Workforce Management Featured Article
Games in the Contact Center Can Build Cohesion and Make Work Fun
The contact center is a difficult place to work. It’s a high-pressure environment, it’s noisy, it’s busy and sometimes tempers get short. Customers can get unpleasant, and managers are under the thumb to keep call metrics within certain parameters.
At the same time, it’s a contact center manager’s job to keep morale up and the environment positive. One way to do this is by conducting games in the contact center that fit with the work today to keep things lively. In the hotel booking industry, for example, mangers will introduce a tennis ball (or some other small object) that is passed from agent to agent according to who made the most recent booking. It’s a fun way to show recognition to agents, get them to interact with each other in a positive way and stir up the work day a little. Others might choose to play bingo based on some element – customers’ ZIP codes or area codes, or even “buzzwords” dropped by customers – giving agents the opportunity to fill in their bingo cards.
Some managers are even getting wildly creative by mixing quality metrics into a competitive game of “baseball.”
“For one month every year, run a ‘baseball’ competition where advisors are able to gain home runs or runs based on their quality scores,” one contact center manager told the UK site CallCentreHelper. “At the end of the month, the advisor with the most can either be rewarded with tickets to a local baseball game, or a gift card – if baseball is not their thing.”
The trick to building a fun environment in the contact center is to recognize that agents will have a variety of different personality types, and some may not be motivated (and indeed, might be distracted by) the games, or simply not wish to play. Requiring participation can have the opposite effect that the games intended – to build cohesion and lighten up the atmosphere.
For those willing to participate, however, games can be a way to help ensure that a difficult job is just a bit more fun.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
