Serious fun and games for customer service training

The enterprise is just beginning to scratch the surface of possibilities for putting video game technologies to smart business uses. One is customer service training. Sophisticated systems that can measure subtleties like employee-customer eye contact, for example, can bring a certain amount of scientific order to the art of effective human interaction.

You're the manager of a Hilton Garden Inn, and it's the height of family vacation season. The lobby is abuzz with kids toting skateboards and moms pushing strollers; your front desk agents are overloaded with check-ins. In the middle of all this, a harried business traveler calls to the front desk for extra towels. Quick, what do you do?

This isn't a real situation -- it's a scenario from an online training game being developed for Hilton by Digitalmill. If you're a manager trainee using the game to learn the tricks of your trade, you had better know that your first move is to send extra towels to the business traveler with the lucrative frequent guest account. In addition, you need to make a note in his online profile to always have extra towels on hand when he checks into a Hilton facility.

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