During the first full week of October, we celebrate frontline staff during the nationally observed Customer Service Week. The recognition holiday takes place annually and is an important time to express appreciation for employees who interact directly with your customers.

Why is this important? Recent research by The Forum: Business Results through People has found that employee behavior increases customer spending. According to the study, “engaged employees created customers that purchased more, and a key measure of employees’ value was their impact on the income flows from customers.” Employees are more engaged when they feel valued and appreciated for their work! Customer Service Week is a great opportunity to make a big deal about your frontline employees, and hopefully influence customer sales, too.

We take Customer Service Week pretty seriously at Baudville. Our Spirit Team plans five days of activities that all revolve around a recognition theme. This year, our theme was Celebrating our Superheroes. We had so much fun with our theme that we wanted to share it with you. Maybe you’ll end up using some of our ideas for your next Customer Service Week theme!


Our Spirit Team designer created Baudville superhero characters!

Monday – During Customer Service Week, every Baudvillian was treated as a superhero! Employees had the chance to promote their super powers by designing a mask and creating their superhero alter ego. Creative stations were set up throughout the building with mask-decorating supplies including pipe cleaners, jewels, construction paper, and glitter glue.

Tuesday – To fuel the work of the superhero masks, we brought in a soft serve ice cream machine. Staff created their very own Super Sundaes!

Wednesday – Baudville superheroes had the opportunity to throw, shoot, punch, and knock their way through a Superhero Obstacle Course! Competitors donned capes and made their way through the course to defeat the super villain at the end.

Thursday – After all the superhero masks had been completed, teams voted on their top two favorite. The winning masks and their superhero counterpart were featured in a special photo shoot! See the awesome pictures below. 

Friday – First thing in the morning, all employees had a note of appreciation from their manager displayed in a Memo Clip waiting on their desk. The notes were a great day for managers to thank employees for sharing their super powers every day!

As a grand finale to our Customer Service Week, all of our superheroes enjoyed a lunch buffet and voted on the best superhero duo photo from Thursday. Which one is your favorite?

 

Boss’s Day 2012 is October 16, only two weeks from today. Are you planning to do something for your boss? Boss’s Day is an annual recognition holiday, and it’s important for recognizing managers and supervisors in your organization. If you haven’t planned anything for Boss’s Day, it’s time to start! Recognizing your boss on October 16 can have several benefits in the office and your career. Here are three reasons you should celebrate:
 

We’re excited to announce that we’ve been recognized for excellence in multichannel marketing with a Multichannel Merchant Gold Award for our 2011 holiday marketing campaign! 

The award program is organized by Multichannel Merchant, the leading information source serving the catalog, Internet, and merchant community. All of the entries are judged by a panel of industry experts who examine the award submissions for the best use of cross-channel marketing, and the award winners were announced at the National Etailing and Mailing Organization of America in Mystic, Connecticut, on September 20, 2012.  

At Baudville, our Spirit Team is busy meeting behind closed doors and completing top secret projects in preparation of Customer Service Week starting next Monday. Who’s the Spirit Team ? They’re a group of employees representing several different departments at Baudville who put on their party planning hats and organize our employee events. Customer Service Week is one of their biggest since they have to plan for an entire week of appreciation and fun.  And they do a great job! Our Customer Service Week celebrations are always a favorite among the Baudville staff.

We’ve found two major benefits to planning employee events as a team. First, it helps distribute the workload among several individuals. Events like Customer Service Week require a lot of work! It can be too much for one person on top of their full time job responsibilities. Second, the additional minds lend to more creative, original, and unique ideas. With a recurring annual event like Customer Service Week, getting new ideas is imperative to making your team feel appreciated during this holiday. If you’re not currently planning this event as a team, consider recruiting a few individuals to help you next year.

In the meantime, you have the entire Baudville team at your disposal to come up with creative Customer Service Week ideas your team will love! If you’re still searching for a few great ideas to celebrate your team, try our five resources for last minute ideas. I guarantee you’ll find at least one idea both you and your team will love!

1. Browse our Recognition Resource Center. We have resources dedicated to Customer Service and Sales recognition, including lots of articles, tips, and ideas on Customer Service Week!

2. Shop our recommended Customer Service Week gifts and themes. Our team has pulled together some of our favorite Customer Service Week gifts to help you start shopping.

3. Call a Recognition Specialist at 1-800-728-0888. Our team is always ready and willing to help you plan your employee recognition event! They have great product and event knowledge that they are dying to share with you.

4. Engage with us – and your peers! – on social media. One of the best places to get ideas for Customer Service Week is from your peers. Ask us a question on Twitter or Facebook, and our
followers will share their ideas, too.

5. Get ideas on Pinterest. One of my favorite places for event and recognition ideas these days is Pinterest! We’ve created boards for all the major employee recognition holidays, including Customer Service Week, to inspire you and give you some great ideas. 

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Friday September 21 is World Gratitude Day 2012! Make the day all about saying thank you for the people you appreciate. Who are you grateful for? Let them know! It’s often the people we appreciate the most who hear “thank you” from us the least. Let’s change that! Use one of these ideas to express thanks and gratitude on World Gratitude Day.

Send an ePraise.  Free, easy, and fast, ePraise are a great way to say thanks on World Gratitude Day. Select your ecard design from over 100 different options and type a personal note to the recipient. You can even schedule the card to be delivered at the date and time of your choosing.



Mail a Thank You Card. Even though the volume of mail being delivered has dwindled, everyone still loves to receive a card in the mail! Drop a card in the mail today with your personal note, and your recipient will feel both appreciated and surprised!

Give a Thank You Gift. Giving a personal gift is a great way to express appreciation! Choose a gift that will be meaningful to the recipient, whether it’s an item for their favorite hobby, a book by a favorite author, or a gift card to their favorite restaurant. If you’re looking for ideas, shop our Thank You Themes.



Say Thanks in Person. It’s wonderful to give someone tangible appreciation in the form of a gift or a note card, but we shouldn’t underestimate the power of saying thank you face-to-face. Seek out the coworker or neighbor and use these four tips to give a sincere thank you.

At a loss for words? We’ve put together over 25 positive feedback phrases and 101 Ways to Praise to help you start writing. We have tips for writing a great thank you note  in our Recognition Resource Center, too.

Next Thursday September 27 is National Thank You Day! Keep the thanks flowing by acting on one of these ideas for that holiday, too! 

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Cori is Baudville's in-house Recognitionista (she's officially a Certified Recognition Professional, too)  and a member of the Millennial generation. Get her employee recognition tips and special discounts by liking Baudville on Facebook.