Customer Service Role Play

We are working with a call centre client creating a role play game which will be launched at their kick off meeting in January next year. The aim is to make 2015 their 'Year Of Customer Service', which will help them to differentiate themselves from their competitors and increase market share.

Call centre staff really are the front line of a business - its voice - and they are often the only people who clients will speak with. Their performance can have a serious impact on a business. We want to help our client to improve their business but also give their employees a fun and engaging team building experience.

The game is called 'Who Killed Customer Service' and it's a Murder Mystery with a metaphorical element. Murder Mysteries are essentially interactive story telling and they can be adapted to provide business meaning as well as fun.

One of the original ideas was to make the story about a stolen cake, with the cake being a metaphor for market share. However, we felt that this just wasn't as much fun as a Murder Mystery game. Many of the employees of the call centre are 'Millennials', so called Generation Y. If they feel that a game is lame they won't engage, and they have a very acute inbuilt radar for lameness!

The suspects are some of the identified enemies of customer service for this specific organisation. Otto Mation is obsessed with computer generated feedback but many think that he puts an unwelcome block between clients and the humans who represent their company. Miss Primm is obsessed with politeness. Her politeness checklists cause stilted language and interfere with natural communication. These concepts identify potential issues but they are just names and concepts, so they can exist within the game without needing too much discussion.

It's important to have balance between the business aspect and the fun event, so ideas are not forced on people but by having them in the game it brings meaning beyond just enjoyment to the session. Our writer has teamed up with a manager at the call centre and the script will pass back and forth, going through several iterations before the event goes ahead.

Creating bespoke events such as this is our speciality. This is feedback from a client for whom we ran a similar programme; 

“Your professionalism and support running up to and during the event ensured a truly successful outcome, with some of our sales team commenting it was the best activity they had ever done. A number of them also commented that whilst they felt they were learning about our business focus it was done in such a way that the whole afternoon was interactive and a great deal of fun.”

We find that employees genuinely respect and enjoy the effort that is made to entertain them and to improve the business that they work in. The key is balance, to treat the approach with a light touch. If this is of interest call us to discuss your objectives and how we can create a unique event to help you to meet them.