You might not have time to pull out all the bells and whistles, but you can still do some fun, effective and inexpensive things to celebrate National Customer Service Week. Get moving though, because Service Week is here.
National Customer Service Week has been celebrated the first full week of October every year since the International Customer Service Association (ICSA) , established it in 1984. Congress then proclaimed it an official national event in 1992.
You can use it celebrate key players in the customer experience — front-line service and sales professionals, marketers, customers, support staff, leadership and — of course — your customers.
Ideas in a flash
Because it’s last minute, we’ll focus on fast, fun and inexpensive ways to celebrate the front-liners who help customers every day:
- Schedule a potluck. Set it up with a theme now, and host it later in the week. Encourage employees to name their dishes to match the theme. For instance, Betty might make Bellbottom Beans for a Retro 70s Lunch.
- Spread more compliments. Ask each rep to compliment a different coworker in writing each day during the week. Both the person giving the compliment and the person receiving it benefit from the positive vibes.
- Be funny. Call a short meeting just to hand out a funny cartoon or joke. Even better, ask for a volunteer “Minister of Fun” who will pass along similar jokes and cartoons throughout the week to everyone.
- Make s’mores. Bring in a fire pit or portable grill (you might need to get that OK’d first), and fire it up at lunchtime so everyone can make s’mores.
- Highlight odd talents. Plan a short odd talents contest (perhaps with your potluck) for the end of the week. Let employees vote on the oddest, and give small gift cards as prizes.
- Do good. Because doing good for others usually raises morale, ask front-line reps to bring in non-perishables for a local food bank or donated supplies for military personnel. Then treat them to a catered lunch on site.
- Invite the CEO or other executives to visit. Ask your top brass to visit during the week. Before they stop by to watch reps in action, update them on some recent accomplishments so they can personally congratulate individuals and teams. Even better: Maybe you can persuade them to deliver a treat, such as an afternoon energy snack of fruit, candy and granola bars.
- Spread the word. Gather several success stories, compliments from customers and examples of above-and-beyond service to customers, and pull together an uplifting email message to send to everyone in the company.
- Set up a “Look what we did …” wall. Gather email, letters and social media posts, and put them on bright paper. Post them under the headline “Look what we did …” in a heavily traveled area.
- Plant raffle tickets under reps’ keyboards. Call numbers throughout the day (or week) for prizes.
- Build an ice cream bar. Let reps email sundae requests to their managers for the making or have them just show up for a made-to-order treat on their breaks.
- Recognize heroics. Get a few trophies (that you can then use throughout the year) to hand out for things like helping the “Toughest Customer,” making the “Best Rebound” and answering the “Funniest Call.” Even better, have reps share tips on how they did those things so everyone learns a little from them.
Also, it’s not a bad idea to start thinking up more in-depth ideas for next year’s National Customer Service Week.
