Whether your customer experience professionals work on-site or remotely, it’s the time of year to celebrate them, your customers and all the great experiences. It’s almost National Customer Service Week – and we have plans for you.

The annual celebration is the first full workweek of October each year.

That comes from the International Customer Service Association, now PACE, which established the week-long event in 1984 and lobbied for Congress to proclaim it an official national event in 1992.

Many organizations will use October 5-9, 2021 to celebrate all aspects of the customer experience. They build events around the key players: front-line service reps, sales professionals, customers and those who support your efforts.

Sure, this year might be different accommodating a remote workforce and less personal interaction with customers, but it’s still an important event to recognize and celebrate.

Here, we offer one fun idea for each day of the week – and two ways to execute it, on-site and remotely:

Monday: Sing the Praises

Start the week with praise and recognition to boost spirits. Ask executives, front-line managers, colleagues in departments you support and customers to thank customer experience professionals.

On-site: Invite colleagues and executives in the building to stop by with cards and/or prepared words, thanking employees for all they do to keep your customers satisfied and your organization operating. Even better, help them deliver a breakfast cart or midday snack.

Remote: Start now to request and gather video testimonials from execs, colleagues and customers who can give heartfelt praise and thanks to your customer experience team. Blend the messages together, or send them out via email or on your communication app throughout the day to spread the goodwill.

Tuesday: Thank customers

It’s important to recognize the people who make the customer experience possible during the week – your customers.

Regardless of where front-line employees work, they can answer phones and email messages with, “Thanks for contacting me on National Customer Week. What can I do to help?”

On-site: On-site employees can get together and record a short message about loyal customers and how they’ve enjoyed working with them over the years. Or maybe they can use down time to write a few personal notes to customers whom they’ve connected with or helped through a complex issue in recent weeks, thanking them for patience, business, flexibility, continued trust or persistent loyalty.

Remote: Remote employees might carve out some time on Tuesday to use social media to thank customers. They might use a smartphone to make a quick video of themselves thanking customers for their business and post it in your social channels.

Wednesday: Midweek Fun

No matter where everyone is working, get together to relax, laugh and socialize. Hand out some funny awards, such as:

• Master of Disaster for the employee who can resolve issues with the toughest customers
• Worn Out Shoe for the employee who always goes the extra mile for customers
• The Client Whisperer for the one who always says the right thing to calm customers
• Champion Colleague for the employee who never hesitates to pitch in, and
• Rebound Rockstar for the employee who bounces back from tough situations – and helps colleagues do the same.

On-site: Meet at a local hangout after hours, according to your local gathering guidelines.

Remote: Schedule a video conference and invite everyone to jump on for as long as they can.

Thursday: Game Day

With the return of sports in the last few months, try a tailgate of sorts.

On-site: If possible, set up an outdoor tailgate. Ask people to bring in games such as corn hole, ladder ball and disc toss. Encourage them to wear their favorite sports team attire (if it’s appropriate in your office). You might cook hot dogs and burgers on an outdoor grill, order them or arrange for a food truck to show up at your office.

Remote: Send employees gift credit to food delivery services. Encourage them to wear their favorite sports team attire and arrange several Zoom call time so groups can get together virtually, enjoy a tailgate favorite they ordered on their own and talk “game.”

Friday: Training Day

You can try professional development on the last day, but hardworking customer experience professionals might enjoy fun training instead.

On-site: Bring in a wellness, Yoga or meditation instructor to go through relaxation exercises during breaks. Serve a healthy, catered lunch. Or, at closing time, you might invite a local bartender to do a drink-making class or wine-tasting experience. You can bring in a food truck or catered happy hour appetizers.

Remote: Many companies are doing these kinds of things online for employees now.

And lastly, we like to offer this quick-hitting piece nearly every year in case you need other last-minute, low-cost ideas to celebrate.

Adapted from Internet