Get ready for Customer Service Week!

Get Ready for Customer Service Week!

In 1988, the International Customer Service Association proclaimed a customer service week and finally in 1992 the U.S. Congress announced that it would be a nationally recognized annual event, the first week of October.

Customer service week might sound like just another commercialized celebration time with no real meaning behind it besides trying to make customer service representatives feel legitimate in their choice of occupation.

The reason many customer service agents do not see this week as anything special is because of the lack of participation by many call center employers. After working in call centers for years, I still didn’t have a clue that a customer service week even existed! Although it hasn’t been around forever, it was certainly around for years.

I had no clue. :-(

The customer service week was proclaimed as a way to recognize the importance customer service has on our lives as consumers and human beings in general.

It affects the economy, the way people think about one another, and it even offers perspective as to how one human being can learn to effectively communicate with another, even if they aren’t seeing eye to eye.

To me, this should be a huge deal that every customer service agent gets to experience! After all, the business is stressful and you have to be good to do the job properly. This kind of dedication deserves some thanks!

So what does CS Week look like?

Many different kinds of companies do participate in the annual customer service appreciation week celebration, and in many different ways.

Some organizations hold week long barbeque blowouts right there at work, offering free raffles and other prizes. Others simply offer free coffee and doughnuts during lunch to employees. It’s far from extravagant, but it’s a nice gesture.

The problem I see with the whole idea is that so many companies that should recognize and celebrate it, simply don’t!

I don’t see why a call center cannot take the time and make a small effort in offering at least a bag of candy as their appreciation during customer service week. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that employers do not do what’s right in this area. But since I worked for years without even hearing about it, I felt kind of cheated by the places I worked that didn’t even have the decency to mention the recognized customer service week.

You can celebrate it yourself, you know!

Instead of relying on call centers and other companies to engage in the week we should rely on ourselves as the customer service professional. There are many ways for employees to come together and celebrate it together without it interfering with work obligations.

Employees can plan things to make the week special and appreciative. Not only does it help with morale, but it certainly ads some spark to the work life of many, which can have a nice lasting effect in turn improving job performance for some that may simply be burned out.

Planning a daily event throughout the week is something that’s easy and effective.

For example, put together a potluck on Monday! After receiving permission to put the pot luck together, just post a sign on the wall with a place for anyone participating to write down what they’ll be bringing. Because of stagnant lunch breaks that occur in a call center, the pot luck can even be broken up into shifts.

On Tuesday trying a refreshment get together might be worth a try. In the same respect as the potluck, everyone can participate and enjoy the event of sharing a nice root beer float on a break together.

The things that are done daily to recognize customer service professionals during this week don’t have to be extravagant; as I’m sure you get the point from my suggestions previously mentioned. Another effective way to celebrate customer service week in the workplace without relying on the employer to make it happen is to engage in a secret pal system for the week.

Everyone’s name would go in a hat and everyone would pick a name from the hat. The job each person would have is to be a secret cheerleader for the person they picked during the whole week.

Smiling Operator Doing things like leaving secret notes on the person’s computer saying what an inspiration they are can mean the world to someone. And leaving a nice homemade sandwich at their desk for lunch is a nice way to say thank you for doing your job so well.

The last day of the week is when everyone should find out who their secret pal was and it’s sure to bring a lot of joy to the workplace, leaving a lasting impression of camaraderie for everyone who participated in the celebrations.

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Of course there is no right or wrong way to celebrate customer service week, but as my suggestions will prove just about any kind of group activity will go a long way in the act of actually appreciating what customer service representatives do.

So if you are an employer that has never thought about making it special for your employees, it’s never too late.

And if you are an employee just learning about it or who isn’t lucky enough to work for a call center who observes customer service week remember that you can make it happen if you want to by educating co-workers about the week and bringing them all together to celebrate!

You have until October, so start planning now!

Customer Service Week 2008
is celebrated on
October 6-10, 2008

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