3 fun and useful customer service training games

It’s no secret that a well-planned training program helps agents excel at their job. We already collected coaching methods for customer support as well as some handy tips for training call center agents. But sometimes adding a little bit of fun to training sessions is the best way to keep your agents motivated. This is why we gathered three games to get the most of your trainings. Be sure to try them at your next session.

Customer service training game 1: Never say never

Customers don’t like to hear that you cannot help them with their issues. Still, no matter how well-trained your agents are, there will be situations when they simply won’t be able to solve a problem. And in such cases, approaching the problem in a positive way is vital. This game will help your agents learn how to handle situations positively when they cannot solve a particular problem in the first place.

A good way to react in these cases is to offer an alternative solution instead of just saying no to the customer. Therefore, this game will train them to say, “I can do Y” instead of just saying “I can’t do X”.

Let’s see how the game works:

Have your agents gather in a circle with clearly legible name tags. Give your agents a couple of minutes to come up with a few requests for their peers. Requests can be anything from realistic to imaginary such as, “I want you to do my tasks today” or simply “I want to ride a unicorn”.

Then, instruct your agents to call out a peer’s name and request one thing from their list. The named agent has to turn down the request without saying “No”. Once they managed to deny the request, it’s their turn to call out another employee.

Customer service training game 2: Over to you

Every customer service team deals with frequently asked questions and issues on a daily basis. For such cases, you have probably established solutions, but what if a little bit of brainstorming could help you come up with something even more efficient?

For this game, ask your agents to gather in a circle and think of an issue that is common amongst your customers. Then, discuss with your team how they would handle the situation.

Ask them the following questions:

1. If this was your business, what would you do?

2. If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do?

3. If you had an unlimited budget, what would you do?

4. If you had a magic wand, what would you do?

This game helps your agents come up with creative solutions while they can also learn from their peers’ answers. During this game, it’s important to move around the groups and listen to their ideas while also sharing useful insights with your agents.

Customer service training game 3: Write customer letters

The following game will boost team morale and put agents in the shoes of customers so they can brainstorm how to make their experience better.

For this game, you’ll need to have a team of around 10 people sitting in a circle. Ask one agent from your team to tell one of their recent customer stories. Ask them to share the customer’s first name, most recent purchase and what they needed assistance with.

Then, ask each members of your team to write a thank you letter to your company from the customer’s perspective sharing how this interaction helped them and praising the company’s professional handling of the case.

Ask some of the agents to read out their letters and discuss them together with the team. Make sure to highlight what the customers appreciated most regarding the interaction. You can also create a list of the praises and then send them to each agent so that they can look at them during difficult days.

Further readings to help your agents

If you’ve found these games useful, you might want to check out these blog posts focusing on agents as well:

• How call center gamification can help you retain your agents
• 5 pro tips to retain your best call center agents
• The power of positive attitude in customer service