During the first full week of October, we celebrate frontline staff during the nationally observed Customer Service Week. The recognition holiday takes place annually and is an important time to express appreciation for employees who interact directly with your customers.

Why is this important? Recent research by The Forum: Business Results through People has found that employee behavior increases customer spending. According to the study, “engaged employees created customers that purchased more, and a key measure of employees’ value was their impact on the income flows from customers.” Employees are more engaged when they feel valued and appreciated for their work! Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to make a big deal about your frontline employees, and hopefully influence customer sales, too.

We take Customer Service Week pretty seriously at Baudville. Our Spirit Team plans five days of activities that all revolve around a recognition theme. This year, our theme was Celebrating our Superheroes. We had so much fun with our theme that we wanted to share it with you. Maybe you’ll end up using some of our ideas for your next Customer Service Week theme!


Our Spirit Team designer created Baudville superhero characters!

Monday – During Customer Service Week, every Baudvillian was treated as a superhero! Employees had the chance to promote their super powers by designing a mask and creating their superhero alter ego. Creative stations were set up throughout the building with mask-decorating supplies including pipe cleaners, jewels, construction paper, and glitter glue.

Tuesday – To fuel the work of the superhero masks, we brought in a soft serve ice cream machine. Staff created their very own Super Sundaes!

Wednesday – Baudville superheroes had the opportunity to throw, shoot, punch, and knock their way through a Superhero Obstacle Course! Competitors donned capes and made their way through the course to defeat the super villain at the end.

Thursday – After all the superhero masks had been completed, teams voted on their top two favorite. The winning masks and their superhero counterpart were featured in a special photo shoot! See the awesome pictures below. 

Friday – First thing in the morning, all employees had a note of appreciation from their manager displayed in a Memo Clip waiting on their desk. The notes were a great day for managers to thank employees for sharing their super powers every day!

As a grand finale to our Customer Service Week, all of our superheroes enjoyed a lunch buffet and voted on the best superhero duo photo from Thursday. Which one is your favorite?

Did you celebrate your frontline staff last week? What was your Customer Service Week theme? Tell us about it in the comments!

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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.

Looking back on Customer Service Week, I have to say our Spirit Team has done it again! This year’s theme was “Made in Michigan,” and if you live in Michigan, near us, or have just heard about our great state, then you know we have a lot to offer. 

From a Euchre tournament, to afternoon treats from Grand Traverse Pie Company, to Hot Wheels racing with Motor City classics, our team did an excellent job incorporating themes that are dear to Michiganders while making sure there was something to energize, engage, and enthuse everyone in the building!

At Baudville, we believe that all of our team members represent customer service, whether they’re on the phones or tucked away in a cubicle crunching numbers. That means celebrating the week always involves a variety of diversions, from games to food to everything in-between. Essentially, something for every Baudvillian to enjoy – just like we like it! 

We make Customer Service Week a really big deal because we know that our customer service is what sets us apart. And we also know that every single person at Baudville is a part of making our service exceptional. We can’t think of a better way to say thanks than making it last for an entire week. 

Cheers!

 
Baudvillians race their Motor City Classics! 

How did you celebrate Customer Service Week? Tell us about your theme and activities here!

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Brad Darooge is President and CEO of Baudville and a positive mojo aficionado. He brings the positive mojo to work every day along with his bike. In addition to leading Baudville, Brad is also an amateur triathlete.

This year we are kicking off Customer Service Week by celebrating something that is close to all our hearts here at Baudville. We are celebrating Michigan, with our Made in Michigan themed Customer Service Week.

For me Customer Service Week is extra special this year because it’s my first one… ever.  I was told last week kind of what to expect going into Customer Service Week, but for the most part I was left to determine what Baudville’s Customer Service Week is all about all by myself.  

Here's what we have been up to so far:

My first discovery about Customer Service Week at Baudville is that we get an entire week of casual days! If you have read any of my previous blog posts you will know about my enthusiasm for casual days. I promise, this blog post is not another rant about how much I love casual days.

Friday afternoon all of the employees received an email pumping us up for Customer Service Week but leaving the theme a secret.  On the dot at 8 o’clock Monday morning we were greeted by an email introducing our Made in Michigan themed Customer Service Week and the activity of the day: euchre.  Euchre is a very dear card game to all of us Michiganders and most of us have grown up playing with family and friends. Here at Baudville, two people from each department volunteered to play a high stakes game of euchre against the other departments. The winning team won a special prize for their department.  With the thoughts of euchre looming in the air that day a lot of Baudvillians got together and played card games at lunch. It was a great way for employees to hang out during their break and have a good time with each other.

On Tuesday our knowledge was tested. How much do we actually know about Michigan? We were quizzed with Michigan trivia questions like, What is our State’s Reptile? How many lighthouses does Michigan have?  and True or false, Michigan is one of two places in the world with a floating post office? False… we’re the only one! Then we finished the day with some yummy Made in Michigan pies!

Today, Wednesday, we were greeted with toy Hot Wheels cars and a gift certificate for a free car wash. At lunch we opened the cars and raced them against others. This provided a fun little activity that Baudvillans have been talking about all day, or should I say smack talking, as they compared their cars.

I found out that Customer Service Week is incredibly important here at Baudville. The activities that are planned throughout the week are great ways of saying thanks for all the hard work and that we truly do appreciate our customer service reps. Appreciating your customer service reps doesn’t have to be an over the top occasion, games and trivia can be just as nice of a gesture.

Tell us what you are doing for Customer Service Week!

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Kendra is the newest Baudvillian. She is currently an advertising intellectual at Grand Valley State University, and is ecstatic about the change of atmosphere as Baudville’s web marketing intern. Watch out because this young professional just touched down at Baudville.

 

Even though our Spirit Team hasn’t leaked any details about next week’s Customer Service Week   events, employees at Baudville are getting excited!

For our company, Customer Service Week is a celebration of ALL employees’ contributions to the customer experience. We understand that just because you don’t speak to a customer doesn’t mean you don’t influence their impression of Baudville. Marketing, packing, purchasing, accounting – all the departments at Baudville play important roles making sure customers find and get the right products.

We typically celebrate Customer Service Week with a theme and events every day of the week. (See this article  for more details about our past Customer Service Weeks.) It requires a lot of hard work and planning, but it always leaves a memorable impression on our staff.

Recently, I asked our employees about their favorite Customer Service Week events. Here’s what a few of them had to say:

“My favorite was when other departments covered thephones for the Customer Service Department so they could eat lunch together.” – Keri

 “I like all the snacks, but I’m a big pig. Oink oink! Usually there’s a tray of various goodies to choose from.  I like the selection of salty or sweet and the fact that each employee can choose what snack they want.”  – Kelly

“My favorite is lunch with a few games.  It’s a great time because everyone gets to come together to eat and hang out (even if it’s quick).  Also, there has to be prizes for the games!  They can be little ($5 gift cards), but that give it an element of competition and excitement.” – Christopher

“I LOVED the breakfast when we had omelets made to order, fresh juices, etc. There’s just something about having a great breakfast with everyone in the morning that I like even better than lunch. The day is new, and no one has been messing with you yet.” - Bruno

Worried that it’s too late to order gifts or plan for Customer Service Week? Don’t fret! Our same day shipping will get those team gifts  to your doorstep in no time.

Plus, we have lots of great articles with tips and ideas for Customer Service Week both on the Recognition at Work blog  and in our Recognition Resource Center . And don’t miss our Recognition TV episodes ! We share 15 minutes of ideas on both of these videos.

Our snack baskets have been a big hit with employees. Simply fill a basket with snack-size treats, like crackers, snack mix, and chocolate. Let employees pick their favorites!

Do you still need help planning Customer Service Week? Post your questions here for our recognition experts!

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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.

Today, I’m excited to introduce you to a new blog and an exciting collection of blogs all related to people management and human resources!

First, we have partnered with Jennifer V. Miller, a leadership coach and trainer in our own backyard, to provide her blog readers with information and tips on employee recognition. We’ve created a three part series for Jennifer, and today the first post, “Employee Recognition: Why the Lighter Side of Business has Serious Results,” was released. Visit The People Equation Blog to read the entire post, and stay tuned for the next two posts!

Next, we’re once again participating in the Carnival of HR. The Carnival of HR brings together bloggers from all different HR specialties and lists all their posts on one blog for your convenience. This week, the Lindenberger Group is hosting the Carnival and asked everyone to submit a post that incorporated the number seven since September is the Roman word for seven. You can read the entire Carnival of HR or check out our post, “Seven Tips for an Excellent Customer Service Week Celebration” right here on the blog.

Happy reading everyone!

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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.