A call center job can become monotonous. Performing the same troubleshooting steps, and answering the same customer queries can all make an employee bored, and compliant. So, it is essential to keep the employees motivated, and active. Games can be a great way to motivate call center employees. If there is a reward at the end of it, it would definitely make the day of the employee. Employee motivation exercises can also keep the retention levels low.
Incentives can definitely improve team performance, as well as an individual employee performance. However, they have to be carefully deployed. Incentives for each and everything or incentives every week will result in the employees losing interest and value. Run an incentive tactically, and it will result in immediate results.
Balls of Steel
This exercise works as an incentive for individual employees. At the start of the day / shift, all the employee are given five balls each. Every time the agents make a sale, they can take a ball from one of their opponents. The agent who has the most balls at the end of the shift wins. Make sure to offer a good prize for the winner.
Pod wars
This game works just like the game of Battleships. There will be two teams competing with each other. Whenever an agent from one of the team makes a sale, the team gets to sink an agent from the opposite team. This is a really engaging game. It helps to build the bond between team members and ignites competitiveness. You can offer a prize for the winning team.
Hangman
A perfect game / exercise for the employees in training. It will also help to check the knowledge level of employees. There will be two teams. You can ask both the teams to prepare questions based on the training session. Distribute pens and papers. Both the teams can ask questions to each other. Based on the questions answered and missed, both the teams can draw the hangman. This game will not only test the product knowledge of the trainees but also help them to learn.
Ridiculous complaints
This exercise is fun. It can also help the agents to effectively deal with live customer scenarios. You can make a list of the most common customer complaints, and ask the agents to come up with suitable and innovative solutions. The agents can work as a team, or alone. It can be a written exercise or an oral one. The best solutions can even be adapted by the company to provide an ideal resolution to the customer.
The lone assassin
This is a pure entertainment game that can be run all day. Just make sure it does not interfere with the work. At least 20 agents are needed to play this game. First, write the name of the agents in a list. The idea is for each agent to assassinate the person below them on the list. Provide each agent with the name of the agent he / she has to assassinate, in a slip of paper. To assassinate someone, an agent has to go up to his target and say ‘bang-bang, you’re dead’, without anyone else hearing it. If someone else hears it, then the agent is assumed to miss the target, and thus gets eliminated from the game. Ultimately, there will be a winner.
The team bus
This exercise helps to demonstrate the basic skills needed for a team. Ask the team to draw a bus on a chart paper. Instruct them to draw components to the bus and explain what each stands for, and how it can be related to the whole team. For example, the antennae on the bus can mean that the team has good communications skills, a trunk to store tools and knowledge, and so on.
Space race
This is a quality based exercise. Agents will be able to move forward based on their quality scores. There are seven different levels, the Launch Pad, Stratosphere, Troposphere, Thermosphere, Mesosphere, Space, and the Moon. The game can be played over a period of seven to eight weeks. Every week an agent scores good quality scores, he / she can advance towards the moon. If the quality score is low, he / she will move backward to the launch pad. Benchmark has to be set for the quality scores. The first agent to reach the moon will win a reward.
Virtual stock market
A very engaging game for the agents where they can trade like actual traders. You can base the stock on the products your company sells. Agents are given credits, with which they can purchase, and sell to earn more credits. You can keep the game constantly live, it will allow the agents to trade in between calls. It will help them to be active throughout the day / shift.
Keeping your employees engaged with such simple games and exercises will boost the morale of an employee, as well as the whole team.
