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How to improve Employee Engagement: 10 Games to engage your Customer Support teams
As you’ll be fully aware, engaged employees are better for business. With higher levels of productivity, higher retention rates (therefore less recruitment costs) and improved levels of customer satisfaction, employee engagement is a key factor in the success of businesses, especially ones that operate with large volumes of customer service roles.
Thinking of ways to drive engagement is not always easy, as any efforts that are deemed to be forced, can have a negative impact on morale. So getting the balance between planning engagement focused activities and making them feel genuine is important. A great solution for that is to introduce games. some that are linked to work and other ones that are just for fun and to reward employees.
Below we’ve given you a bit more detail for each game and activity. We’ve also added in some details around the cost of each activity and the effort required to take part. Remember that prizes don’t have to be monetary, a little recognition in the form of an extra 10 min break and a chocolate bar can go a long way in a busy day. Feel free to adapt to suit your industry or environment – the more tailored to you and your team, the better!
1. Individual or team KPI based prizes
Choose a different KPI each day, week or month and offer rewards for the top performers. Or you might want to use the opportunity to build a better team culture. Working as a team and succeeding as team can be both motivational and help employees to bond better as a team, developing team working skills along the way.
Cost = Flexible to suit your team budget and resources.
Effort to take part = Just do your job well, work as a team and smash your targets!
2. Wheel of Fortune
Each time an agent hits a certain target, they get the opportunity to spin the Wheel of Fortune, which has a number of prizes which could include joke type prizes through to leaving an hour early or a free coffee the next morning.
Cost = Flexible to suit your team budget or resources.
Effort to take part = Just focus on smashing your targets whilst providing excellent customer service.
3. Amazing Race
This game is a quick blast of energy that takes minds off work for a while whilst teams work together to solve clues and run around the local area to find the next clue. Great for teamwork but requires an hour or two out of work, which can be difficult to arrange for call centre teams.
Cost = Minimal. Just a knowledge of your local area
Effort to take part = Requires a bit of time away from the desk, but the fresh air, exercise and team building will be worth it!
4. Office Olympics
This can be done as a team or individually, incorporating some fun games that can be played in the office such as golf putting, Jenga or other indoor games. Encourage team building with group activities and track progress visually in the office environment. A good spread of activities here is great way to get all involved no matter sporting or academic ability.
Cost = Minimal. Ask team members if they could support by bringing in garden games, indoor games or Jenga from home. If not, you can always check the charity shops.
Effort to take part = Each member can support their team with a skill and activity they are comfortable with. A great way to get everyone engaged in your team.
5. Bingo
Each employee is given a Bingo card that has different types of targets that are linked to the daily KPIs. They cross them out as each one happens and the first person to complete the card gets a prize. Again, these prizes could be tangible or a treat such as a late start.
Cost = Flexible to suit your team budget or resources.
Effort to take part = Consider running a new Bingo card each week to give team members a fresh start to hit KPI’s, circle some numbers and win some prizes.
6. Best Dressed Team
Hold a fancy dress competition with prizes for the best effort and use of creativity. It can coincide with an event like Christmas or Halloween, or be themed e.g. an 80s theme, or a movies theme. You could even set a smaller budget to get the creative juices flowing!
Cost = Team members can get as involved in the theme as they like. Consider some small prizes for the best outfits to encourage participation next time.
Effort to take part = Team members could be clever and use creativity to take part rather than shop bought items. Those not wanting to get dressed up could decorate their work space instead.
7. Collect the compliments
Good customer feedback should be celebrated and having a board with the different compliments written on is a very visual reminder to agents and teams that they’re doing a good job. Giving out prizes or recognition will be a great reward for the people getting the most compliments from customers and encourages continual high performance.
Cost = Flexible based on your team budget or resources.
Effort to take part = Minimal effort as teams should be collecting compliments already, just maybe not sharing them with the wider team.
8. Quiz Games
Both work related and general knowledge quizzes can inject some fun into the day and agents can work on the questions throughout the day. Top Tip: Image based games are harder for the cheaters to find the answers on Google!
Cost = Flexible based on your team budget or resources for any small prizes if required.
Effort to take part = Might take some time to pull the quiz questions together, but there are a tonne of quiz questions online you could use. Taking part is the easy part!
9. Bake Off (Baking competition)
It is good to try a range of different games that will appeal to different personalities, as customer service agents can have a real mix of different demographics and interests. A Bake Off style game with a prize for best cake can appeal to those with culinary skills who might not want to get involved in some of the other activities. It also encourages group chats over a coffee and a slice of cake at the end of the judging.
Cost = Entrants will need to provide the ingredients themselves, but there could be a small prize for the winner. Alternatively, all entrants could sell their produce and raise money for charity. Another way to get others engaged.
Effort to take part = Those baking will need to set some time aside on an evening to create their showstoppers, but everyone else just needs to come along with an empty stomach!
10. Hangman (Getting to know each other)
A team that gets on well together helps to improve engagement levels so playing games that encourage finding out more about colleagues works well and can spark conversations. When employees spend a full day on the phones it can be harder to get to know some of their team, so games based on information about each agent like Hangman are effective. It could be based around an employee’s secret talent or favourite hobby, for example.
Cost = Nothing to create and no prizes necessary.
Effort to take part = Also known as an ‘Ice Breaker’, this game only requires the willing to participate.
These 10 games ideas for boosting employee engagement levels should give you a great starting point for bringing more fun into the office.
By Tom Palmer
Tom is EvaluAgent’s Head of Digital and takes the lead on developing and implementing our digital and content management strategies which results in creating a compelling, digital-first customer marketing experience.
