3 Customer Service Training Games
When it comes to customer service, everyone has something to learn. Even people who are naturals at interacting with others can find ways to improve their people skills — and, of course, first-time customer service reps always have a lot to learn.
One of the best ways to teach people any skill is to have them practice that skill in a hands-on but relatively low pressure environment.
Customer service training games are a great way to illustrate important factors about the customer-representative relationship. And, if you’re working with a set of new employees, these games can also help to break the ice and build solid working relationships among employees.
The caveat is that the games have to actually work. The only thing worse than not including activities in a training session, is to include activities that flop.
Here are three customer service training games that you can use in your next employee training session.
Customer Service Training Game 1: Don’t tell me, let me guess.
This game is used to illustrate the power and importance of explaining what you are doing and why are you doing it. Especially in cases where the customer is likely unfamiliar with the process that the customer service rep is following, it can be incredibly frustrating to sit through seemingly pointless questions or long wait times. This customer service training game will help your new representatives step into the shoes of their future customers.
Customer Service Training Game 2: Never say never.
No one likes to hear that the thing they want is not possible. In customer service, this fact translates to a basic rule of customer interactions: don’t tell a customer what you can’t do. Instead, frame your response in terms of what you can do. Instead of just saying, “I can’t do X” say, “I can do Y.” This is an easy concept to grasp, but a difficult concept to put into practice. This game is meant to train customer service employees in this tactic, before they use it with an actual customer.
Customer Service Training Game 3: Call me by my name.
Nothing kills a professional relationship more quickly than forgetting the other person’s name. In customer service, when you work with dozens of people every day, it’s particularly important to be good with names. But this isn’t just a natural skill — you can learn techniques to remember names better and for longer periods of time. One of the most proven ways of remembering names is to use the memory palace. This is something that Sherlock Holmes, in the BBC/Masterpiece version, uses to remember an absurd amount of information. An employee orientation session is a great time to teach this method, as the new employees can use it to remember the names of their new co-workers.
For more details on these games connect with events@mcca.mb.ca.