Friday 20 June 2008

Motive and Train Your Customer Service Team

Looking for an easy way to reinvigorate your customer service teams?

I have found a great product perfect for training new staff and reenergising current staff. Gamethingy have designed a training game for customer service staff. The game focuses on all of the key areas which are vital to any organisation. Competition is tough and customers demand great service at every interaction they have with every organisation. Regular training for customer service teams is crucial to ensuring we meet those demands.

Time for training can often be limited so we play the customer service training game in short bursts of one hour. The customer service training game can be played over and over again. participants learn whilst having fun, every trainers dream!

Dealing with customer complaints and comments, improving customer retention, building sales are some of the key subjects covered within the game. There is a mixture of multi choice questions and scenarios to stimulate debate within the teams who play.

Whilst playing the game staff brainstorm ways to improve customer retention, improve sales, delight customers and solve everyday problems that arise in a customer service environment.

Participants learn about our customers, explore ways to identify and meet their needs and build loyal relationships with them, the keys to any successful business.

Games are available in various sizes so are suitable for small groups or large teams. Blank cards are also included within each game so you can tailor the game to meet your own specific needs. Certificates are also included as well as easy to understand instructions. You just open your game and away you go!

Thursday 19 June 2008

Keeping Training Fun with Customer Service Training Games

Building customer satisfaction and loyalty is the key to a profitable business.

Our customers are becoming more demanding and expect higher levels of customer service. Customers who do not receive the level of service they expect vote with their feet and quite often never tell us why they are dissatisfied.

Every trainer working in a customer focused business understands the importance of delivering great customer service training. It can be difficult to constantly come up with new and innovative ideas to keep people engaged and ensure they have fun. We all know we learn more when we are having fun.

Gamethingy have come up with a great range of customer service training games that do just that.

The customer service game introduces the values and behaviours associated with customer service and invigorate and motivate the teams who play it. The game stimulates debate on all key areas of good and bad customer service and gives us an opportunity to discuss current customer feedback. It is a great way of identifying what we do well and what we could do better in a fun and relaxed way.

Everyone has the ability to add value to your organisation; therefore it is vital that we train every member of staff not just front line staff. The game is designed for everyone to play and participate in debating the scenarios that are raised.

Spending time and money training your staff reaps dividends in customer retention. Reinvigorate your teams by playing the customer service training game.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Food Safety Training - How to Cut Costs, Not Corners

We are often asked if we know of an approach to training that will help reduce costs and deliver training that sticks – the answer is simple, Training Games.

For training material to work, it has to be fun, exhilarating and engaging. The more engaging it is, the more memorable it becomes. The reason that training via a game format is so successful is that it achieves all of these things, delivering a training experience in an exciting, non threatening way.

The purpose of Food Safety Training is to embed the serious message of managing food safety in a way where people's health and welfare are paramount at all times, yet who says this cant be delivered in a fun way? In fact we believe there is no more effective method that to inject fun into the learning environment.

There are several versions of food safety training games available on the market. Most of them use question cards, however, the Food Safety Training Game from Gamethingy.com really stands out as taking a training game to a new level by being a complete board game experience that can be used as a complete training programme.

The Gamethingy.com Food Safety Training Game has been developed for food handlers and food managers of all levels. Participants using the Food Safety Training Game will get a deeper understanding of food contamination, its prevention, food poisoning, premises and equipment.

Gamethingy.com Food Safety Training Games help to recognise and prevent poor food hygiene and enables people to participate in discussion about how to make a positive change in their immediate working environment.

Every year millions of people in the UK suffer from food safety illnesses, with a bit more fun training it could be all so different.

A Trainers Take on Gamethingy Training Games

Finding the right diversity training materials is tough for all trainers. I am constantly looking for new and exciting ideas to keep my training fresh and alive. I was really surprised when I came across a website called gamethingy which sells a range of training board games.

I use the original game size for training small groups (6 and under) however I know that they sell much larger versions for over 6 people to play. The Diversity Training Game that I chose covers race, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age and disability.

The questions are a variety of simple yes and no answers, multi choice or straight forward question and answers. The best part of the game for me was the time2talk section which raises some great issues for group discussion. The trainees found the training game really fun to play and there was some lively debate.

Discussing diverse issues in a work environment is tough for most staff so being able to cover them this way was really helpful. We have a very diverse staff and one of the situations was: You overhear a colleague talking about another colleagues ‘odd religious habits’, what should you do? We had a number of devout Christians and Muslims in the group and it was great to hear them discussing issues they had faced at work and how that made them feel. Many of the trainees understood very little about the faiths and beliefs of the others within the group and the discussion helped them bond further as a team.

One of the sections of the game focuses on disability and although we do not have many disabled staff we do have lots of disabled customers. Again the questions stimulated debate and we discussed not only how we can work better as a team but also how we can help our customers enjoy spending time with us.

The original game was £99 and I can use it again and again. There were also blank question cards inside so I could add a couple of questions and scenarios which were important to the group.

Helen Payne - HR Trainer

Monday 7 April 2008

Customer Recommendation of Gamethingy Training Games

Below is a review we found of the Gamethingy.com training games website. We were so impressed we posted it here.

"Just found a great site for diversity training materials – gamethingy.com they not only sell training games but you can download free training stuff.

There is a great boardgame on their site for diversity training. I have never thought about using boardgames in this way for sensitive subjects like diversity and I was amazed at how the trainee’s loved playing it. It took real pressure off me as I could facilitate and they played for an hour and a half without checking the clock once.

It is great for inductions and for mop up training. There are questions on a number of diverse subjects like faith and belief, race, disability, age and sexual orientation. There were a number of scenarios for discussion that really made the groups think about their own behaviours and how their actions could cause offence to certain individuals within the organisation.

When one trainee read out the scenario: A colleague is always telling ‘rude’ jokes, you have asked them to stop as you find them offensive but they just ignore you, what should you do? Another in the group explained that had happened to them in another job. The team had a great discussion about what people find offensive and what other people see as quite acceptable.

I found the session quite challenging for all the trainees including myself. It really helped bond the teams and helped me raise subjects and real life scenarios in our organisation in a comfortable environment.

I was quite sceptical at first how the trainees would find playing a boardgame at a training session but from the reaction and feedback I will certainly now consider using some of the other training games available for dry subjects such as Health and Safety and Food Hygiene, it really has changed my view.

I also used some of the free downloads for ice breakers and energisers and found them to be fun and lively. We used the barriers to listening before playing the Diversity Training Game, which was helpful as we broke down barriers straight away.

I would certainly recommend training games."

Brandon Egley - Customer Service Operative

Monday 4 February 2008

Business Training Games – The Benefits

There is a great deal of hype surrounding training games, including the recent survey of the worlds top 500 companies where 135 of the Global Fortune 500 intend to adopt training games for learning, with the USA, UK and Germany leading the way.

The reality is that playing and having fun are two of the most important elements in the education of a human being. When knowledge is acquired in an enjoyable way memory retention is improved by over 70%.

Games appeal to the emotive side of learning. This method of learning generates a positive experience when incorporated with important or critical subject matter.

Training Games are serious training tools designed to encourage people to gain a deeper understanding of their subject and the challenges they face.

Using training games can help accelerate learning, by compressing the topic in to focussed learning content that can be absorbed easily by the learner or trainee.

Despite their fun image our training games are very serious business tools used to develop understanding and consistency throughout teams and organisations. A training game creates a positive interaction between the learner and the topic in an exhilarating and fun way.

One of the most important reasons why training games are so effective is down to their cost effectiveness. In almost all cases the cost of training is slashed when you consider the cost per learner in comparison with the capital outlay and the improvement in knowledge retention.

Training games enable you to present real world situations in a relevant and real time way, where learners feel the excitement, pressures, behaviours and perspectives you can’t engineer in any other way.

The great thing about using training games is that they package critical business information and re-present it in a non-threatening way. The methodology of playing a game generates a serious learning experience, delivered in a light-hearted environment. The end result can be understanding and consistency throughout the entire business giving your company that competitive edge.

There is a whole range of training games from Customer Service to First Aid with prices from £99 and are available from www.gamethingy.com . Their motto is: For training to work, it has to be fun. If its fun, it will also be engaging and the more engaging it is, the more memorable it becomes.

Try it might just be the best training you have ever seen!

Business Training Games | Customer Service | Diversity | First Aid Game
Gamethingy supply a wide range of Business Training Development Games either specially made or available to buy online for immediate delivery including Customer Service, First Aid, Health and Safety, Hygiene, Food Safety and Diversity Training.

The Benefits of Customer Service Training Games

In an increasingly competitive marketplace the ability to provide outstanding customer service has become the new battleground for businesses across all sectors.

Many companies offer great service but only a handful are able to deliver it constantly and consistently throughout their business. Think about it. How many times have you experienced good service and bad service from different parts of the same brand or company? In almost all cases the inconsistency in service is down to people.

Research on the subject of customer service from Retail Active makes the point that increasing numbers of sales are based on the quality of service received and not on the merits of a product. In other words people buy things from companies that give consistently good service and steer clear from those businesses that don’t.

So what do the successful companies do to achieve outstanding customer service throughout their business that their less successful competitors don’t?

Firstly it is clear that their staff are well trained and inducted - they believe in what they are doing! Secondly employees are empowered to give outstanding service, making it easy to recover a customer before any complaint becomes a negative experience. Then there is management leadership where service delivery is cultural point of difference.

A crucial factor to ensuring great service is to unleash the positive benefits of customer service training. Successful companies use cutting edge training techniques such as customer service training games. Despite their fun image this method of customer service training is a very serious business tool.

The great thing about using training games is that they package critical business information and re-present it in a non-threatening way. The methodology of playing a game generates a serious learning experience, delivered in a light-hearted environment. The end result can be understanding and consistency throughout the entire business giving your business that competitive edge.

Customer service training games start from £99 and are available from www.gamethingy .com. Their motto is: For customer service training to work, it has to be fun. If it’s fun, it will also be engaging and the more engaging it is, the more memorable it becomes.

If you are wanting to ensure the best service standards you need to approach things differently and this new learning method really seems to work better than conventional methods of training.

Business Training Games | Customer Service | Diversity | First Aid Game
Gamethingy supply a wide range of Business Training Development Games either specially made or available to buy online for immediate delivery including Customer Service, First Aid, Health and Safety, Hygiene, Food Safety and Diversity Training.