Training Games & Activities 
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The following activities provide some ideas to promote customer service and team development. Use the activities in your next team meeting or let the content inspire you to create a new activity.
T.E.A.M. = To Embrace and Accept All Members
Never Say No
There are times when we are not able to solve a customer need exactly as they wish, however those who are excellent customer service ambassadors have a toolkit of phrases they can use instead of the word “no”. No is a trigger word and can evoke negative customer emotions. It can leave a customer feeling there are no options.
Divide your team into groups and set a time limit for the activity. The task is to come up with as many different ways to say “no” without using the word itself. Groups list their ideas on a flip chart. Present the lists and cross off any words/phrases that could leave a negative impression with customers. The team with the greatest number of positive new words/phrases wins (make it a competition with a fun prize for the winning team). Take the final list, type it up and post it to support your customer service representatives in applying their learning.
The Extra Mile Wall
Designate a space in your work environment to become the extra mile wall. Post newsprint across the wall (or alternatively use index cards and tape). Every time someone goes the extra mile with a customer (internal or external), write down what they did and post it (or write it) on the wall. After a specified period of time, spend time reading through all of the examples of excellent customer service provided. To make it more fun, host a party while you read the examples.
Mystery Shopper
This activity can be done with a competitor or employees can choose to use any place of business where they are customers. Create a list of customer service behaviours, performance measures or philosophies your team believes are important (engage your team in the activity by enabling them to come up with the list). Some topic areas might include: how you answer the phone or greet the customer, how you transfer a caller or put them on hold, how you solve problems, material ordering processes, etc. Employees now become mystery shoppers and engage in a customer service interaction where they are the customers. During (or after) this interaction, they are to evaluate their experience based on the criteria you set out as a team. Regroup during a team meeting and share the results of their experiences.
Debrief:
How would our level of service compare to what you experienced as a mystery shopper?
What does the other place of business do well, which we could incorporate?
What do we currently do well, which we need to celebrate?
How do you think our customers feel about their experience with us?
Radically Different Service
This activity can be used after the mystery shopper, or on its own. Identify to your team that the mission is to come up with ideas for service that would radically differentiate your company from everyone else (i.e., “If you could do anything, what would you do?”). Enable the rules of brainstorming – every idea is valid. Capture ideas on flip chart. Review your list and determine what strategies you want to implement. Debrief the learning: differentiation creates loyalty. We don’t want to follow the path everyone else is taking, or strive to catch up. Successful people and companies are willing to think radically different and take calculated risks to be leaders.
What Is Customer Service?
Divide into small groups or partners. The objective is to create as many different phrases to complete the sentence “customer service is”. Regroup and share ideas. Count the total number of different phrases. Reiterate that customer service is not just one skill, attitude or behaviour, but many different things. Share with the group the definitions of:
Customer = “one that buys goods or services”
Service = “work or duties performed for a superior”, “the occupation or duties of a servant”
“Work done for others as an occupation or a business”
“An act of assistance or benefit to another or others; a favour”
Take the activity one step further and define what customer service means for your organization/team. Post results in your workspace to remind employees.
Active Listening
For this activity you will need the script of a play (something from Shakespeare works well). Randomly select a section. During your team meeting, ask for two volunteers. One volunteer will have the script and will read out exactly what is identified for his part (he is the customer). The job of the second volunteer is that of a customer service representative. She does not refer to the script, but must actively listen to what is being said and respond as if it is a customer service situation (i.e., the customer has a need, problem, complaint, etc). This is a fun activity to practice active listening and spontaneous communication skills, as the “customer” is going to be saying very odd things.
It’s Not Just An M&M
Divide into small groups, providing each group with a bag of M&Ms. Instruct groups not to open their bags. Ask them: “Does everyone’s bag look the same on the outside”? They should respond “yes”. Groups can now open their bags and spill out the contents. Their objective is to identify on flip chart paper as many similarities and differences between the M&Ms in their bags as they can. Regroup and share the ideas. Identify that the M&Ms represent your customers. Divide into two groups. One group is to consider ideas generated in similarities and strategies to employ relating to areas where you want to be providing consistent customer service. The other group explores the list of differences and creates strategies to employ related to areas where you want to be differentiating service to your customers. Regroup, share and eat the M&Ms.
Learning: There are areas where consistent experiences are important to the customer experience. We don’t want to treat every customer the same all of the time, as customers need to feel like they are unique and valued as individuals.
Alphabet Strategies
Use this as a fast-moving, round-table exercise. Define the objective: strategies to meet and/or exceed customer expectations. The first person’s strategy needs to start with the letter “A”, the second person with the letter “B”, etc. Continue until you have a strategy for every letter of the alphabet. Capture the ideas on flip chart.
If You Could Do Anything
In advance, create a list of commonly experienced customer problems. During a team meeting, divide into small groups, providing each group with one of the problems. Their objective is to come up with as many solutions as possible to fix the root cause of the problem. Regroup and share solutions. Identify which problems you can apply real solutions to and create an action plan (who, what, how and by when).
Team Standards
Post flip charts around the room with the following headings:
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How we will solve problems
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How we will ensure information is shared
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How we will make decisions
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How we will deal with conflict
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How we will support each other and new members
Provide each person with a marker and 5-8 minutes to move around to each flip chart and brainstorm possible strategies. Regroup and review. Each participant votes for his or her top strategy from each flip chart. Regroup and identify how they have used a divergent and convergent thought process to create team standards. Use the top voted strategies as your team charter. Type, frame and post your team norms.
Your Dreams Come True
Divide the team into groups. Tell them their dreams have come true. Their assignment is to analyze the current work environment and create recommendations and strategies to create the ideal work environment (note, you can choose the topic area based on your team – morale and recognition, work space design, processes/policies, customer service, etc.). Allow your team to think outside of the box by not providing any rules or limitations. Give them a time frame to complete their project. Regroup, present ideas and determine how, when and what you will implement.
If you want to enhance critical thinking skills, take this activity one step further. Before their dreams can come true, teams need to revisit their ideas and for each one, identify strengths, barriers/limitations, risks and requirements. The outcome for each strategy is an analysis of which will provide the greatest benefits with the fewest barriers.
Stepping Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Sometimes we get stuck doing things the same way and are not able to experience the possible by stepping out of our comfort zone. During a training session, provide each person with index cards/slips of paper. Encourage them to write as many specific ways they could step out of their comfort zone. You may want to provide some topic areas to get creative thinking started, related to skills and/or behaviours you want to encourage on your team. Examples might include: cross selling, value selling, public speaking, problem solving, etc. Place all the slips of paper in a box, noting that the box represents our comfort zone. Once per week, each person selects a slip of paper randomly out of the box. They are to perform what is on that slip of paper at least once throughout the week. The next time your team meets, ask each person to share his or her experience. Continue with this activity for as long as you need to begin seeing some of these new out of the box skills becoming second nature.
Who’s Done That?
High performing teams invest in learning about each other as individuals so they have a better understanding of strengths, experiences, interests and even areas of challenge. This is a fast activity that can be used as an icebreaker for your training or meeting event or as part of a team building session. Outside of a formal event, try having a fun competition by providing each member of the team with a copy and instruct them to identify as many different people for each item, the first person complete with the most names (and at least one item listed for each team member) wins a fun prize. Debrief the activity by sharing the learning!
Here are some ideas around items to ask:
Developed a website
Is or has been part of a formal public speaking association or club (i.e., Toastmasters)
Has presented in front of a group larger than 20
Has been published
Has travelled to more than 3 foreign countries
Is involved in some type of extreme sport
Prefers working with details
Prefers visionary work
Prefers working with people and feelings
Prefers data and numbers
Is currently involved in some form of post-secondary education
Knows how to juggle
Speaks more than 2 languages
Likes to deal with conflict head-on (positively)
Likes to avoid conflict and hope it goes away
Has programmed a database
Plays a musical instrument
Has lived outside of North America
Has a unique hobby
Is an outdoors enthusiast
Describe What You Do
To differentiate your company based on service, frontline individuals need to recognize the importance of their attitude and behaviour on the customer experience. Employees need to feel like their role contributes and has significance. One quick way to begin reinforcing this is to ask the question:
“Describe what you do without using a job title or function.”
The idea is to have employees use language, which describes contribution. The positive, powerful language translates into positive, powerful attitudes resulting in a value-added customer experience. Here’s an example to illustrate:
I am a facilitator/trainer and presenter. I could describe my job using these titles. Alternatively, I could say my role is to provide opportunities for people to develop their skills and be their personal best. I do this through training or presenting, however the second description better illustrates significance and contribution – it is in fact related to my passion and definition of success.
Using affirmative language will support your employees in seeing what they do as more than “just a job”. If your employees haven’t thought about their roles in this way before, continue reinforcing this type of language and use opportunities to demonstrate and affirm significance – it will become part of your culture.
Group Think
Use the activity to support team decision-making and the importance of using others to come up with creative solutions. There are two different methods you can use to facilitate this activity.
Round-table
- Provide each person with an index card. At the top of the card, write down one work-related problem, for which they would like some new solutions.
- Rotate the cards. Each person reads the problem on the card (and any solutions already written down), adding a new solution.
- When the card is returned to its “owner”, provide 1-2 minutes to read through the solutions.
Debrief the activity: Did anyone receive any new solutions they had not thought of? Ideas they can spin off of? What is the value of using others to come up with solutions? How can we as a team apply groupthink to common situations we experience?
Post a problem
- Prior to a meeting, provide each person with a number of index cards. Their task is to write one problem currently experienced on each of their cards.
- At the start of your meeting, post all of the problems on a wall.
- Randomly select the problems and use creative brainstorming to come up as many different solutions as possible. Alternatively if you have a large group, divide into small teams and provide each team with a different problem. Regroup and share solutions.
Ice Breakers
Start your next meetings with the brilliant talent of your team. Identify that each person needs to come up with and facilitate one ice breaker (you may choose to facilitate these over the course of a number of meetings). You might choose to select a topic area; unleashing creativity, getting to know each other, etc.
The Common Loonie
In advance of this activity, take time to look at the front and back of a Loonie (or some other commonly used money denomination) and write down all of the characteristics (i.e., shape, size, details, etc.). During your team meeting, provide each person with a piece of paper and identify they are to come up with as many characteristics as they can. Review your list of characteristics and see how many they were able to identify.
Debrief:
The denomination of money was selected based on how common it is. How often do we go about our day in a routine (common) way, missing the details?
Money is of value. How often do we forget to pay attention to the talents of our peers? How often do we form preconceived judgements about our peers or our customers without seeking out their value?
What lessons can we learn from the common Loonie?
