It’s customer service week, yeah! What have you got planned out?
Historically, Customer service week happens in the first full week in October, and it is an international celebration of the importance of customer service. Also, the lights are focused on the men and women who provide customer service. You know how we always say ‘customer is king’? Well, this is the one week where you are not allowed to say that. Lol.
Overall, the target of activities in the customer service week should be to boost team morale of the team that carries out the significant task of keeping your customers satisfied, and also appreciate them for what they do.
The success of most business structures is somehow tied around the customer service, so this is a really important week in the calendar. This may also be a good time to review some of your customer service strategies and see how to improve on it. It may be in form of providing gifts and incentives for your customer service staffs. It may also be in form of an organised training for your employees, to improve their customer service skills.
It does not have to be entirely about your customers, neither does it have to be all focused on the staffs. At the end of the customer service week, what you significantly want to see in your business is satisfied customers, and happier employees.
Here are three suggestions of what you can do in this customer service week.
Do a customer survey
It’s customer service week after all. Wouldn’t it be a good time to hear from your customers how they feel about the service so far? Sure, it would.
You can do an online survey. Simply create the form, using a sweet thank you message as the introduction. Send the links to all customers (using your past customer data). Appreciate them for their patronage, and let them know you would like to serve them
better. Ask them what they enjoyed most about your service or product in the past. Ask them to rate the product, price, quality, aftersales service, and customer service in general.
You can sweeten this deal, but giving a discount to those who fill out your survey, on their next purchase (maybe within the next one month). Make it a win-win for everyone.
Engage the customers and get them to connect with your team
This is a good time to engage and connect with your customers as well (you know you should be doing this every time of the year though). If you have sufficient data of reviews on transactions, you can identify employees who have received great reviews in the past and celebrate them. Or you can have a poll (in-team or among your customers) to decide which team member is most efficient in customer service. Take time out and celebrate them.
Now, how does this engage the customer?
An example will best convey this. What if you send out messages to your customers (via social media, whatsapp or whatever channel you use) introducing them to the customer service staff of the year. You can now invite them to celebrate this person with appreciation messages tagging their handles. You may even randomly select some customers at the end of the day and give some gifts to thank them for celebrating the staff.
Remember the goal is happier staffs, and satisfied customers.
Consider some appreciation packages for your team
Often times, the focus is on promotions and discounts and gifts for customers, with little or nothing for the team. This is one week in the year you can reverse things a bit. Try to appreciate your team too. There are endless ideas on what to do. It can be as simple as an appreciation board where you post appreciation messages to every member of the team. It can be a ticket to the movies, a lunch pack, a shopping voucher, a little bonus etc.
Often, the focus is not in the size of the package but in the thought behind it. Get creative and thoughtful. You will come up with something they would love.
Bottomline
Above all, Customer Service Week is an opportunity to stop and think about the welfare of the people who make your business successful – your employees, your customers, your partners. Appreciate them all.
