Customer Service Week: What It Is and Ways to Celebrate
Customer service is a difficult job, and it doesn't always get the recognition it deserves. In some ways that makes sense: Customer service happens in the background. It’s not a flashy part of business, but it’s an incredibly important one. In fact, nearly 70% of consumers say they’re willing to pay more for products and services from brands that are known to provide great customer service.
Customer service folks are the ones most likely to interact with customers directly and have a large impact on how customers perceive your brand. They solve problems, advocate for customers, and share invaluable insights to help make products and services better. In our opinion, all that hard work deserves to be celebrated.
One way you can celebrate and recognize the hard work of your customer service team is by participating in customer service week.
What is customer service week?
Customer service week is an annual event that celebrates and recognizes the hard work of customer service professionals. Customer service week is always the first full week of October and has been around since the late 80s, with all U.S. states recognizing the day starting in 2016. There are currently around 60 countries in total that celebrate the day, with more sure to join in the near future.
Celebrating customer service week is important because it acknowledges the integral role customer service professionals play in an organization's success. A lot of customer service work happens in the background, so it’s not commonly something that gets a ton of visibility. Taking part in customer service week is essentially an opportunity for an organization to show that they value that work.
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Customer service week ideas
Now that you know what customer service week is, you might want some ideas on how to participate. Simply sending a company-wide email acknowledging the holiday’s existence won’t cut it. Below are a few ideas you can use to get active and involved in customer service week and show your team how much they — and their work — mean to you.
Themed days
Breaking up each day of the week into its own mini event is a great way to keep people engaged every day and to ensure everyone on your team can participate. You could tie each day of the week to a different customer service topic or issue. You could also do themes like “dress up like a co-worker” day or other fun events. We think it’s best to do a mix of serious and lighthearted themes. What fun is a celebration without at least a little silliness?
Whole company support
Customer service is all about empathy, and one of the best ways to show your appreciation is to walk a mile in their shoes. Whole company support gives customer service members a little time back while also helping people understand the value of the work they do. If you’re curious to learn more about whole company support, we have an entire article on how you can pull it off.
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Out-of-the-queue sprint
By virtue of the position, a lot of customer service professionals spend a large amount of their time “in the queue” — this refers to any time an agent is directly interacting with a customer through phone, email, chat, or another channel. Though queue work is a very important aspect of customer service, it is just one aspect.
Chances are there’s an out-of-the-queue project people have wanted to tackle but simply haven’t had the time. Customer service week is a great time to give your team the time to focus on those projects. Having a break from the everyday hustle can be energizing and also shows you understand customer service is more than just responding to customers.
Town hall gathering
Customer service week is about awareness just as much as it’s about appreciation. Setting up a town hall where your customer service team can share about the work they do as well as answer questions from others can help give a great amount of visibility into the important work that they do on a daily basis and help others in the company recognize their contribution.
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Customer service week activities
Games and other activities are a fun way to celebrate as well as bring teams together. If you want to make things a little more interesting you could include prizes, too. Below are a few options to consider.
Scavenger hunt
Scavenger hunts are a fun way to engage teams and get them outside of their regular routine. You can opt to create your own adventure or use a number of online tools to create a fun activity. You can tie the clues to company-related things or not. Either way, it’s a good way to foster connection among team members and bring a little novelty to their day. You can also make it remote-friendly by having it be an online scavenger hunt.
Escape room
Escape rooms are another teamwork activity that can be a fun way to bring people together. They usually aren’t terribly expensive and don’t take a ton of time. You also usually have an option to choose the difficulty level of the room you’re escaping from, which can be nice if there are some who want a more relaxed route through. It also makes dividing into teams easier as people tend to self-select for difficulty level.
Top Golf (or something similar)
Top Golf (or something similar, like bowling) is a more casual activity where people can choose to engage directly or not. They have clubs at places like Top Golf, so there’s no need to bring anything. There are also generally food and drink options as well. Depending on the size of your group, it might be a little pricier than other options on the list, so we suggest calling ahead to get rates.
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Laser tag
If you have a very active or competitive group, laser tag could be a great option. It’s another team activity that encourages people to work together. It’s fun, but it won’t take up an entire day as rounds are usually 30 minutes or so. It’s also generally not incredibly expensive. And, if you grew up in the 90s, it’s probably nostalgic.
Jeopardy
Customer service folks often have encyclopedic knowledge of your product and company. A Jeopardy-style game can put that knowledge to the test. There are online tools (like this) you can use to build this out so it’s not a huge lift. You can choose to do this as teams, or folks can play individually. It’s also good for virtual teams since it doesn't require being in person.
Arcade
Though it’s not exactly a group bonding experience, going to a local arcade could be a fun thing to do. Essentially you buy tokens and divy them out to team members. From there they can choose their own adventure and decide what games to play. This is another option that probably won’t break the bank or take up the whole day, so it could be a good one to consider.
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Customer service week gifts
Gifts are a great way to show appreciation for your team’s hard work. They don’t have to be extravagant to have an impact; they just need to be thoughtful. The size of your team and budget will determine what types of gifts you can give, but as long as they’re thoughtful, your team will appreciate them.
Catered food
Though free food isn’t the most creative thing, it’s generally appreciated. To take it up a notch, consider ordering in from a local favorite. Also make sure to get any dietary restrictions upfront so everyone can join in. If you’re a distributed team, you can also send out gift cards and let team members choose what they’d like.
Customized swag
Team-specific swag can be a great option for a thoughtful gift. T-shirts, hoodies, and water bottles tend to always be a hit, but you could also survey your team to see if there’s something else they’d like. For example, we’ve seen some pretty stellar socks over the years. Depending on the item, this could be a little costlier than other options, so that’s something to keep in mind.
Thank-you cards
More on the sentimental side of things are thank-you cards. Having leadership handwrite personalized thank-you cards for each team member, highlighting what they appreciate about them specifically, can be an incredibly impactful thing to do. It’s a small gesture but one that can go a long way in making people feel seen.
Gift cards
Similar to food, gift cards may not be the most creative gift, but they’re nice because they put the receiver in the driver’s seat. It’s essentially a choose-your-own-adventure gift. With a ton of online options available, it’s also a good option for distributed teams. Further, since you choose the amount of the gift card, it also gives you a lot of agency over the total cost.
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Final thoughts
Customer service folks certainly don’t get into the profession for the praise, but it’s always nice to be recognized for the hard work you do. Customer service week is a great opportunity to do so. As it is for most things, it’s the thought that counts. So, be thoughtful in your efforts, and no matter what you do, your team will see that you care.
Jesse Short
After spending a few years working as a support agent, Jesse made the switch to writing full-time. He is a Help Scout alum, where he worked to help improve the agent and customer experience.