ZIZO Technologies revolutionizing work through gamification

This inspiring story is of a rising startup called ZIZO Technologies Inc., started by Jimmy Chebat, based out of the US. ZIZO intends to revolutionize the way the world works through gamification. Here is the story of ZIZO Technologies in Jimmy’s own words.

Introduce us to the idea of ZIZO

ZIZO was created out of my desire to find a solution for my disengaged workforce in a call center setting, leading to high attrition rates. The ZIZO platform increases employee engagement by gamifying the metrics that drive business objectives, leading to improved performance and better retention.

While employees enjoy an immersive gaming experience at work, stakeholders of the company can easily access all of their business data in one easy to use business intelligence dashboard.

ZIZO integrates directly with all of a company’s operating software to store data in a typical data warehouse, where it is optimized and automatically provides actionable insights.

What’s your strategy story? What led you to start ZIZO?

After being the owner and CEO of a accounts receivable call center for over a decade, I became increasingly frustrated with my workforce. The new generation of employees think, act, and work much differently than those I’ve worked with before, and they expect their employer to follow suit.

It was becoming challenging to keep my employees focused on their work, and I was experiencing high attrition rates (so were many of my colleagues). I knew something had to be done to provide more accountability and easier access to performance data, so I created a data analytics tool in 2010.

After using that tool for years and even selling it on the market, I realized there were still some flaws in my system. The data was only as good as the person entering it and wrongly entered data was causing distrust in the workplace and unreliable performance info. Besides, there was still no automated way to increase employee engagement. In January of 2020, I decided to remove the product from the market, revamp it and add gamification and ZIZO was born.

What marketing, operation strategies are you adopting at ZIZO?

Early on in our startup journey, we invested a lot of time and money into our marketing department to begin building our digital footprint. While an extensive marketing department was not sustainable at our stage, focusing on it early allowed us to lay the groundwork we needed.

We have emphasized building on online presence and have an employee dedicated to building our community of business partners and customers. Our strategy as a company is to create the workplace of our dreams. We want to encourage and lead by example. Our operations strategy is to build trust and ensure all of ZIZO’s employees, regardless of the size of their role, understand the why behind everything we do.

Any strategy mistakes you have made and what did you learn?

I’m fortunate in that this is not my first startup. As a seasoned entrepreneur, I’ve made plenty of mistakes, which I’ve used as lessons for my work with ZIZO. My first venture was at the young age of 20, and despite the incredible product, I could not gain traction. It got to the point where I was literally paying my bills out of my change jar. This early lesson was precious because I learned how to get creative, stop and re-evaluate.

Share a story when you have been customer-obsessed at ZIZO

We’re currently pre-revenue, but that doesn’t mean we’re not already obsessing over our customers! The beauty of ZIZO is that it is completely customizable to each customer. We’ve done our best to consider everything our customers could want to ensure we’re prepared to work with them to provide the perfect solution through every step of development.

In preparation for entering the market, we’ve developed an extensive onboarding process to ensure every ZIZO customer receives our utmost attention and ends up with the best possible solution.

Finally what advice do you have for your fellow entrepreneur readers?

Fail fast. When running a business (and especially starting one) it can be really stressful trying to make the right decision every time. Instead of striving for perfection, strive to make small moves. If you make a small mistake, it is easy to learn and move on. Spending too much time perfecting something risks a bigger loss if you end up making a mistake.

Disclaimer: The information in the above story is provided by the startup and The Strategy Story takes no responsibility for the authenticity of the product and services offered by the startup. Reader’s discretion is advised.

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