Fun Games for Customer Service Week

Customer service week is an opportunity to appreciate agents and revive their drive for customer satisfaction, thereby raising morale and productivity. Incorporating games and rewards into the daily routine and ongoing trainings will clearly illustrate that you value your customer service agents. By ensuring those with lower achievement levels can still earn rewards for progress and system knowledge, you can be assured that everyone will benefit. If concerned with lower achieving individuals, consider pairing them with the higher achieving to raise confidence and skill.

Select a certain area of concentration. If the customer service is for a call-based center, average handle time or first call resolution might be desirable concentrations. When your service agent meets the chosen goal, give him a playing card. Following the general rules of poker, after agents receive their full hand, they may begin to trade cards with the dealer in hopes of achieving their desired hand. At the end of the shift, the team member with the best hand wins the pot. The pot may consist of a prize like a gift card, free lunch or bundle of fun office supplies. If your employees measure in the hundreds, consider putting them in manageable groups of 10 to 20.

Purchase gold coins or any type of fake money from toy stores, party supply stores or through mail order companies such as the Oriental Trading Company. For each goal achieved, perhaps for every up-sell for the week, give the employee a coin. If your management team desires to weigh certain achievements more than others, have a set amount for “payment.” At the end of the day or week, let the customer service agents shop using their money. For retail, discontinued items might be used. For more budget-oriented businesses, consider using the white elephant exchange process where everyone brings in a used item from home or a gift no longer desired. A manager or selected employee can then be charged with the responsibility of pricing.

The 'Never Say No' game is a way to fuse humor with training. Group your agents into teams and set a timer. In the time allotted, have them list as many ways as they can to say “no” without actually saying the word. To take the game to another level, give your agents certain scenarios where the team members must solve the problem satisfactorily without using the forbidden word. Encourage some use of the outrageous. It will evoke laughter and cause team bonding. Have teams present their findings at the end of each round. If you want to reward a winning team, have each team cross off any phrases used by both. The group with the largest number remaining can then be declared the winner.

After selecting achievable, measurable goals and posting them for the employees, reward team member with one clue for each goal met. The more clues they earn, the closer they are to solving the puzzle and winning a prize. You can create your own mystery utilizing your company’s employees or products or you can purchase a mystery ready to go.

Create a industry specific card game by designing two sets of activities on index cards. One set could contain general knowledge questions, such as "What information is required to verify an account?" The second set could contain scenarios such as "A customer attempts to return a rumpled article of clothing with no receipt; what do you do to ensure satisfaction?" This game can be played individually or in teams. Provide small incentives, candy for example, for correct answers or reward the overall winner or team with a larger prize. If seeking a prepared game, The "Deal With It" card game has a version specifically for customer care and covers just about any scenario imaginable. This role-playing game encourages creative problem solving and intrinsic motivation and ownership of solutions.