Celebrating Customer Service Week

By Sean Hawkins | Published: September 05, 2013 | Comments

Although we customer service advocates would like to believe otherwise, sometimes working in customer service can feel like a thankless job. Customer support agents sometimes field complaint after complaint without receiving praise or compliment from the customers. Thus, it is crucial for customer service management to remember to find ways to reward their agents and make them feel appreciated.

Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to show call center staff how much we appreciate their efforts. According to Customer Service Group, Customer Service Week is an international event devoted to recognizing the importance of customer service and to honoring the people who serve and support customers with the highest degree of care and professionalism. Regardless how you choose to celebrate, the goal is to have fun and honor the customer service staff. At iContact, we certainly know how to celebrate. We have celebrated this occasion for several years and our teams look forward to it each year.

I would suggest polling staff to determine what their interests are. After all, the idea is for them to have fun. Also, there are several resources available to assist in the coordination of your week long celebration. Whether you spend lots of money or little, it is the spirit of giving back that matters most. With that in mind, here are some past activities I’ve engaged in that really worked well with our staff:

Off-site team events
Volunteering
Theme days
Games & Prizes
Movie day
Catered lunch

As you can see, activities can vary. At the time of this writing, our department is preparing a good ole North Carolina Pig Picking tomorrow. With the great weather, and the start of football season, it just seemed like an ideal time to get the team outdoors and enjoy ourselves.

ICMI Featured Contributor Sean has over 15 years of progressive call center leadership and experience in the public, private and government sectors. He has led or consulted contact centers of all size across numerous industries. Additionally, he's implemented new technology and products, while maintaining award-winning contact centers. Connect with Sean on LinkedIn and Twitter.