Customer Service Week officially began on Monday, and we kicked it off with the introduction of our theme: It’s Fall Y’all!

One of the joys of living in Michigan is the changing of the seasons. In the fall, we enjoy the beautiful colors of the trees, crisp cool air, delicious apples, great football games and so much more! Our Spirit Team, a team of employees who plan employee events, decided to bring some of our favorite parts of fall to Baudville to celebrate Customer Service Week!

On Monday, we had a Pumpkin Decorating Contest between the four suites. Congratulations to the Distribution Center for taking first place!

First Place: Distribution Center
 2nd Place: Customer Service
3rd Place: Operations
  4th Place: Marketing/New Product

After employees enjoyed local apple cider and donuts, we held a guessing game on Tuesday. Employees had to guess how many candy corn were in the jar. The correct answer – 1,218! Our winner was very excited about his prize!

Today, we have a Token of Appreciation Toss game set up in Club Baudville. The top three scores will win prizes from our Spirit Team! Tomorrow we’ll have a team lunch as Customer Service Week begins to wind down.

How are you recognizing your customer service team? What’s your theme for Customer Service Week? Share your answers here!

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Cindy is the Human Resources Manager at Baudville and has over 14 years HR experience. In addition to her HR Generalist duties, she’s the center of positive mojo for the company and heads up many of our recognition initiatives, events and awards. In other words, she’s got it going on!

Customer Service Week games can transform the office into the set of a game show, secluded island, or competitive court. To read some stories of this kind of Customer Service Week game , check out CSWeek.com. However, if your customer service professionals can’t be away from their desks for long periods of time, try one of the following Customer Service Week games that can be completed at a desk without sacrificing fun.

Don’t forget to have prizes on hand for the winners! Browse our selection of Customer Service Week gifts for desktop gifts and small treats that employees will love.

Buzzword Bingo.
This is a popular activity for call centers. Create your own bingo sheets by randomly inserting words and phrases into the squares that commonly come up in conversations with customers. (Don’t forget a free square) Employees cross off squares throughout the day as they hear the words and phrases used in everyday conversation. They notify a supervisor once they get a bingo. You can easily create bingo cards online at a number of different websites. Here’s one: http://print-bingo.com/

You can continue the Bingo game after Customer Service Week with our Office Bingo recognition program. Read about how this program works in one of our how-to recognition blog post.

                 

Create your own Bingo game or play the Baudville version!

Baby Picture Match Game.
Ask employees to submit a baby picture of themselves under the age of 5. Make sure pictures are labeled to ensure you can return them to the right person. You can either post all the pictures in a public place, or create a handout with all the pictures and a list of employees.  Employees have to match the name with the baby picture. 

Customer Service Week Trivia Game.
Email a trivia question to the team on a regular basis throughout Customer Service Week. Ask questions related to your Customer Service Week theme. You can give prizes to the first correct response, or enter all correct entries into a drawing. Draw winners every day or at the end of the week.

People Poker.
This game lasts all week, and you will need a lot of card decks! Employees get a new card added to their hand each day. Hands are compared throughout the week, and the lucky winners with the best hands are announced on Friday.  You can up the ante in your poker game by awarding Tokens of Appreciation (same size and shape as regular poker chips!) throughout the week.

Rewards.
Recognize employees for participating in Customer Service Week games by giving them a Token of Appreciation when they complete a game. Award more tokens for first place winners, etc. At the end of the week, have employees redeem their tokens for Customer Service Week gifts. This is a great way to give each employee a small gift and encourage participation in games throughout the week!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

The number one rule of recognition is make it personal for the recipient. Even when you’re celebrating a team-wide or company-wide event like Customer Service Week, you can still make the recognition personal. Here are six tips you can use:

Personal Customer Service Week Ideas

1. Write a personal handwritten note to each employee. Have the note on their desk in the morning. It’s a great way to start Customer Service Week!

2. Give a personalized gift to each employee. You don’t need a large budget to give a personal gift to each member of your team. You can create a personalized gift with their name engraved on it, or bring in their favorite candy bar or a notepad with their initial. Don’t know your employees favorite treats? Use our free Tell Us About You form to learn lots of great tidbits that are helpful for personal recognition.

3. Bring in a homemade treat. To make this great Customer Service Week idea even more special, have managers volunteer to bring in a treat each day of the week. The homemade touch makes this Customer Service Week idea extra personal.

4. Recognize the individual. One year, our Customer Service Manager made special nametags for her team, like “Marvelous MaryJo” or “Rockin’ Ringelberg.” The nametags weren’t a huge expense, but they certainly made the employees feel special.

 

5. Respond to employee feedback. The best Customer Service Week idea is the one that comes from employees. Ask them how they want to celebrate, and use your knowledge from past recognition celebrations. At Baudville, we love casual days, so most Customer Service Week celebrations allow us to wear jeans all week.

6. Make it from the Supervisor. If you have several different groups that make up your customer service department, have individual supervisors do something special for their respective teams. The supervisor-to-employee interaction will lead to more personal customer service week ideas.

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

One of our staff’s favorite parts of Customer Service Week is the fact that it lasts all week. Our Spirit Team plans an activity and has communication for each day of the week, and we usually get to dress casual all week, too. It’s great!

Doing something each day of Customer Service Week is one of our team’s best practices for making the recognition holiday memorable. The regular contact with staff throughout the week reminds everyone of how much their role in the customer experience is appreciated.

If you’re interested in following our best practices for Customer Service Week, here are some ideas for activities you can do each day of the week:

 Monday - Write a personal note to each employee and have it waiting for them on their desk when they get to work in the morning. The Service Super Hero Pocket Praise are my favorite for Customer Service Week, but you could also use Cheers Notes or Marks of Appreciation.

 Tuesday – Challenge your team’s skills during Customer Service Week with an activity or game. You can create puzzles for employees to complete at their desk, or host a bean bag or ladder golf mini-tournament. It’s easy to bring in a lawn game for an activity, and you can probably borrow one from an employee. Have small prizes on hand for the winners.

 Wednesday – One of the most popular Customer Service Week activities at Baudville is a mid-week snack. It’s a great way to get people over the hump of the week, and you can affordably give everyone a small pick me up. Create a snack basket with individually wrapped treats like cookies, fruit snacks, nuts, chips, pretzels and candy bars. Everyone gets to enjoy the treat of their choice and munch happily at their desk.

Our Customer Service Supervisor with a sample Snack Basket!

 Thursday – Give employees a Customer Service Week gift to help them remember the festivities. Your gift can be as simple as a button they’ll wear for a day or a note cube they’ll keep on their desk for weeks.

To make Customer Service Week gifts meaningful, first, select a gift that employees can use. Second, make sure you personally give the gift to employees. Don’t set gifts on a conference table and require employees to pick them up. Give gifts to employees individually and take a few moments to have a short conversation.

 Friday – End the week by having a team lunch. For less expensive lunch options, consider ordering pizza or hosting a potluck lunch and ask everyone to bring in a dish to share. Potluck lunches are a favorite at Baudville because you get to try many different foods, and everything is always wonderful!

 Everyday – In addition to the Customer Service Week ideas for each day, you can do small things everyday to keep the momentum and enthusiasm growing during the week:

Theme days – Have a different theme for each day, and encourage employees to dress accordingly. For example, you can declare a decades day, Super Hero day and favorite school shirt day.

A couple Baudvillians show their love for the 80s on Decades Day!

Communicate – Take pictures of people dressed for theme days, participating in activities, or enjoying snacks. Post the pictures internally as soon as possible to keep everyone in the loop.

Recognize – Don’t forget the most important part of Customer Service Week, recognizing your customer service team! Share information about team goals achieved or great service stories with the entire company. Let everyone know how much customer service rocks!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.

Our Recognition TV webisode today focused on Customer Service Week ideas, and you can watch the complete recorded version on Baudville.com or Baudville’s Facebook page. Several of of my tips, ideas and best practices are below, but I recommend you watch the entire video (it’s only about 15 minutes!) to catch everything.

It’s important to celebrate Customer Service Week, this year October 4-8, because your customer service team has a significant impact on customer satisfaction and profitability. Industry reports have shown a direct link exists between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction, and between customer satisfaction and improved financial performance. Recognizing the customer service team during Customer Service Week and throughout the year can be good for your business.

Baudville’s Customer Service Week Ideas

At Baudville, our Spirit Team plans Customer Service Week. They schedule an activity for everyday of the week. This keeps the momentum going all week and keeps spirits up. Plus, everyone looks forward to Customer Service Week because they know it will be a lot of fun. You don’t have to plan something big for each day. You could plan small activities and games throughout the week, and end your celebrations with something larger, like a team lunch.

We also include the entire company in Customer Service Week celebrations because we believe that every department has an important role in the customer experience. You can see pictures from last year’s Customer Service Week celebration on our Facebook page and in these past blog posts. Everyone gets into the celebration!

Some of Baudville’s favorite Customer Service Week activities:

• Managers write a handwritten note to their employees thanking them for their contributions. Usually, the note is waiting for employees on their desk in the morning. 
• Snacks are one of our favorites! Our executives will deliver an afternoon snack and a smile to each of our employees.
• Our entire company looks forward to ending the week with a team lunch. It gives everyone a chance to socialize and ends the week on a positive note.

Great Customer Service Week Ideas For You
I shared a lot of information in the webisode today, and I recommend you watch the entire video (it’s only about 15 minutes!) to catch everything. Here are a few of the highlights of great Customer Service Week ideas!

• Plan your Customer Service Week celebration around a theme. This year, we created a Service Super Hero theme that you can easily pick up and use. 
• Download our free Employee Event Planning Checklist to make sure you don’t forget any of the details that make Customer Service Week great.
• Design activities and games that can be completed in between helping customers. You can create custom puzzles, word searches and Bingo games online for free.
• Get inspiration from a game show or reality TV to make your Customer Service Week great. You can create your own weeklong Survivor, hold a Fear Factor or Jeopardy tournament, and even create a Cash Cab. Visit the Official Customer Service Website for more great game ideas. 
• On a tight budget? You can still have a lot of fun! Borrow resources from employees or home. Bring in your Nintendo Wii and set-up Guitar Hero or Wii Sports for employees to play on their lunch hour. Ask employees to bring in yard games or board games and create tournaments that take place over the course of the week.
• Have a potluck lunch at the end of the week. Everyone will still have the chance to celebrate Customer Service Week together, the food will be great, and you won’t have to spend a ton!
• Have gifts and prizes on hand to reward employees who participate in your games and activities. You can put together a grab bag of an assortment of prizes, and employees can choose their own prize. 
• Make it personal! In addition to a handwritten note, choose a small gift for each of your employees. If you have an employee who constantly drinks coffee, give a new travel coffee mug as the Customer Service Week gift.

When it comes to Customer Service Week, your options are endless! The most important element of your planning is delivering sincere recognition and appreciation to your hardworking customer service team, and having fun, of course! Be sure to come back and tell us about your celebrations after Customer Service Week. We love to learn from our customers!

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.