Customer Service Week is October 5-9, 2015. Are you low on funding for the upcoming celebration? Have no fear! Here are 5 low-cost ideas to make sure your Customer Service Week event is a hit!

1. Get out your trusty scissors and start crafting some fun workplace decorations.
Make them feel like they've hit the red carpet by posting stars in the hallways, on the doors, and in the offices. Pretend you're the paparazzi and take photos of your team to post with celebrity-style captions.

2. Put the work in your team's hands.
Assign each member of your sales, marketing, accounting, operations, or IT team a customer service rep. Give them a card to write and sign and a candy bar. Ask them to hand-deliver it to their assigned rep during Customer Service Week.

3. Bring on the pot luck!
Have the rest of the staff "cater" a lunch for your customer service team. Try to get a few team members to dress up to serve them lunch!

4. Take 25.
25 minutes is all it takes to get outside and enjoy a little team time. Set up yard games, host a beanbag tournament, or play HORSE at a local park – even if it's just 25 minutes!

5. Email trivia contest.
Stuck at your desk? No problem. Every 2 hours send a trivia question to the team – make it fun and memorable (perhaps some customer service team tidbits and statistics?) – and hand out prizes to the winners!

Every business that's in business has two types of customers. You're probably familiar with the most obvious kind: external customers who buy or use our goods and services.

But, there are also internal customers: that is, the departments and individuals who we interact with on a daily basis. Our cooperation with one another is what keeps the company running smoothly, which means giving exceptional service to our co-workers is just as vital as it is to anyone over the phone, at the counter, or in the aisles.

In turn, that means that even if we aren't in Customer Service proper, we're all still serving customers—and we all need a little appreciation for giving our best, no matter who we're giving it to.

Now that we've got that out of the way, let's start planning the celebration you're going to have with everyone in your company that first week of October! Take our advice and...

Make it Affordable. The purpose of Customer Service Week is not to blow your budget, it's to have a blow-out event that shows how much your team matters to your business. With gifts from our new Value Line, you can give a keepsake to everyone and keep money in your pocket, too.

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?