By: Sentry Marketing Group

September 10, 2015

Customer Service Week is October 5-9, just a few short weeks away. Are you ready?

Back in 1992, Congress passed resolution creating a National Customer Service Week, to be observed during the fist week in October each year.  The idea was to give some special  recognition not just to customers, but to those who serve them – in call centers, restaurants, retail outlets, and other service-centered establishments throughout the country.

Now if this is the first you’re hearing of Customer Service Week maybe it just slipped your mind, it’s not to late to organize at least a little something to recognize the hard work that goes into providing excellent customer service every day of the year.  The theme this year is “Everyday Heroes”.

Here area few ideas you can implement quickly and easily

• Encourage location and branch managers to spend extra time on the floor this week, acknowledging excellent customer service and getting a clearer read on how things are for customers and the employees who serve them directly.  This will encourage interaction between customer service employees and their direct supervisors, opening up lines of communication and helping employees to feel heard and valued.
• During planned staff meetings this week, have upper management visit stores to meet and thank the folks on the ground.
• Depending on your budget and the size of your workforce, consider giving everyone a little extra something – perhaps a gift card or an extra half-day off.
• Customer Service Week is a great time for an after hours party or catered lunch or breakroom fare.  Bonus: Have management serve the staff during one of these events.
• Create games (crosswords, word searches, scavenger hunts) that reinforce the principles of customer service that your company promotes.  Have staff return their completed activity sheets and enter them into a drawing for a great prize (think TV, gift card, movie passes, etc.).
• Over the next week, ask supervisors to submit nominees for a “Best Customer Service” award and have the CEO or President present an award to the winner.

Use existing resources

There are a number of online resources that can help you to generate ideas for Customer Service Week. The Customer Service Week website and the Institute of Customer Service are two great places to look for ideas to get started.

Try to think of anything you can do during this time to:

• Inspire and engage employees and bolster morale;
• Acknowledge your service staff and their essential role in making your business successful;
• Reward individuals whose commitment to customer service has been exemplary;
• Raise awareness throughout the organization of the customer service element of your business;
• Show gratitude to all of the various Departments that make excellent customer service possible
• Provide additional support or resources to those most directly responsible for ensuring your customers are happy.

Keep the spirit of Customer Service Week alive throughout the year

• Create a channel for staff to submit stories related to customer service.  Each month or quarter, select a few of these for special recognition.
• Have periodic staff breakfasts or catered meetings.  At each one, bring in members of upper management or a special speaker to highlight and share insights related to customer service.  This can be an opportunity to motivate the staff, or, better, a chance to share with them where the company is heading and help them to get involved.
• Take a look at your employee engagement programs and statistics.  Take time to give some real thought and put some work into improving them.  Engaged employees will engage customers, increasing customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.
• Institute a system for checking in with and receiving feedback from your on-the-ground staff.  You may find that there are a host of creative solutions and innovative ideas just waiting to be heard.

Start planning for next year

• If there is additional training that you have been intending to offer your employees, Customer Service Week can be a great time to hold workshops and training sessions related to serving the customer.  Consider working to have your new training programs ready for next October.
• Perhaps you have been tossing around the idea of a company outing or team building retreat.  There’s no better time than during Customer Service Week.  It’s great way to show your appreciation to your team while strengthening those qualities that make them great at what they do.
• Customer Service Week is a great time to launch new initiatives designed to increase the ability of your staff to serve your customers.  Start now thinking about some of the ways in which you might be able to do this so that you will have any new programs or systems ready to launch a year from now.
• Ask some of your exemplary employees on the ground level to be part of a team to plan activities for next year’s CSW.  Their participation will make next year’s activities all the more effective and will give you the opportunity to demonstrate how much you value their voice.