4 Way to Recognize Your Reps During Customer Service Week

Customer Service Week is upon us (October 5-9). For those that don’t follow, Customer Service Week is designed to boost morale, motivate the team, reward and thank reps, raise awareness of the importance of customer service across the organization, thank those that you depend upon for successful customer service (both internally and externally), and to remind your customers that you are committed to service. It's certainly a lot to pack into one week.This is probably the most interesting Customer Service Week we have ever had - so much has changed! I was thinking about this upcoming week and realized that life for our contact centers is chaotic enough with the new world we live in, NOW they have to come up with some new ideas as to how to celebrate? So, here are a few ideas you can use to help celebrate your customer service agents:

Give Them a Break

This is your front line, your reps can take a beating. A fresh, unexpected, impromptu break is a fantastic way to let them breathe.

• If you see that call volumes are low, give your top performer the rest of the day off, or a 20 minute "snooze fest" (This isn't a joke! Give employees a 20 minute nap allotment ...zzz).
• Send agents a funny or motivational video and ask them to put themselves into an unavailable status for a bit. Anything to just refresh.
• Set up a lunch or coffee session (or a few if you don’t want to take too many off the phones).
• A simple phone call to ask  someone about their weekend, their plans, anything to make it personal could very well put a smile on their face.

Reward and Praise

• I still believe that a handwritten card carries more weight than any other form of a thank you. Unfortunately for me, no one can understand my handwriting! Nonetheless, I think it carries more meaning than an email.
• Implement an employee of the month program if you haven't already. Here's an idea I got from a client of mine a while back ... when an employee wins employee of the month, the entire team gets a lunch, but the employee ALSO gets either a one-on-one breakfast or lunch with an executive (V- or C-level). All of this can still be done with Uber Eats or Door Dash and a virtual conference.

Play a Game

• Your marketing team probably has a lot of give-away or promo items that they bought pre-Covid. Perhaps you can ship these as prizes for game winners or praise.
• Send $1 or $5 lottery tickets as prizes for hitting certain numbers (handle time, adherence, etc.).  Or, perhaps a travelling trophy!
• Check out this link for games for remote employees ... there are some fun ones in here.

Make Their Lives Easier

If you ask any of your reps who are battling the front lines, they will tell you that there are certain pieces or processes of the organization which are “ridiculous”. Listen to them! This is going to be scary but ask your team to come up with ONE thing that they would like you to focus your attention on … and follow through! It’s scary because it's putting something on your plate; it's scary because you are likely going to have to ruffle some feathers. In the end, this will go a long way with your team.While we’d traditionally expect to celebrate Customer Service Week externally and internally, I believe this year contact center managers really need to spend extra time focusing internally. We are nine month into this pandemic and perhaps the “honeymoon period” of working from home is coming to an end for many. The impending fall/early winter, and the cloudy skies that go with it, are likely going to add to these types of feelings. If you can take advantage of Customer Service Week and put a smile on your employees' faces, perhaps you can extend that honeymoon period into the holiday season.I hope this provides you with some starting points to celebrate Customer Service Week or just put a needed smile on the faces of your front line workers - they deserve it!