When you think about the top priorities in your facility, call center games are probably not one of the first things to spring to mind. There is no doubt that keeping customers satisfied is a priority for all call center managers. However, your agents’ satisfaction levels also play a crucial role as these are directly related to the quality of the service provided by your specialists. This is the reason why many call center administrators look for creative ways to motivate their agents and shake up the routine.
At Autopilot Reviews, we help call centers monitor agent performance by collecting feedback from customers in real-time and sharing it right away with representatives. Our team understands the impact that agent motivation and overall satisfaction levels have on every call center’s overall performance. So, we’ve put together a list of 25 fun call center games that can help you shake up the routine, build a closer team, and help your agents stay energetic.
Why Should You Organize Call Center Games for Your Agents?
Before going any further, let’s discuss the point of organizing games for your agents.
Unmotivated agents that don’t feel appreciated tend to have below-average performance in terms of quality and productivity metrics.
Call center games can help keep agents engaged and allow them to take their minds off the repetitive tasks they perform in a controlled manner. This, in turn, can help your agents stay fresh and give them a fun element to look forward to.
25 Fun Call Center Games to Shake-Up the Routine
You can achieve many goals by implementing games in your call center, but you need to choose the right activities to get the best results.
Before selecting activities, you have to get to know your employees and figure out what areas need improvement. For example, if you feel like your agents could benefit from forming strong bonds, you should focus on call center team-building games.
With the above in mind, here are 25 call center games to keep your agents engaged. Note that some of these are designed not to have a winner. But, if you want to create a competition and reward system you can create teams, keep score, and hand out awards at the end.
1. Yes, and…
The point of the “Yes, and…” game is to instill the “don’t deny” principle into your agent’s professional identity in a fun way.
What You Need
This game takes 2 to 5 minutes per round and requires two people.
How to Play
The idea is to teach agents how to listen and build on what the last person said. So, ask the first agent to start a story with a sentence, then the second agent has to say “yes, and…” in order to build on the original phrase with a new thought. Make sure to ask agents to think about scenarios outside of work in order to infuse some fun into it!
2. Never Say Never
The Never Say Never game can encourage your agents to get to know each other while also teaching them a crucial call center skill through these call center games: learning to deny requests without doing it abruptly.
What You Need
Name tags and markets, if your agents don’t know each other all that well.
How to Play
Each agent should think about three requests, which can be realistic or unrealistic. Then, choose an agent at random and have this person call out the name of another player. The player who was called upon needs to make one of the three requests that he or she thought about. The person who called the name now needs to deny the request without using “no” in his or her response.
3. Customer Service Bingo
Bingo is a dynamic game that can be played in a huge variety of settings, including call centers.
What You Need
You have to take some time before the game to create two bingo cards for each player, which should be divided into nine equal sections. Note that you can either create these manually or download them from the internet. Players also need a pen or stamp in order to mark their cards.
How to Play
First, you have to fill in the two bingo cards, one with behaviors that you want agents to stop and one with phrases that you want them to use more often. Then, make them listen to their own calls in random order and instruct them to mark a behavior or phrase whenever they hear it in the recording. Whenever an agent completes his or her card, this person has to say “bingo” out loud to win the round.
4. Monopoly
Monopoly is a classic board game, but call centers can create their own simplified version to keep their agents entertained.
What You Need
A custom-made Monopoly board (can be drawn on a large sheet of paper or whiteboard), paper cutouts to identify each team (can be traditional Monopoly characters or new ones), colorful bills to act as money (can be found online), pen, paper, and two dice. Your custom Monopoly board should include a “go to jail”, “community chest”, and “go” squares as well.
How to Play
Bundle your agents into teams and give each one a name and character. Then, create a set of actions and KPIs you want your agents to take and achieve.
Every time an agent reaches a KPI or completes an action on the list, award them a turn on the Monopoly board. At the end of each day, let the teams out 10 minutes early and let each one play its turns.
The game itself works like regular Monopoly, with the exception of houses. After buying properties, encourage agents to hoard as many fictional bills as possible and let them exchange these funds for real prizes. You can reset the game every two or four weeks and recreate the teams to keep it interesting.
5. Conversion Simulation
You may need a little help from your IT team, but this game is both entertaining and informative.
What You Need
This game requires a digital simulation, so you need to work with your technology departments in order to develop a platform that mimics your customer behavior. Note that this doesn’t have to be complex, a simple multiple-choice format dialogue simulator should be more than enough to do the trick. Remember, agents should be able to access the simulation directly from their stations or from the training room.
How to Play
This game can be played by all your agents at the same time. Agents have to go through different scenarios and choose the right answers. Some of the scenarios include closing a sale, calming down an irate customer, and submitting another type of request.
6. Role-Playing Call Center Games
Role-playing is a traditional call center activity that’s often left for training and feedback sessions. That said, this can also be transformed into an awesome game!
What You Need
Two teams, one to play customers and the other one to play agents. Customers should be given instructions on the scenarios that need to be created for the agents to solve.
How to Play
The goal is to simulate complex interactions between agents and customers while also sprinkling in a bit of humor. So, you should ask the players who are acting as customers to do certain things, like pretend to be angry or upset about something on the phone. The agents should be able to de-escalate the situation and simulate the right steps (like placing the customer on hold when necessary) without breaking character at any point.
7. Charades
Charades is another traditional game that’s suitable for dinner parties, birthday bashes, and call center motivation sessions.
What You Need
Small pieces of paper for players to write down different things, actions, or scenarios. The most common rule is to choose books, movies, and pop culture songs. Each piece of paper should then be folded and put into a bowl, hat, or similar container.
How to Play
Create two teams and ask each one to send out a representative. Each representative draws a piece of paper from the container without looking. Then, this player needs to act out the phrase on the piece of paper without using words or spelling the word with gestures. Give each representative a time limit (30 to 60 seconds), after which the opposing team has a chance to steal the point. If no one gets the point, the piece of paper is discarded and the next team is given a turn.
8. Name that Celebrity
If you don’t have a huge amount of time to prepare but still want to give your team a fun experience, name that celebrity may just be the best game for you.
What You Need
A printed photograph of a known celebrity and the smallest post-it notes in your call center.
How to Play
Stick the photo of your celebrity of choice on a wall or poster board before your agents come in. Cover the image with post-its and carefully number each square before putting them on. Whenever an agent makes a sale or achieves another goal, let this person choose a post-it and remove it from the photo.
Then, that person has the chance to guess who the celebrity is. The first person to guess right wins!
9. Scavenger Hunts
Scavenger hunts are not only fun, but they can also help your agents see the value of teamwork.
What You Need
Printed images of random things, these can be animals, objects, or even famous people. You also need to divide your agents into two or more teams. Keep in mind that you’ll need to create a set of printed images for each team.
How to Play
Create a scavenger hunt course for each team, place the images in strategic places through your call centers, and come up with a clue for the location of each one. Whenever an agent completes a sale or another type of goal, give his or her team a clue. Give agents a few minutes at the start and end of their shifts to look for the images. The first team to complete the entire scavenger hunt wins a prize.
10. Tailored Olympic Call Center Games
If you feel like one activity is not enough to motivate your agents, then creating a tailored version of the Olympic Games may be your best alternative.
What You Need
Pen and paper to keep score, as well as any other supplies necessary for the games you’ve selected.
How to Play
Choose a selection of games (can be a combination taken from this list!) and set dates for the different events on your team calendar. Create different teams, let them choose a name, and create a scoreboard to track each event as well as the overall score. The team with the most wins (gold medals) wins the Olympic Games. You can also create second and third place awards to have a real podium at the end.
11. Jenga
Unlike traditional board games, Jenga is a lively activity that requires at least two players.
What You Need
A Jenga set.
How to Play
This game can be played either in teams or by individual players. Create a Jenga tower and only let players take out a block whenever they get a sale or complete another wanted action. Give each player or team a point for each block taken out successfully, but don’t deduct points when the tower falls. The team or player with the most points at the end of each day wins the prize.
12. Build the Perfect Product
This game is another traditional activity during training because it promotes teamwork while also helping agents get to know each other.
What You Need
Craft and art supplies like large paper sheets, markers in at least 5 different colors, and glue sticks.
How to Play
Separate players into teams and give each team a kit of supplies. All teams should have the same supplies and amount of time to complete the task.
The goal is to ask each team to come up with a product prototype (can be a new or existing device) and a list of its features. Instruct them to ignore any technological and other limitations, the product can be completely fictional if so desired. Each team then gets 5 minutes to present their product, its features, and why it should be adopted by everyone.
To make this game competitive, you can create a panel of judges (supervisors and other management leaders usually do a good job here) to grade each prototype and name a winner at the end.
13. Office Escape Room
Escape rooms are becoming extremely popular because they are not only fun, but also require sharp critical thinking skills.
What You Need
Rather than recreating a whole escape room, all you need to have is a piece of paper and a pencil to write down a scenario that each team needs to solve. That said, you also have the option of working with an escape room service provider and giving your team the real experience.
How to Play
In the call center version of this game, agents have to be divided into teams. Each team will be given a fictional description of a room and players need to figure out where the spare key is using the clues given by the game moderator. The team that figured out where the key is first is the winner.
14. Stop!
The stop game is a great way to teach new concepts while also helping new agents break the ice with their teams.
What You Need
A piece of paper and a pen for each player.
How to Play
Your agents should create a table with at least five rows and five columns on their pieces of paper. At the top of each column, they should write a category, which can be last name, occupation, fruit, thing, and verb.
The goal is to select a letter and ask players to come up with one word in each category that starts with the letter you selected. Players should do this as quickly as possible, and the first one to complete the five categories should say “stop” out loud.
When this happens, all players should put their pen down and the person who finished first should read out his or her selections for each category. Every player gets 10 points for each correct selection even if they didn’t finish all categories. However, players that have the same name in one or more categories should only be awarded 5 points for each right answer. The player that has the most points at the end is the winner.
15. GPS Hunts
GPS hunts are similar to scavenger hunts, but they have an innovative element that makes them even more entertaining for agents.
What You Need
A GPS-enabled device for each team, like a tablet or smartphone.
How to Play
This game follows the same principle as a scavenger hunt. But, instead of giving teams a clue whenever one of their agents achieves a wanted action, each group receives a set of coordinates. Players have to then go to these coordinates (make sure they are within your facility!), find a clue, and complete the hunt gradually.
16. Agent Racing
Agent racing is an extremely fun game that’s perfect for motivating sales teams.
What You Need
Large sheets of paper to create a paper racetrack on a large wall or whiteboard.
How to Play
You should create a paper race track that has distance markers. The markers should have the same amount of distance between each one and you can label these with fictional distance tags (like 500 meters).
Create a paper cutout or print a photo of each agent and place them at the starting line of the paper race track. Whenever an agent completes a sale or similar action, move their cutout or picture to the next marker.
You can even design it so that certain actions move your agents’ markers further along in order to give some interactions a higher value. The first agent to make it across the finish line wins the prize.
17. Call Center Poker
Poker is one of the most popular games in the world, so don’t be afraid to leverage its engagement potential and motivate agents with it.
What You Need
A deck of 52 cards and a printout with the rules of poker for people who are not familiar.
How to Play
This is a simplified version of poker where the dealer gives four cards and then players show their hands as soon as they each have enough cards. Give each player a card whenever they achieve a positive action like completing a sale or preventing a cancelation. When all players have enough cards, ask them to show their hands. The player with the best hand wins.
18. The Beach Ball Raffle
This is the only game that’s decided by chance rather than skill, but it’s still an awesome way to boost agent morale.
What You Need
A beach ball, plus pen and paper to create small raffle stubs.
How to Play
Grab your medium-sized beach ball and throw it to the first person to complete a sale or similar goal. Whenever another player completes a wanted action, the last winner needs to throw him or her the beach ball. At the end of the day, each person gets a raffle stub for every time the ball was thrown to them. The winner of the raffle is decided at random.
19. Eye Spy
Eye spy is not only an activity that’s perfect for long drives, it’s also one of the best call center games to keep your agents energetic.
What You Need
Pen and paper to keep track of the winners.
How to Play
Create a set of things in your office that your agents won’t guess easily. Then, break up your agents into teams. Give each team the same clue by saying “I spy with my little eye…” and following up with the color and a simple description of the item. Each time a team member makes a sale or achieves a goal, the team gets to make a guess. The team that guesses the item first wins.
20. Bubble Races
Bubble-blowing is a fun activity for kids, but you can infuse this with a competitive feel by organizing bubble races for your team.
What You Need
Bubble liquid, or a mixture of liquid soap and water. You’ll also need a bubble-blowing wand (the stick with the loop on one side).
How to Play
The goal is simple. Agents compete to see who can blow a bubble furthest in terms of distance. You can also create teams and make each team send out a different representative each round. This game can be played just for fun or you can make it so that teams only get a turn whenever they complete a sale or similar interaction.
From 21 to 25 Call Center Games: All About Fun!
Our first 20 picks in this list were all about having fun while team-building or sharpening your agents’ skills.
But, it’s also good to give your agents the chance to play for fun and help them relax. So, for numbers 21 through 25, we’ve put together a shortlist of activities that don’t necessarily have a goal, except for helping your representatives have a little fun.
Here are our selections:
21. Battleships
22. Musical chairs
23. Jeopardy
24. Hangman
25. Call center sports leagues (football, basketball, table tennis, etc.)
Looking for More Ways to Incentivize Your Call Center Work?
Improving call center performance requires motivated agents, but managers can go beyond entertaining activities to improve representative satisfaction.
At Autopilot Reviews, our goal is to help improve agent performance by collecting feedback right after each interaction and sending these comments to representatives in real-time. Interested in learning more about our platform? Contact us today and we’ll be glad to help!
