Customer Service Week (CSW) October 4 to 8
The Power of Service
National Customer Service Week is a week-long opportunity to raise awareness of customer service and the vital role it plays in successful business practice.
Here are some great ways to celebrate CSW this year with your team and customers.
Consider the following themes for each day of the week –
Monday – The Changing World of Work
- Run a Start, Stop, Continue survey or carry out 1-2-1 discussions to find out how your employees are adjusting to the new way of working and what could be improved.
- Team members submit pictures of their new work landscape with comments on how they stay motivated. Offer small prizes and gift cards for the most inspiring submissions.
- Run a poster competition – employees design a poster, depicting the themes for any of the days of National Customer Service Week. These are displayed (virtually or in person) throughout the week and judged on the final day.
Tuesday – Service with Respect Day
- Run a survey or hold a meeting with your customer-facing workers to openly discuss challenging customer interactions and encourage them to report incidents in the future.
- Deliver staff training focusing on how to handle challenging customer interactions.
- Run a fun role-play event with employees taking turns to be the complaining customer. Use the event as an opportunity to raise understanding of the escalation process but also to help staff respond when “we can’t do that, but we can do this” when dealing with demands that cannot be met.
- Contact MCCA for a complimentary training session (virtual) on dealing with difficult people. Just [email protected].
Wednesday – Essential Customer Service Skills & Capabilities
- Be a customer for a day by walking through the process from that side of the fence – and reporting what it is really like to book a ticket, try to buy or order something online, how long it takes to have a call answered, etc.
- Contact MCCA for a complimentary training session (virtual) on essential customer service skills. Just [email protected].
Thursday – Effective Strategy & Focused Leadership
- Assess your employees’ view of how your strategy, culture and processes enable your organisation to deliver world class customer service.
- Share information about customer service by using the week to share customer service results/feedback or launch new values, customer charters, Business Benchmarking results, etc.
- Calculate the ROI of excellent customer service by compiling evidence of improvements in service delivery – for example improved efficiencies, cost savings, extra sales, increased employee engagement, improved customer retention and recommendation.
- Host a Senior Executives lunch session or roundtable where they can drop in for a chat with a cup of coffee and voice ideas, thoughts, and challenges. Ask them for their own thoughts about what the organization needs to do to increase customer service and how that could affect the organization’s reputation, trust levels with customers, customer retention, sales, profitability, success
Friday – Give your customer service heroes the Recognition they deserve
- Share praise and thanks to all staff and supplier partners via e-mail, posters, newsletters etc. highlighting complimentary comments
- Run your ‘People’s Choice awards’ by nominating and voting for and by colleagues – with fun “red carpet”, or Oscar style event awards ceremony at the end of the week. Awards could be, for example: Players Player, Star of the week, etc
- Create a special newsletter, celebrating all the activities throughout the week and include recognition for winners/photographs etc. Follow up a few weeks later, detailing further outcomes from those activities
- Hold a ‘suggestion session’: meet with your team 1-2-1 on ideas for improvement and reward the best suggestion(s) with small prizes. Make sure you follow up and ensure that in the weeks that follow, the agreed ideas are implemented and communicated to all employees
Other Resources –
8 Fun Ways to Recognize CSRs During Customer Service Week
Below we’ve included 8 ways to celebrate National Customer Service Week. Your CSRs deserve it! Even during Covid, we can modify our “8 Fun Ways” to ensure everyone is included and engaged. It is amazing how much we can do virtually!
1. Treat CSRs to breakfast
Want happier customer service reps? Feed them!
Something as simple as a bagel, donut, breakfast sandwich, coffee or juice can go a long way in boosting morale.
2. Motivate staff from the top
Get your entire company excited about National Customer Service Week with a personalized card/mesage from your company’s CEO, president, upper management, etc. Remind employees that their hard work doesn’t go unappreciated, and that customer service is critical to the success of the business.
3. Play some games
Games are a wonderful way to de-stress CSRs and make them more productive. Whether you’re playing Jenga, trivia, office Olympics, “Name That Tune” or Minute-to-Win-It, games are perfect for bolstering employee engagement.
4. Have a “dress up” or “dress down” day
If your company’s dress code is usually more on the business side, ditch it for at least one day. Allow employees to wear jeans, sneakers, polos or any other casual clothing within reason. If your company already implements a casual dress code, encourage employees to dress up as if they are going to big, fancy event.
5. Host theme days with relevant outfits
A fun way to bring smiles to the workplace is to have a dress-up day that involves a specific theme for employees. A few theme ideas to get you started: Sports Team Day, ’80s Day, Pajamas Day, Ugly Sweater Day, Hat Day, Superhero Day.
6. Recognize your service team for their hard work
Nearly 60% of employees believe being thanked by managers not only improves their relationship but also builds trust with their higher-ups. Want to make your staff feel valued? Simply show it!
7. Take part in a charitable activity
Studies show that many employees want to work for companies that care. Whether it’s organizing a canned food drive or fundraising for a good cause, taking part in a charitable event is great for building team unity during Customer Service Week.
8. End the final day on a high note
On the final day of National Customer Service Week, thank every employee who took part in the event and made it a success. Celebrate the final day by giving out awards, certificates or prizes.
For more information contact MCCA at [email protected].
