Fun Ideas for Call Center Training

Working at a call center isn't exactly a day at the beach, but contests can make it more enjoyable.phone_call image by JulianMay.co.uk from Fotolia.com

Improving performance in a call center is an ongoing process. Employees can learn the skills needed during training, but once they are on the phones, they find that additional skills must be developed. Reward employees and teams that continue to learn while working at the call center and share their information with each other. Provide incentives both for individual and team improvement at the call center.

Poker Games

Set challenges for short time periods throughout the day. These challenges can include answering or making a certain number of calls within a 30-minute time period. It can also include awarding an employee for each call over a specified time length. When these goals are met, give each employee that meets the goal a playing card from a standard deck of playing cards. Multiple decks may need to be used to provide enough cards. At the end of the day, award a prize to the employee that can form the best poker hand from his playing cards.

Monitor the phone calls that are made by your employees in the call center. If the calls are recorded, this will make it easy to review them. Allow each employee to nominate one of his own calls as the "Call of the Week." The managers then review the calls and choose a winner. This call is played for everyone in the call center to listen to. The managers review why it was a good call and point out the skills that the employee displayed that should be used in future calls.

Managers should not just be supervising their employees; they should demonstrate the skills that are needed as well. To do this, choose a day each week for the managers to participate on the phones. Employees can observe their managers and listen in to see how their managers handle challenging phone calls.

Volume is measured in a call center environment, but it's not the only key for success. Helping the customer is a key concept as well. Keep statistics on how often each call center employee solves the customer's problem. Provide awards for those that have the highest resolution percentage at the end of the week. Prizes can include gift cards for local restaurants or possibly a half day off added to the employee's vacation balance. The employee that wins should provide three tips for solving a customer's issues when accepting the prize.

While individuals are important in a call center, the overall production of the center needs to remain high. To encourage employees to work together in sharing skills and techniques, set goals for the entire center. Announce that if the center meets the goals for a week or month, the employees will either get lunch or dinner provided by the company. Meals can be ordered to be delivered to the office. In the case of meeting a special challenge such as a monthly challenge, a company dinner at a restaurant can serve as extra motivation.