As much as it could be enjoyable working in a call center, the days can quickly go monotonous, like any other workplace. And why engaging with each other on a regular basis can shake up a little the day-to-day routine. Not everything in the contact center must be calls. Sometimes, to boost agent productivity, you need to make things a little bit more exciting and, in this case, more fun.
Even the strongest teams need the motivation to improve their mood and, mostly, their state of mind, to clear up their daily routine to be more productive and have a positive attitude at their workplace.
You can constantly adjust the goal of these motivational games to match your KPIs.
Never underestimate the enormous impact that motivational games could have on your call center agents. It could really beneficiate the agents' motivation and performance and be an excellent tool to appease a better workplace for the agent.
(Everything below is, of course, always taking the appropriate measures due to the new normal.)
Call Center Team Building Games
BREAK THE ICE
Before you jump into training, break the ice. Give every agent a chance to meet everyone else. The goal is to build a cohesive team.
There are many great ice-breaking ideas that you can use. Here are a few of them:
One Word Ice Breaker: Divide everyone into random groups of four to five. Then, ask each group to come up with one word that best describes what they think about a specific topic. For example, how working in a call center is, what they know or think about the company, or how they believe they can successfully handle a difficult situation, or a topic related to your business or training. Lastly, have each group describe their word and discuss it. This team-building game will help break the ice and see how much the agents know about the contact center.
Ask a Silly Question: Kick off your training with a list of silly questions that everyone has to answer. The crazier, the better. Examples include, "What vegetable would you be? What color represents you, and why? What is your favorite time of day, and why? If you could remain one age forever, how old would you be?"
Pair Ups: Put everyone into pairs and then get them talking about themselves in different rounds. Here are some ideas:
- Find something they have in common outside of work.
- Share something they're proud of at work.
- Talk about a time where they experienced excellent customer service.
In the end, let some volunteers share with the rest of the training class something they talked about with their pair.
Call Center Games for Training
TELEPHONE
Play the telephone game to test listening, a crucial skill for the agents to communicate efficiently with the customers.
Have all your agents get into a single file line. Then, whisper a "top secret" company mission in the first person's ear. They then have to whisper that same message to the person next to them and so on. The last person says the message out loud to see how much it's changed.
The key to making the telephone a successful call center training game is to repeat the chain, trying out different methods. The goal is to find a way to transmit the information in a clear and concise manner that sticks and makes sense. And then discuss how easy it is for communication to break down and what you can do as a call center agent to make sure your messages aren't being lost or misunderstood.
BAD ROLE PLAY
Sometimes, the best way to teach is to show them what NOT to do something. In this simple role-playing scenario, encourage your agents to respond to a customer situation in the worst way possible. Then, ask the other agents to point out the mistakes and develop a better response together.
Call Center Games To Drive Performance
PASS THE BALL
For this call center game, you need a ball, trophy, stuffed animal, or another fun thing to pass around. When someone hits a sale a collected amount or a KPI, they're the temporary winner and get the ball. But when another agent hits another KPI or outperforms the current winner, they get the ball. The ball changes owners throughout the day. You can award the person who has the ball at the end of the shift or select random prizing times to keep the motivation and excitement flowing all day. This call center game works excellent in Sales and Debt Collection call centers.
A CHANCE TO WIN
A simple way to make achieving goals more exciting and less monotonous is to have small games for a chance to win. There is an infinity of games agents can play when they reach a KPI or milestone, from shooting a ball in a hole, picking a random prize from a mystery box, spin a roulette, or getting a clue to find a bigger prize. You can implement these types of games for smaller goals implemented to keep the agents focus on their metrics and avoid the concentration of the effort for the end of the month.
Before implementing these games in the contact center, one of the best practices is to use insights from your agents' scorecards to identify the areas of opportunity. That way, you will support your agents where they need the most help or motivation.
And after a period of time, you need to evaluate how those areas have improved and see if the workplace is more exciting, agents are motivated, and more prepared to contribute for the success of the company.
At Call Center Services International we care about our agent’s motivation. In our years of experience establishing Nearshore Contact Centers for top U.S. companies, we have seen that these types of games are effective to keep agents happier and motivated and improve productivity and customer satisfaction. If you would like to know more about how we do it contact us!
Keep reading about agent motivation: Simple Ways You Can Make Your Call Center Agents Happy