Here's a training game submitted by Amy Shelton, a bank trainer in North Carolina, who writes, "In our industry, using the names of our customers is essential to a solid relationship. To help with the practice of asking for the customer's name in different ways I did the following game in groups of 13 to 15 employees."

Famous Name Game

• At the beginning of the training session, ask each person to write down the name of someone famous (living or dead, politician, sports figure, movie star, Bible character, etc.).


• Later in the session, when the discussion turns to using the customer's name, have everyone stand up and mingle around the room pretending to be the famous person whose name they had written down earlier.


• Each person should interact with at least 3 or 4 other people, practicing tactful ways to ask for a customer's name if it isn't given.

Amy tells us that this turned out to be a favorite with all of her training groups. She says, "Our bank president, who is male, chose the name Janet Reno—so you can imagine the fun everyone had with him. Once it was all said and done, I had trained everyone from "underdog" to "President Bush" on how to ask for the customer's name."

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