Is roleplaying an effective customer service training technique?

For us role-playing is one of three elements we use in skill building. Each of our customer facing folks has to go through certification as part of their on-boarding process and to stay on-board. There are three elements; learn, practice and do. Learn - in a particular area (ex. a customer use case) they have to learn the situation and pass a written test. Practice - in that same area they have to pass a public role-play that is scored both on style and substance. Do - they have to demonstrate the knowledge live in front of a customer and their manager.

In summary a role-play for us is very effective; but it is just one part of what we think we have to build and manage to keep improving skills.

Role playing can be effective but only if done with real world type scenarios. There should be much more to it than just the idea of dealing with an angry customer. One role that is seldom played in these training sessions is dealing with someone who does not understand the standard answer either because of a language barrier or a general lack of understanding of the topic. It is very important that a CSR be able to explain common answers in more than one way, be able to effectively use examples and understand the background of standard answers.

Many learn scripts or standard replies but can't go beyond that step. At that point you have a dissatisfied customer who may insist upon escalating what should be a simple issue.

Role playing is one of the most effective Contact Center training methods. Role playing is "practicing working with an imaginary customer out loud”. Role playing allows a group of employees to act out telephone-based work scenarios. For example - you might train Telephone Sales Agents by having two people act out a TeleSales scenario – with one acting as the telemarketer - while the other acts as the sales prospect. In a Customer Service situation- you may want to role play a Customer Service Representative (CSR) dealing with a customer’s desire to cancel a service.

However – it’s important to stress that role playing (and other training techniques) only deliver value in a Call Center environment if your new hires already have the right mix of ‘Soft Skill’ (Personality/Job-Fit) traits & Communications Skills to begin with.

Taking someone who's lacking in the ‘Soft Skill’ (Personality/Job-Fit) traits & Communications Skills - and investing in a role playing course for them - in an attempt to make them into a more effective Call Center Agent - is just investing dollars chasing dimes – and not a wise business strategy. You can deliver “the world’s best role playing course” to the wrong trainees and still wind up with a poorly performing Call Center.

A 2005 Harvard Study of 5,000 Call Center Agents - who were all new hires – and who had all received the same introductory Call Center Training – including a training segment on role playing - found that after 6 months on the job the bottom 10% of Agents produced four negative customer encounters for every three positive ones. In other words – according to the customers – 60% of the time encounters with Call Center Agents who were “Bad Fits” for the job resulted in a negative customer experience – and that’s after the employer had invested in the same initial training for all new hires – including a training segment on role playing.

If you think that “everyone can be taught” to work in Call Center – and that it just takes the right amount of role playing - then you will be hiring people strictly on the basis of who interviews well - and who seems to have the appropriate skill levels & background. If this is all you do to screen your Job Candidates - you will find that too many of your new hires are not actually “Good Fits” for your Contact Center. These “Bad Fits” will display less-than-desirable work attitudes - resulting in poor performance - and a lot of ‘just out of training’ turnover - whether that be your choice or theirs. This is a recipe for higher recruiting/hiring/training costs – higher turnover - lowered productivity - and a decrease in Sales Results, Customer Satisfaction & Brand Reputation.

There is a Return on Investment to be had when investing in training new hires using role playing – but only for employees who have “The Right Stuff” to begin with – those who are “Good Fits” for working in your Call Center. It is a huge mistake to assume that everyone who is given a role playing course will benefit from it - that is simply not the case. Out of every 100 people – not all have the ‘Soft Skill’ (Personality/Job-Fit) traits required to generate positive results with prospects & customers over the telephone.

A job in a Call Center is not for everyone – and not everyone will benefit from role playing. The key to generating great results in a Contact Center is hiring the right people to begin with. “The world’s best role playing course” is just money down the drain when delivered to “Bad Fits” for the job.

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I agree with all the above, and would say that it needs to be done in real time, with actual scenarios using the good, the bad and the ugly to set benchmarks and to learn from one another. We ask our clients for their scenarios, and in role playing we stop at several junctures and pause, ask the participants what they notice, what else could have been done or said in this instance, etc. The goal is not only to come up with the best responses for situation but to raise awareness levels. The more awareness one has, the more control, the more control, the more choices, and then the more choices, the more often you make the right one. Thus, we are big supporters of role playing.

I agree with all the above, and would say that it needs to be done in real time, with actual scenarios using the good, the bad and the ugly to set benchmarks and to learn from one another. We ask our clients for their scenarios, and in role playing we stop at several junctures and pause, ask the participants what they notice, what else could have been done or said in this instance, etc. The goal is not only to come up with the best responses for situation but to raise awareness levels. The more awareness one has, the more control, the more control, the more choices, and then the more choices, the more often you make the right one. Thus, we are big supporters of role playing.

The one thing that is missing from the replies is the role-play assessment. Role playing is only really effective if it's conducted in groups of three. The third person assesses the role-play and provides feedback to the individual.
This way you can manage or monitor the behavior you wish to change or the skill you want to improve.

For those of you who lead role-playing sessions here’s one practical way to make it more appealing to staff - suggest they view it the way athlete’s do. Athletes practice far more than they play. If you’re on a basketball team, you need to be prepared to shoot the ball from anywhere on the court. You need to be able to perform when you’ve got someone in your face, when you’re exhausted, and when your ability to be present can win or lose the game. Practicing free throws is a form of role-playing. Preparation leads to mastery, or at the very least, a more positive outcome.

@ Marilyn

I appreciate what you are saying about role-playing, but I do believe that some approaches are more effective than others. Typically role-plays tend not to be effective because the participants aren't provided with feedback. You can't compare that to shooting baskets because their is a significant difference, you can see whether or not you made the shot, that's not the case with role-playing, you often need someone to provide you feedback on how well you did practicing your skill.

Role-playing without feedback isn’t role-playing in my book either John. Swishing the ball through the hoop during practice is immediate feedback. Though, it doesn’t guarantee success in a live game, it greatly increases the odds. To role-play effectively, you need your hoop – that partner, observer, or facilitator who will provide feedback. Effective feedback includes three core questions: What worked well? What could have worked better? What will I do differently next time? When two people role-play it’s also important to reverse the role play so both parties gain the experience. One of my favorite real-world role plays is to send people out as secret shoppers at a competitor, so that they can feel what it’s like to be the customer. For example I recently provided training for a library staff, sent them to surrounding libraries, and asked them to seek help in finding a book, using the computers, etc. They came back excited to share what it was like to be the patron, what the service provider did well, what they fell short on, and most importantly, what the activity taught them about how they’ll handle their customers in the future. Very eye opening experience.

I think role playing is critical. It's important to be able to make mistakes and try out new things in a safe and low-stakes environment.

However, in my experience, people don't like role-playing becuase they often aren't done well. The angry customer (or whoever is on the other side of the situation) needs to be prepared and highly skilled at giving the trainee the right amount and type of pushback. If that's missing or off track the role-playing is a waste of time.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing roleplaying work. It was almost magical. It was conducted by Workplace Interactors for Northwestern University staff members. I cannot express how effective the session was. If you'd like to learn more about them, their website is http://workplaceinteractors.com/

In addition to providing skilled role-players, I believe they offer consulting services for developing your own scenarios and skilled role-players.

Most definitely so. Adults learn more from role-play than from theory. Lectures are learning by telling and "role-play is learning by doing".

I find it the best way to get learners to understand the concepts of quality Customer Service. Of course there is a degree of reality that cannot be simulated in a training situation. However the emphasis on role-play should be on exposing the learners to the "how" of theory, so that they get the practice. When they get into a real customer interaction, they are armed with the techniques developed during the role-play.

As human beings we only really know something once we've done it. So practicing through role-play is vital.

The mind does not know the difference between fiction an reality. So role playing is a great way to get people to learn new skills.

As a second point keep a log of all of the customer service problems you run into and as a team come up with the best methods to handle the problems and teach those methods to your employees. Don't wait until you have a problem to figure out what the answer needs to be.

I would add one aspect to the already great advice here on the efficacy of role-play in customer service scenarios. And that's the use of video.

We use video feedback when coaching our clients on emotional expressiveness and behavior change, whether we're preparing someone for a congressional hearing or a high-stakes business presentation. You can give the most detailed and spot-on feedback in the world, but video-playback can show in no uncertain terms the behavioral nuances your words may not effectively convey.

Role plays are very valuable and as many of the replies indicate they must be done correctly, and include feedback, in order to produce results. I do have two additional observations. Too often role plays in customer service training focus on angry customers or negative interactions. I feel that best customer experiences should form the foundation of training before dealing with difficult customers. Secondly mystery shopper exercises are also very helpful. Training can include checklists, visits or phone calls to think about service quality that meets standards from the receiving end. I feel strongly that the best customer service providers can describe specifics of experiences when they have received outstanding service.

All Good answers , however, role playing is basically useful training for the communication aspect of Customer Services rep. And quite effective if feedback loop is used.
There are other important aspects like understanding the issues, untangling the root cause, building up the Knowledge data base- all these require training of different kind.

Caty

In a vacuum I would have to say no. Many folks don't take it very seriously, and view role play exercises as a necessary evil they must get through. Some folks will benefit plenty, but I prefer methods with more universal effectiveness.

That said, there are ways to make it a useful tool, particularly if the subject is in a context where the exercise is real to them, and a scenario that is unpredictable. This is why secret shoppers are effective.

The logical question, then, is how can a manager bring the exercise full circle to benefit the subject, without disclosing such exercises take place? Simply by including the findings in coaching sessions as a matter of fact imparting of information and discussion, rather than as a "follow up" to the role play.

Together, let's put the fun back into work!
Belldon Colme