How Games Enhance Performance for Customer Service Agents

Customer service has often had a history of high turnover. Agents become burnt out, dealing with complaints and unhappy customers day after day. One of the ways companies today deal with this issue to increase employee retention is by incorporating games into the job. These games are motivational, instructional and may offer rewards to the agents based on performance.

Enhances Education

Some of the games inspire agents to work together as a team. One suggestion is to play a game at the end of a training session to review everything that was taught. Participants divide up into two teams and compose a list of questions about the training. Each team takes its turn reading the questions to the other team. If they answer incorrectly, they begin drawing the figure for the game Hangman or they may be given one strike with three strikes ending the game.

The benefit of this game is that it forces people to remember what they learned and improves recall. It also allows agents to work together in a job that is often solitary except for interactions with customers.

Inspires Teamwork

You can follow up this idea of teamwork with a game similar to Battleship. Agents can form teams based on their location in the call centre. Every time they get a sale or resolve a customer issue, they sink an agent on the opposing team.

Games where people work together help prevent the feeling of isolation that often accompanies a call centre job where the person works in a cubicle alone, spending most of their time on the phone. It also encourages agents to help each other out, so everyone feels supported.

Enhances Individual Performance

Some games focus on helping individual agents improve their daily and weekly performance. One idea is to award points based on meeting specific goals for the day or week. At the end of the chosen time period, the person may win an award they keep at their desk until the next round when someone tries to take the award away. Another option is to give them a prize such as a gift card or tickets to a game.

A shorter competition could involve giving a certain number of marbles to each agent. When someone gets a sale or meets another goal, they take a marble away from any other agent. The person with the most marbles at the end of the day wins.

For these or other games to be effective, they must be tied in with performance or some aspect of customer service. They must also be fun and fair. Everyone has to enjoy being involved and be willing to participate or it will defeat the purpose.

If you’re considering adding a motivational game to your call centre or customer service department, present the idea to your team. If it meets with mostly positive feedback, incorporate it on a trial basis. Measure the results to see if customer service improves or if you meet more goals. Games can make a job more fun for employees, which improves their effectiveness and helps your company’s bottom line.

Ashley Meszaros is the Owner/President of We An-Ser Communications in Calgary. We An-Ser Communications provides award winning call center services in Calgary, dispatching, medical answering services, man down services, lone worker support, wireless panic services and more. They service the North American market.

Ashley Meszaros is the Owner/President of We An-Ser Communications in Calgary. http://www.wean-ser.com/calgary-call-centre-services/