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Customer Service Week is happening Oct 7-11! How is your organization celebrating?
This week is dedicated to spotlighting the importance of providing exceptional customer service and recognizing the employees who deliver this vital service. Similar to Employee Appreciation Day, there are many creative ways to show appreciation for your customer service representatives during Customer Service Week.
From expressing gratitude with heartfelt messages to organizing team-building activities, we’ll explore fun ideas on how to celebrate Customer Service Week this October.
Happy employees, happy customers
Customer Service Week (October 7 – 11, 2024) is important to us here at Achievers. We’re an employee success platform, but we know that “Customer and employee satisfaction should be seen as two sides of the same coin.” Customer Service Week was designated by the U.S. Congress and it is celebrated in all 50 states.
In the words of Bill Gessert, president of the International Customer Service Association, “This annual observance is your chance to launch an internal campaign designed to craft consistently excellent experiences for your employees. And if you do, it will be only a matter of time that those same employees craft consistently excellent experiences for your customers!”
When is Customer Service Week?
Customer Service Week is celebrated annually during the first full week of October. This year Customer Service Week lands on October 7-11, 2024.
What is Customer Service Week?
Customer Service Week is a one-week celebration highlighting the important work of employees who directly service customers. It is an opportunity to stop, reflect, and celebrate the two pillars of your business success: your customers and the customer service representatives who keep them happy. In 1992, the U.S. Congress recognized Customer Service Week as a national event, and since then, it has spread to at least 60 other countries around the world including Canada, Australia, Singapore, Norway, and France.
Engaged employees perform better and leave their jobs less often, and this spells an improved experience for customers. In fact, companies that invest in superior experiences for both employees and customers are able to charge as much as 16% more for their products and services. Additionally, companies in the top quartile of employee experience develop more successful innovations, generating double the revenue from their innovations as did those in the bottom quartile.
The case study of our partnership with Meijer, a family-owned superstore, shows how employee recognition improved their customer experience. Customer survey data by location demonstrated that stores with higher employee recognition rates reported higher customer satisfaction overall. In fact, increasing recognition from twice a month to twice a week yielded a five percent increase in customer satisfaction scores.
Achievers data shows that every time organizations double the number of recognitions in their organization, their overall engagement is expected to go up five percentage points.
12 ways to celebrate Customer Service Week:
1. Offer time off
Who wouldn’t want some time to recharge and refresh? Even a day to catch up on some chores or take a hike or just hang out with friends or family would go a long way to showing your appreciation for your employees. When organizations offer time off, it not only benefits the employees but it’s good for the company’s bottom line.
One study found that companies offering time off see an average return on investment of $12.32 per worker per week due to increased productivity and reduced turnover.
2. Personal development opportunities
Show your employees you care by investing in their career growth. You can host career development workshops helping customer service representatives identify their career goals and develop a plan to achieve it.
Another fun idea is to host skill-sharing sessions. Your team members can share their expertise with each other, focusing on specific customer service topics.
3. Virtual team building activities
If your team is hybrid or remote, plan some virtual team building activities. Get creative with virtual options like online quizzes and games, talent shows, coffee chats, cooking classes, or even a Q&A with company leadership. These virtual activities are great at sparking conversations and relationship building outside of a work context.
4. Appreciation parties
Celebrate your customer service team with a fun appreciation party! Choose a theme that reflects your team’s interests, like favorite decades, casino night, or even a potluck party where everyone brings a dish representing a different country. Of course, a live band, comedian, or other forms of live entertainment is always a treat.
5. Sending appreciation cards and thank you notes
Don’t underestimate the power of a simple ‘thanks.’ The latest Achievers Workforce Institute study shows that employees who receive monthly recognition report to be 2x more engaged and productive compared to those recognized quarterly or less. Let your customer service team how much you appreciate them by sending a simple appreciation card. It’s quick, easy, and doesn’t cost you much at all.
6. Deliver a motivational message
Motivate your customer service team during Customer Service Week with a thoughtful address. Highlight specific examples of how their work contributed to the company’s success. You can also create opportunities for team members to reflect on their journeys, challenges, and wins throughout the year, inspiring the entire organization to keep growing together.
7. Use a recognition platform
Leverage a recognition platform to appreciate your employees during Customer Service Week. Today’s workforce is more dispersed than ever before. With an estimated 22% expected to be remote by 2025, traditional in-office recognition programs can be a challenge to maintain. Recognition platforms offer a solution, allowing you to easily appreciate your team members no matter their location – in-office, hybrid, or remote. And there are business ramifications too – employees with access to a recognition platform are twice as likely to say they’re productive and not thinking about job hunting.
8. Lead a contest
Spark some friendly competition with a fun challenge for your customer service team! Have your team create a superhero persona complete with costumes and a backstory related to customer service excellence. Or set up a mock scenario where members of the team must try to upsell a product or service while still maintaining customers’ needs. For something more sentimental, have employees share meaningful customer interactions and award prizes for the most heartwarming stories.
9. Offer company swag
Build company morale and foster a sense of belonging by offering your team company swag. PPAI Research reveals that 93% of employees say company swag makes them feel connected to their brand and teammates. Platforms like Achievers offers a convenient solution with a built-in swag store accessible to your employees. For example, the Achievers swag store allows you to give employees redeemable vouchers for any event (like Customer Service Week) where they can choose from a vast selection of high-quality swag.
10. Let employees choose their rewards
Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to reward your employees for their hard work. Send them points on your recognition platform so they can choose rewards that are meaningful to them. A comprehensive marketplace includes rewards like gift cards, merchandise, travel experiences, and even charitable donations. Employees who say they have access to a comprehensive marketplace are 61% more likely to feel a strong sense of belonging at work.
11. Reach out to employees with pulse surveys
Employees who receive pulse surveys four or more times a year are 75% more likely to say they feel welcomed and respected versus those surveyed once a year. An annual engagement survey simply doesn’t cut it. It’s vital to practice a continuous listening approach – this will help you address any potential performance and engagement roadblocks in real time. Send out regular pulse surveys, especially leading up to Customer Service Week, to identify areas you can take action on to ensure your employees feel heard.
12. Live and breathe your company values
Glassdoor notes that “culture and values” of the organization is the number one factor in employee satisfaction. When you have a culture that aligns with company values, you can feel confident that your employees are going to feel good about working with you.
Pro tip: Check out 25 inspiring examples of companies that live their values each day.
3 easy ways to be more customer-centric
1. Think in terms of engagement
Hubspot points out that “Engage” is the first part of the customer service framework. To provide great customer service, it is vital to “Engage with any customer, wherever, about whatever they want. Be on all the channels, try to solve whatever problems come your way, and help anyone who needs it.” Start with fun and creative ideas for engaging your workforce, and customer engagement will follow.
2. Respond promptly to customers
Quick responses to customer needs brings benefits to everyone involved. Your customers will feel cared about, and your workers will be spared the stress of dealing with frustrated customers. For call center departments, “Shortening ASA (average speed of answer) improves both the quality of customer service as well as your call center employees’ overall perception of their job.”
3. C-suite members can trade places with customer service workers for a day
This is one of the things Bill Gessert, president of the International Customer Service Association, likes to do for Customer Service Week. It’s a way for frontline workers to feel absolutely confident that management truly understands the challenges they face every day. It’s also useful for upper-tier management to gain direct awareness of any opportunities for improving the product or service.
Let’s celebrate Customer Service Week together
Here at Achievers, we practice what we preach. We care about our customers’ success, and we’re constantly innovating to help them engage employees across their organizations. This is demonstrated with our 98% customer satisfaction rating and 95% customer retention rate. Check out our customer stories to see why these numbers are so high.
Are you ready to celebrate Customer Service Week? Get started by sending a fun, customized employee appreciation card here. It’s a small gesture with a big impact!
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