This is a fun ice breaker perfect for call center agents and can be tweaked for any front line customer service staff.
What you need:
– Drinking straws (like those you get with your drink at any fast food restaurant)
– 2 single very small pieces of paper the size of the smallest post it notes you can find. (The smaller the piece of paper the easier the exercise will be)
Split the class into two equal teams, ask them to stand in two rows facing each other as per the figure below
Hand each person one straw. And inform them that this will be a race between the two rows/teams. The winning team is the one who will be able to transport the little piece of paper from the first person on the team to the last team member without touching it by hand but you can only use your straw.
Demonstrate lifting the piece of paper by sucking on the straw and moving it towards the next person in line who in turn will have to take the paper from you without using his hand but rather using his straw by sucking as well and then giving it to the next person and so on until the last person in the line.
The winning team will be the one who can get the piece of paper safely without dropping it from the first to the last person in the line. If the paper is dropped the team will have to start all over again from the beginning of the line.
What’s the point?
This is a fun competitive game that will energize everyone. The main goal of this activity is to have some fun, and help you as a trainer to create a friendly, happy learning environment. You can link the paper they use during the exercise to calls they receive as call center agents and dropping the paper is like dropping the call and we never want to drop a customer’s call but rather ensure the call is routed successfully to our colleague.
This fun activity can also be linked to communication as it will require some co-ordination to safely pass along the paper from one person to the next using only the straw without dropping it.
Good luck!
