I am the IT Mgr and this is pretty foreign to me, but I am trying to help the supervisors encourage the staff (in line with our client's expectations). The client was looking for a game type atmosphere (like football or baseball).

The supervisor is trying but he has no flare for this. he bought what look like black and silver dead trees and put them on the agent desks. It looks more like a Halloween setting than anything.

Any recommendations for sports related games to play with a Sales team? Preferably with common party supplies. :)

Thanks!
Marianne

Mmmm interesting post.

I dont know about flair but it sounds like your supervisor has a limited knowledge of the issues surrounding motivation given her/his solution.

I think you might find some solutions and further background reading on this CCV link.


http://www.callcentrevoice.com/ccv/ccvthread.asp?forumid=11&threadid=18#6181

Whilst a game oriented approach is commendable this is often the way to enhance teamwork and morale and not necessarily motivation.

You mention you are " trying to help the supervisors encourage the staff (in line with our client's expectations). "

Encouragement is a significant part of coaching and mentoring. I'm not really sure what your client is getting at. Do they want more motivated staff or more competitive staff ? If motivation is the case, an individualistic approach and perhaps coaching and mentoring may be your solution. Games and activities do not inspire or motivate all staff and can frequently demotivate more pragmatic staff who may find them silly, irrelevant and lacking in personal reward/value for them.

IMHO Sales teams often relate well to financial incentives, targets and individual goals that have meaning for the recipient.

Its a difficult nut to implement and I do empathise, I've often had to work with clients who wish to transfer their culture.

Marianne,

I've got to know and it's not just idle curiosity.

How the H*ll did you get involved with this?

I know it's the kind of thing I end up doing but
I thought you had more sense than that ;-)

DaveA

It's a Value Added Service...I work as IT Manager, Programmer, Telecom person, supervisor, script writer, recruiter, security, maintenance and physiciatrist. I've been here for 4 years, so I have learned to do a bit of everything. :)

We actually have enough people here now that I really shouldn't have to do this, but sometimes I still get involved.

Marianne

Hi!

Without wanting to get into the trap of prescribing a universal solution, in the distance mode - let me start by asking you a few questions that should set you thinking.

How many people work in your call centre?

How large is the room?

Is the room set up classroom style or otherwise?

Let me give you a clue to munch on. What you are looking at is to enable your team to enjoy their work.

There is a greater joy in an unknown - with a gift attached to it (not to be confused with incentives etc.)

The idea is to create situations of interaction, with an element of the unknown a-la riddle zone.

When every body is present and knows each other ( getting them to know each other is important).

As a designer of what would work it gets a little difficult beyond this point without the specific information is like to delivering a talk in a dark room extempore on a topic that changes as the talk progresses.

Give me the specifics and together we could come up with simple do it yourself tricks.

If you are the IT manager of a 200+ seater then it is best to get somebody to do it for you.

All the best and do keep updating.

Mahidhar

See if these would help! [Thu, 17 Jul 2003 6:19pm]

Hi!

Without wanting to get into the trap of prescribing a universal solution, in the distance mode - let me start by asking you a few questions that should set you thinking.

How many people work in your call centre?

How large is the room?

Is the room set up classroom style or otherwise?

Let me give you a clue to munch on. What you are looking at is to enable your team to enjoy their work.

There is a greater joy in an unknown - with a gift attached to it (not to be confused with incentives etc.)

The idea is to create situations of interaction, with an element of the unknown a-la riddle zone.

When every body is present and knows each other ( getting them to know each other is important).

As a designer of what would work it gets a little difficult beyond this point without the specific information. It is like delivering a talk in a dark room extempore on a topic that changes as the talk progresses.

Give me the specifics and together we could come up with simple do it yourself tricks.

If you are the IT manager of a 200+ seater then it is best to get somebody to do it for you.

All the best and do keep updating.

Mahidhar

Yes, there are about 300 seats between our 2 centers. So I have pretty much backed out of the process. I am just planning on forwarding any ideas you guys give me to the supervisor.

There are 150 agents in the room. Only 30 are on this project though. And that is one consideration...we can't do balloon pops or anything terribly noisy since the other accounts in teh room are tech supp and customer service.

The center is setup in sets of 12 facing cubes (like: |-|-|-|-|-|-|) with a supervisor on the end cap.

They have now divided the group into 3 sets of 10, taking 3 words of the clients name for the team names. They have mixed new and old agents so that the older agents can mentor the newer one.

They are having the teams compete for a special luncheon or outing each month.

There are other monetary individual incentives of course.

A few years ago, I ran a 'Wheel of Fortune' incentive with the staff (about 200 seats). It was a bit naff, but they really enjoyed it.

The key though was I asked them what they wanted (a rep from each team) and this is what we developed together. And I cannot recommend ths collaborative approach enough. Although it takes a bit longer to set up, it is so worth it for staff buy in!

Each Community (cluster of teams) had an incentives wheel. We would give them a short target (eg highest conversion over next two hours) and the winner would get to spin the wheel.

Some of the prizes were really good ones (obviously will depend on your budget) and were crossed off the wheel when won, and most were smaller. Some were things like where call centre manager to serve tea and cakes, half day time off in lieu, lunch from local deli etc. But again, I gave the staff the budget and asked how they wanted to break it down (more big prizes, or smaller prizes for maore people)

Depends very much on your environment and culture, but hope this helps! (and feel free to let me know if you want any further details)

Cheers

Z

Hi!

Marianne - in this reply I am assuming that you continue to take the interest in halping your Team Managers to make life more interesting for their teams, and translate it into results.

Only Thirty members on this team, with the thirty having been split into three teams, of Ten Each.

Assumptions:

1) They work in one shift- the same shift.

2) They work on inbound - presumably Tech support.

3) The nature of work they handle is relatively different from the other people in the room.

4) The average call rate handled by each of the Members is between 2 to 4 to may be six

5) The wait time between calls exists.

Please confirm these issues.

Let me assure you that this picture is presented out of a situation visualised.

I would be happy if the picture presented above is right, for my read of the scenario - but the primary objective of these statements is to make answering the queries interesting.

Have a nice time

Mahidhar

Is Outbound Preview Dialer B2B Sales. Pretty much all the same shift, 30 people. About 45 calls are made per hour.

Marianne

Thanks! Marianne.

Now that you have specified the requirements it makes the it easier to respond with reference to the picture as presented by you.

There are a few ideas that have been tried - and I am sure you must have also tried a few from your side.

The key factors that would require attention are finding someone to assign this assignment to - "Anybody that volunteers can take up the task", appears to be the method by default and while it is fun a few times, doing it consistently needs to be internalised.

Please check your mail Monday, for a few suggestions.

One of the suggestions is that this job is handed over to the team members by rotation, now that your specs are in place, and stay away but available.

Hey Marianne,

As far as your Motivational Team Manager is concerned, you could have a list of incentive games a mile long, but if he isn't the sort of person with the flare to host them, then they won't work! (A bit like when your Dad tries to talk to you about your type of music; it's just not right somehow!)
Also, if the same game is played consistently, then it will become redundant.

I've always found that the trick is to take simple games and perform them well, as opposed to a strong game and make it a cheesy, cringe-worthy, mess!

For example, going on the basis that the main pro's and con's of incentives and motivation are that financial incentives are ususally the best (But not always available), there are always some people that are stronger sellers than others, and thus keep getting the top prizes, and that you reach a certain point in the shift where the odds of reaching the desired target aren't going to happen, thus you mentally give up and try again the next day (Thus not making full use of the final hours calling, say); you need to take a simple premise that combats all these and make it interesting!

One suggestion would be a game I designed to co-incide with the Olympics. I dividied the team up into 2 teams (Calling them Team Russia and Team UK) consisting of strong and not so strong sellers, and set a team prize. At the end of the first hour, the team with the most sales would get to log off and watch me do an Olympic lap around the building whilst the other team had to keep making calls. At the end of the second hour, the team with the most sales in the second hour (Not cumulative otherwise the losing team in the first hour would be at an instant disadvantage and thus give up) would get to log off and watch me try to Olympic long jump the road outside the call centre, etc.

This played to the above weaknesses in that it required no money, yet still gave the agents a common incentive (i.e have a laugh at me!); it was something the weaker agents had a shot at achieving (Because it was team based) and also as the scores were reset at each hour, there was still everyting to play for towards the end of the shift, without throwing in the towel.

I can provide and dream up a host of fun motivational games to overcome the limitaions and difficulties faced (Please contact me if your interested) as the trick is to take something simple and make it work, however, should your man lack flare, then it may not have the desired effect.

And for anyone wondering, I failed to make the jump; but I am in training for the 2004 Olympics, and promise to keep you posted!

Paul - thank you for sharing that with us. You certainly made me smile this morning! Please, please keep us posted on your training :)

Lindsay

Hello, I am the supervisor of a 20 person outbound sales team. They will all be in the same general area on the call floor with cubicle like so

|-|-|-|-|-| =10 agents

|-|-|-|-|-| =10 agents

They dial four hours each night and eight on Saturday to residentila customers. I have beed trying to find some more games to keep their spirits up that don't cost any $$$$. In the past We have played hangman, also a sort of survivor game, where as the winners get extra time on their breaks or maybe their lunch paid for on Saturday. Do you know of any not so loud but still motivating games that we can conduct.

Mark, There are an excellent selection of books available of you search Amazon.

use the headings;



Subjects > Business, Finance & Law > Management > Human Resources > Training

-----------------------------------------------------------

Then either do a search on "games" or "motivation".

Theres a great selection and even some call centres specific ones.

It really is a question of finding which games appeal to differing staff, 'one size/type of game' does not suit all, the secret is to vary it and the rewards considerably.

Good luck

Hi Mark,

The books, etc that Closed is recommending will surely have loads of games, but in the meantime, here's one I made earlier!

Do a varation on Cluedo! (I call it No Clue-Doh!)

In the gap between the two bays, draw a large Cluedo style board.

Everytime an agent gets a sale (Or whatever the target is) they get to move one square. Once they get into a room, they can make a guess, if they get it right, they get the prize!

Simple enough, but the benefits are that it takes a few sales to actually get to a room (Depending on how many squares you put on the board) plus, they probably won't get it right on their first guess, so it will be a game that lasts a while.

Secondly, it appeals to both strong agents and not so strong agents, as the person with the most sales, is not necessarily going to to get the right answer, whereas someone with only a few may get it right (But they still need to get the sales to guess!)

Thirdly, as the game goes on, people start to think they have sussed it and know the answer, but the only way they can lobby their guess, is by getting sales to do so, thus a boost comes, exactly when it is needed most, mid-shift!

I hope that it works for you if you try it, I've always found it to work for me!

See Ya,
Paul

Staff at a DIY superstore are fuming over an idea from management which says instead of greeting staff and customers with the usual "good morning", they should address each other with a 1976 song from The Muppet Show.
In an idea straight out of the hit BBC comedy series The Office, staff in new B&Q store in Scotland have been told to say "mahna mahna".
Managers claim the new-style greeting would improve morale, adding, that on hearing the first line, the staff would be encouraged to reply with the chorus, which continues: "Do doo be-do-do".

B&Q management have backed the idea.

But the motivational stunt, dreamed up at a management brain-storming session, has backfired - with some staff now threatening to quit.
One member of staff, explained: "East Kilbride managers were at a training day when it was announced they would replace good morning with 'mahna mahna'.
"The staff had just returned from lunch and all the managers were in a training room, sitting in a semi-circle and looking really pleased with themselves.
"Then one of them blurted out 'Mahna Mahna' at us without warning. We just stared blankly back at them.
Vote Now

"Then another manager repeated the phrase, and asked what our first reaction was when we heard it. When someone mumbled back 'do doo be-do-do', they all burst out laughing and were nodding at each other, saying, 'Told you so'."
The staff member added: "It was later announced that staff in the East Kilbride store will be asked to say 'Mahna Mahna' instead of good morning when the shop opens.
"The new East Kilbride store is not due to open for a few months and the managers there want to get one over the other shops. They seem to think that they are all really crazy and wacky, but no-one else does.
"Some existing staff in other stores are refusing to transfer to East Kilbride if this is the sort of thing they are expected to do."
A B&Q spokesman confirmed that the DIY giant encourages managers to dream up off-the-wall ideas to motivate staff.
The spokesman said: "It is common practice for all our new B&Q warehouses that the managers get together prior to the opening for brain-storming sessions.
"At these sessions, ways of making B&Q a fun place to work are developed.
"An ice-breaker, such as a different way to say good morning is a great way to energise staff first thing and get everyone working together as a team."

Its off to Homebase for me then....

As long as I can do the Swedish Chef shotgun skit I'm in...

Oh come on people. Who Hasn't wanted to do that ay some point!!!

DaveA