10 Reasons Why You Should Celebrate Customer Service Teams [+ Free Mini Activity Planner]

Customer service is hard work. Disgruntled customers, technical issues, and endless service tickets can take a toll. Without a strong team culture, your customer service representatives can become disengaged and uninspired, leading to burnout that affects your bottom line, not to mention your customer satisfaction.

More than a third of hourly, customer service workers feel physically and emotionally drained after an average day’s work. And, with remote work, employees are working more than ever before. At this point, nearly 50% of American employees consider themselves workaholics. Only 46% of workers take their allocated paid time off (PTO).

Add in new working conditions and shifting protocols, and it’s easy to see why employees are overwhelmed. With AI leading to worker pressure, fluctuating RTO requirements, and high customer expectations, your customer service agents bear the responsibility of keeping customers happy and loyal. It’s time to recognize all their hard work.

Elevate your customer service celebrations to new heights with Cooleaf's Customer Service Week Guide + Bingo Card!

Employee recognition matters as it directly impacts critical aspects of the organization. Several studies have shown that workplace recognition programs are a powerful driver of retention, productivity, and motivation. For example:

• Employees are 2x as likely to say they’ll quit when there’s a lack of recognition, and “the more talented the employee is, the faster they leave.”
• Companies that recognize their employees enjoy a 14% increase in employee engagement, productivity, and performance than companies that do not.
• Employees feel motivated and happy when they are recognized. Research has shown that happy employees are 13% more productive.

When structured efficiently, recognition can reinforce a company’s organizational values, which helps to keep employees aligned with their objectives and their coworkers.

Exceptional customer service starts with happier employees. Better employee experience, better customer experience.

But motivating your customer service team can be challenging. In order to keep team members inspired to do their best work, customer service leaders need to make sure that their reps feel valued and appreciated. By acknowledging and celebrating achievements, team leaders can express gratitude and create a better work culture.

Birthdays, anniversaries, and team wins are all great excuses to throw a party. But every now and then, leaders should also find reasons to celebrate “just because.” Every team deserves to feel that appreciation – especially your frontline. And customer service week is the perfect time to recognize your team while celebrating their hard work in providing great customer service for your brand.

→ Download Now: Free Mini Activity Planner to Celebrate Your Customer Service Team

When is Customer Service Week?

Customer service week is a yearly celebration that falls in the first week of October. It’s a time to celebrate your team’s performance this year. Teams can celebrate with perks like gift cards, a nice meal out, a happy hour celebration, or with incentives like gift cards or swag.

Not October? That's ok! You should really be finding ways to celebrate your team every month of the year, so go ahead and pick a week, and dedicate it to shining a light on all the hard work your Customer Service team does every day.

Why is it important to celebrate Customer Service Week?

‍

1. Employee experience is the new customer experience

It’s no longer about being “customer-first” – it’s about being “people-first.” And that starts with your employees. Why? Because your employees determine your customer experience.

Companies with a “people-first” culture understand that their employees are critical to providing the best customer service. And they reinforce that through the employee experience.

We all need to feel respected and appreciated in order to do our best work. When employee happiness is a top priority, customers receive better service.

Tip: You can measure employee experience by using eNPS metrics. Take a pulse on employee satisfaction and compare it against your CSAT score.

2. Customers care about how you treat your employees

Your employee experience affects the way that people perceive your brand. That's why it's so important to treat your employees well. Not only does this lead to a more productive work environment, but it also improves your brand value.

In a Morning Consult report, 90% of consumers said that they cared about how brands treated their employees. The public perception of your company culture impacts brand favorability as well as purchasing intent.

When you treat your employees well, they’ll reward you with fierce loyalty, become your best brand advocates, and it trickles down to excellent customer service. On the flip side, if you treat your employees poorly, then they will become disengaged, and be more likely to damage your brand. Creating a fulfilling work environment is good for your employees and your business.

Tip: Engaged teams have high employee referrals and team members sharing their experience on social media like on Linkedin. This is part of employer branding, which helps promote your culture and boosts internal engagement.

‍

3. Recognizing customer service week brings the whole company together

Celebrating together as a team can unite your organization and boost morale. When employees see other team members being recognized and celebrated, they’ll feel more connected to all of the great things your company is doing. This leads to better engagement, a deeper sense of camaraderie, and higher productivity.

Get the whole organization involved by celebrating your customer service team publicly. Better yet, empower employees from other teams to say it in their own words. Employee recognition that comes from peers (rather than managers) can be uniquely impactful and help unite the team. Employee appreciation not only helps your team

Cooleaf fuels the employee experience with virtual activities and challenges designed to inspire and motivate your team. Download our free activity planner for Customer Service Week with ideas to celebrate your CSRs.

4. Leaders are reminded of the hard work on the front lines

Too often leadership loses touch with the customer service teams that are responsible for taking care of the customer. Nothing gets made, delivered, served, or replaced without a key front line team member there owning the experience.  

Customers go unserved and unsatisfied without the hard work of these talented and dedicated team members  This is a chance to remember how important they are ensure they are recognized and supported.

5. Inspires teamwork

Understanding how various teams can work together is a key way to drive a great customer experience.  The pitfall of poor communication is that it creates confusion and inconsistencies that either frustrate customers or the customer service team (and often both).  

Celebrating this week also calls to attention that every department in a service location, as well as from the corporate office, must work together to create engaging experiences.  This could be customer service team members coming together during busy times or headquarters listening to feedback from these teams  Both are crucial to ensuring an integrated, seamless, and effortless customer experience.

‍

6. Employee and knowledge retention

The risk with employee turnover in customer service teams is the loss of product knowledge – which helps employees respond to customers’ questions or close sales. According to Panopto’s research, 42% of an employee’s knowledge in a given role is unique to that person. It comes from self-learning and discovering new efficient and effective approaches on the job. When that employee leaves, the customer experience suffers because the new or existing employees may not be as efficient as the employee with the unique knowledge.

Tip: Spotlighting employees encourages employees to stay longer on the job and keep their expertise within your organization. Recognition is proven to reduce turnover by over 30%, according to Bersin & Associates. ‍‍‍

7. Encourages high performance

Recognition has the power to bring out the best in your customer service teams. When employees feel recognized, they’re more likely to do their best and represent your company in a positive manner, and as a result, your customers will benefit.

While 89% of employees say positive feedback is their biggest motivation, only 39% receive any feedback at all; positive or negative. This is a great opportunity to reinforce how much your customer service teams mean to the success of the organization.

Tip: Host an employee recognition program where peers in the contact center recognize one another for specific moments of success. Share these with your leadership at the next meeting!

8. Creates a feeling of purpose

Customer service teams, like all employees,  want to feel like their work makes a difference, that what they’re doing serves a purpose. When you recognize your staff, they feel that sense of purpose. People are more likely to do their best when they feel like what they’re doing matters.

For example, a purpose-driven customer support team will take on the responsibility of making sure each customer is satisfied, not because it’s their job, but because they really feel it’s their purpose. When this happens, your customers will receive outstanding support.

9. Builds a positive work environment

Building a positive work environment for customer service teams impacts the money you put into your organization and the people who work there.

According to Officevibe, “feeling valued and appreciated at work is directly tied to employee happiness and engagement.”

Taking just a few minutes out of your day to tell someone about the fantastic job they are doing can radiate a positive atmosphere throughout the workplace. After all, when you feel good, you want to make sure that other people feel the same way.

Gerrid Smith, Founder of Corporate Investigation Consulting, confirms the positive impact of recognition in a work environment by saying, “When employees are recognized for their contributions, it goes a long way toward making the workplace a place where they want to work.”

Tip: Engage your leadership. Give them the tools, like a recognition platform, core values, or even goal, to recognize their team members when they see good work.

10. Improves morale

Customer service teams spend 40+ (often stressful) hours at work each week. As a result, it’s not uncommon for them to spend more time with colleagues than with their families—even though many are still working from home.

Team morale improves on an individual level when leaders grasp the genuine purpose of appreciation and importance of employee spotlights, as employees leave work with a strong sense of worth. They, in general, have a higher sense of well-being and job satisfaction, and as a result, group morale rises, and a sense of respect and positivism pervades the workplace.

Tip: Create an incentive program to encourage peer recognition. With tools like Cooleaf, employees can earn incentives for recognizing one another for a job well done.

Need ideas to celebrate customer service week?

To get you started here are a few ideas to celebrate CS week with your team:

Encourage customer service appreciation

Whether that's through a recognition challenge or reaching out to different departments, show your customer service team that their essential work matters and is appreciated all around.

With Cooleaf, we can even set that recognition challenge up for your whole organization in one holistic platform.

Do something to support your team's well-being

Maybe that's hosting online or in-house yoga classes or a step challenge. Maybe it's offering meditation resources through apps like Headspace or a rest day. Putting your frontline team's health first helps everyone feel appreciated and supported.

Send treats

Who doesn't love a surprise treat? With some remote teams this is a great way to surprise and delight your team members. Surprise everyone with snacks for the week, baked goods for breakfast, or even a popular food truck at lunch! Tasty gestures can go a long way.

Invest in their growth

There’s no better way to celebrate your people than to support their professional growth. Offering the tools or courses to help your reps learn new skills shows you care and are invested in their success.

‍

So, how do you celebrate customer service week?

Interested in learning more about how to engage and motivate your customer service team? Cooleaf can help — let's chat!