw, course participants had to complete a survey at the end of each of the twelve blinks. The image behind it: After completing each survey, the participants achieved the interim goal and got a step closer to the mountain summit.
Chapter Overview of the Customer Experience Challenge on the blink.it platform
Through the CX Challenge, course participants not only learned something but grew beyond themselves level by level. Additionally, gamification elements ensured that the participants developed ambition to see the challenge through to the end.
How these gamification elements looked is presented by Managing Director Alexandra Nagy in the following interview:
Interview with Alexandra Nagy: Gamification Using the Example of the “CX Challenge”
We asked Alexandra Nagy the following four questions in the interview:
Question 1: For what topics is gamification suitable?
Question 2: What should be considered when implementing gamification?
Question 3: How can gamification be implemented with blink. it?
Question 4: What advantages does blink. it offer particularly for gamification courses?
Question 1: For what topics is gamification suitable?
Whether dry or interesting – gamification is suitable for all topics! Especially for content that is perceived as tedious. Because playful elements make such topics more engaging. This promotes the motivation of course participants since learning successes are made visible through, for example, levels or collecting points. This reduces the likelihood that participants will drop out of the online course prematurely. Through gamification, you as a trainer have the opportunity to create courses that include challenges and difficulties. This way, your course participants will develop and grow step by step beyond themselves!
Question 2: What should be considered when implementing gamification?
Alexandra Nagy provides the following four tips on how you can intelligently incorporate gamification into your online courses:
1. Knowledge level of your course participants
What is the skill level of your participants? You can use a quiz or a survey to find out how much background knowledge is already in place. This way, you find the perfect balance between challenge and learning success!
Info: The flow theory states that learners should not be over- or under-challenged in the learning process. When both are balanced, learners can surpass personal goals and enhance their learning and development curve.
Gamification gives participants the opportunity to continually develop their skills. They not only learn dry content but also master challenges so they can gradually advance their skills.
Alexandra Nagy
2. Tell a story
Think of an exciting story and build your course around it! If you choose a topic and align your course content accordingly, it will become directly more interesting. The story gives your online course consistency and a framework. Your course goal thus becomes clearly recognizable, and your participants know what is needed to reach the mountain summit. A unique story also generates attention:
By giving them a story to tell, the participants also wonderfully spread the challenge further.
Alexandra Nagy
3. Transparent goal setting
Clearly formulated goals show your course participants what they will achieve with your online course. Gamification elements (level thinking, collecting points) support the motivation and ambition to develop further and achieve the goal.
It is also important that gamification does not become an end in itself. Points, levels, or prizes only achieve their effects if they are clearly linked to specific learning objectives. Therefore, each playful stage should visibly contribute to skill development and not just generate short-term activity.
4. Sustained motivation
Levels, like in the CX Challenge, show the current learning progress and how the participants are getting closer to the course goal. This progress acts as a “positive trigger” for many participants. Additional rewards also ignite motivation and determination in participants to complete the course. Sustained motivation is therefore the key to overcoming oneself and reaching the peak of the mountain.
Question 3: How can gamification be implemented with blink. it?
The CX Challenge consisted of a kind of "best-of" content on the topic of customer experience from Kunde 21. This content still needed to be adapted to the mountain summit story and level thinking. Consequently, the course content was enlivened with images and videos related to the topic.
Participant feedback from the CX Challenge
Gamification is often criticized, as it is said that the playful elements push the knowledge content into the background. However, this does not have to be the case! It is therefore important to maintain the balance between playful elements and learning content.
Everything that one narrates – no matter how amusing – must be related to the theory.
Alexandra Nagy
Question 4: What advantages does blink. it offer particularly for gamification courses?
1. Different media
To make gamification courses particularly immersive, the knowledge content should be enlivened and adapted to a specific topic. You want to tell a story! Therefore, use different formats in the course. This way, your participants can dive better into the story. You support your topic visually, for example, through title images of your courses and chapters, images, videos, and audio files in your courses, and by linking to other websites (e.g., YouTube).
2. Intuitive and easy-to-use
The blink.it learning platform is intuitively applicable not only for course creators but also for course participants. This way, participants can easily immerse themselves in the story of the gamification course and are not deterred by a complicated application.
For us, the support of participants with blink. it is virtually at zero. There are never any problems.
Alexandra Nagy
3. Reflection at the end of the blink
The learning effect and personal development should not fade into the background, despite gamification. Therefore, the participants of the challenge answered a survey at the end of each blink. This helped reflect and apply the learned knowledge. You can choose between quiz, survey, and exam at blink.it and incorporate these at the respective points in the chapter. This makes the gamification course even more interactive, and knowledge content does not fall short!
Our claim is that we convey all our content and can upload easily. The blink.it platform is intuitive for us (as creators) and also for the participants.
Alexandra Nagy
Conclusion
Successful e-learning is created where motivation, structure, and learning objectives are strategically intertwined.
Gamification is much more than just a nice extra. When used correctly, it creates orientation, encourages perseverance, and makes learning progress visible. The key is the balance between storytelling, clear goal setting, and content depth.
The CX Challenge from Kunde 21 impressively shows: Those who combine a well-thought-out dramaturgy with reflective learning moments not only increase motivation but also sustainable learning success. Gamification is then not a game, but a strategic tool for effective online courses.
Updated on 02.03.2026
