Phone banking is an important way of connecting volunteers to potential supporters and getting people to support your cause. Volunteers here are either in the same room, or dispersed across a larger area, calling people to talk about attending an event, supporting a candidate or cause etc.
Now close your eyes for a moment.
Picture what I’ve just written.
A group of people clustered in the same place (or worse, alone in different places) calling people in the same tone, repeating the same scripts over and over again. Sounds extremely boring and mind-numbing, doesn’t it, especially when you take the waiting time between calls into consideration too?
Being a volunteer definitely comes with its perks of contributing productively to a cause that you sincerely believe in; but on the downside, the tediousness of the job is something which even the perkiest of agents would find themselves suffering from occasionally.
So how do you relieve the boredom of phone banking? The answer is simple: play games.
No, I’m not talking about the ultra high-definition first-person shooter online games like Call of Duty or classic strategy ones like Age of Empires! Playing those would successfully ensure that you end up calling no one!
The games I’m referring to are less distracting and simple, but effective nonetheless in keeping boredom (and possible drowsiness) at bay.
These games help in keeping volunteers motivated to do their task and also forge a healthy sense of togetherness and competitiveness. All of which goes towards increasing productivity and focus while making things just that little more fun.
So without further ado, let’s read about the games that volunteers can play while phone banking.
1. Shoot the Hoop
This game is similar to the one you see at carnival fairs. Each volunteer is assigned a fixed number of sponge balls (or any other type of ball, for that matter), and a basket is placed in front of each person at a fixed location. After a volunteer finishes a call, he/she gets to throw three balls into the basket.
A leadership board of sorts is maintained and at the end of the day, the volunteer with the most number of balls in their basket wins a prize.
Simple yet fun for passing time while phone banking, no?
2. Passing the Parcel
This one’s the fun game we’ve all played at birthday parties when we were kids. A volunteer and an object are chosen at random. When that volunteer starts their call, the object is passed among the others. When the call is finished, the person holding the object is the loser.
Then another volunteer is chosen and the game is repeated again. If you wish, you can keep a scoresheet to see who has the most and least losses. The former would then have to treat the latter!
3. Misplacement
When a volunteer goes for a bathroom break or simply to stretch his/her legs, the other volunteers either:
- Misplace an item on the missing person’s desk
- Add a new item to the desk
- Leave the desk unchanged
When the volunteer returns, they have to figure out if anything is different and what it is that is different. Of course, it goes without saying that the people who actually do the misplacing aren’t on phone banking at that moment!
4. Draw the recipient
Each volunteer after making a call (or during, if they can multitask!) takes a couple of minutes off and draws/doodles how they think the recipient looks like. The volunteer is at complete freedom to decide which recipient to draw.
At the end of the day, all the drawings are collected and matched with that recipient’s profile. A vote is conducted and the ‘artist’ whose drawing is voted to be the most similar to what the recipient might look like is adjudged, winner!
The games above can only be played if everyone is in the same room. For those volunteers in different areas, we suggest the following ones.
5. Psych!
A fun online game, its main objective is to type in misleading answers to a particular question, deceiving others into selecting that answer. After each round, there is a brief window of time wherein the game waits for everyone to join.
So if a volunteer happens to be on a call, they can finish it and then join that round. Psych is perfect for driving boredom away, and with the hilarious answers that can crop up, is pretty entertaining too!
6. Quizup
This online quizzing game can see volunteers challenge each other to test their trivia skills. When not on a call, or during a break, volunteers can play with and or interact with each other.
Volunteers can also form a group of their own and maintain a leaderboard, to see who is the smartest of the lot!
7. Scrabble
For the word-loving volunteers, online scrabble is always an option to test their vocabulary skills. Somewhat similar to a self-formed crossword puzzle, this game is always a fun way to pass time during breaks or bouts of boredom.
The games mentioned here are only indicative of the type that can be played. It is by no means a definitive list! Volunteers can play whichever ones they like, and can even use their imagination to come up with new amusements.
It is important of course that the games played while phone banking aren’t too distracting such that work ends up taking a backseat!
