Ideas for Celebrating Customer Service Week in Your Call Center

It’s that time of year again: Customer Service Week! This year, Customer Service Week is being celebrated October 2-6, 2023, and there are lots of ways to celebrate this occasion—even on a budget! Take advantage of this time to amplify your customer experience by supporting your call center team.

That’s why we decided to ask a few customers how they honor the great work their agents and contact center teams do day in and day out. Get inspired with this range of activities that show recognition and appreciation.

Celebrate Customer Service Week Without Breaking the Bank

Organizations of all sizes can find great ways to celebrate customer service week. If you’re looking for some fun ideas on a budget, the following are some simple yet nice ways to say “thank you” to your team for the great customer experience they provide.

A Crowd Favorite: Free Food

Adding food incentives to your contact center is a simple way to boost morale. Kick off the week with delicious treats, like breakfast foods, ice cream socials, and more. See some tasty examples below:

• Morning treats (donuts, fruit, bagels)
• Site-wide luncheons
• Food trucks
• Cookouts
• Potlucks
• Catered lunches
• Ice cream socials
• Uber eats discounts/ gift cards

Free food is an easy way to bring smiles to your frontline workers. Whether you start your customer service week celebrations with free food or have it be a bonus treat throughout the week, there are so many ways to toast your hardworking team.

Special Office Activities

If you’re looking for some fun in-office activities for national customer service week, look no further. By hosting fun activities, you can help destress hardworking agents, and create engaging events for them. Try some entertaining ideas, such as:

• Lip-sync videos made for the agents by leadership
• Chair massages
• Photo Booths
• Daily dress-up themes (Footie Pajama Day, Decades Day, Favorite Sports Team Day, etc.)
• Raffles
• Team-building activities
• Offsite scavenger hunt
• Airbnb discounts for hybrid/remote employees

The best part of these ideas is that they can fit within any budget. Don’t break the bank while creating a fun work environment for this occasion. Plus, more engaging office incentives build better office morale and hopefully greater employee retention.

Group Activities

While having fun incentives and celebrations at work is a great idea, you don’t have to stop there! Consider the following engaging social events that your employees can enjoy and even bring their loved ones along for the occasion:

• Theme park
• Movie theater
• Top golf
• Sports game
• Local festival
• Virtual cocktail

These off-site events are a great way to show appreciation. What better way to celebrate your team than by watching a favorite local sports team, having a fun night out playing golf, or making an event available to the whole family?

Games, Prizes, and Giveaways

Another great way to give back to your customer support team is through lively office games, prices, and giveaways. Gamification is already a great tool for encouraging agents to compete amongst their own scores as well as their peers. Take a more light-hearted approach with a familiar theme with the potential to win big. You’d be amazed at how some light-hearted fun and healthy competition can be rewarding for your workers. Try adding a few of these ideas for your customer service week celebrations.

• Contact center and/or pod decorating contests
• Bingo games featuring customer service terms
• Virtual scavenger hunt
• Other daily games, contests, and team-building competitions with big-ticket prizes like TVs
• Company-branded swag
• Gift cards

While these activities are fun they are also a great way to say ” thank you” to your hardworking employees showing service excellence. By delivering great customer service, your team is not only helping others, but they are also helping your organization. That’s why it’s in all business leaders’ best interest to take the time to offer these enticing incentives that acknowledge all the hard work of the team.

Recognition Programs

If you are on a tight budget, but still want to celebrate your team, recognition programs are a great option. Employees at all levels love to feel appreciated and valued for the hard work they do. While providing positive feedback on an individual basis is essential, you can include other thoughtful actions that show your appreciation, including:

• Handwritten thank you notes to agents from leadership
• Appreciation parties
• Award programs and ceremonies (based on nominations from peers, leaders, and/or customers)
• Daily recognition for quality scores and other key metrics
• Prominent posting of customer quotes that praise specific agents

While you can add recognition events that are in person, many of these could also benefit hybrid and remote workers. Although they may not be in the office, they still need to feel like a valued part of the team.

Boost Employee Wellbeing for Greater Customer Satisfaction

Your customer service team is the foundation that builds brand loyalty for your organization. With rising consumer expectations, your contact center agents continue to strive for higher customer satisfaction. That’s why it’s so essential to acknowledge and celebrate all the hardworking people who make up your customer service team.

By improving employee morale, you will also increase employee retention. That’s because taking the time to appreciate and give back to your team will create greater employee engagement. This can also indirectly help improve customer engagement as well because happier, more engaged workers will naturally do a better job.

Give Back During Customer Service Week

Investing in your team through employee engagement incentives is a wonderful way to improve your company culture. Since call centers are such high-stress environments, it’s so vital to take the time to make your agents feel valued and respected. Remember the motto: happier employees, happier customers. Use some of the fun resources above alongside engaging performance coaching initiatives to invest in your team.

Whether you offer these activities only to your contact center teams or extend them to the entire organization, this list will help you jumpstart your own Customer Service Week celebration or freshen up your existing festivities. Happy Customer Service Week!