It’s Customer Service Week in October—and if you’re all out of ideas, do not despair, here are some awesome themes and activities.
When it comes to planning your Customer Service Week celebration, you should always start with the theme.
The theme sets the tone for the entire event and serves as the guideline for your decision making.
However, coming up with a creative theme can be the hardest part, so we’ve put together five of our favorite themes and coordinating activities that any budget can pull off.
1. Hollywood Movie Star Customer Service Week Theme
Give your employees the red carpet treatment with a movie star or Hollywood themed event. We used this theme at Baudville several years ago and started the week by replacing our regular black carpet runners with red ones. It didn’t cost anything extra, and it started the week with a bang! This theme is fun for Customer Service Week because you emphasize the importance of your customer service team by referring to them as stars all week.
Activity ideas for this theme:
- Create your own hall of fame with employee names on gold stars.
- Put together swag bags for every member of your team.
- Host a trivia contest or have a Scene-It DVD game show down in the afternoon.
- End the week by giving your team a memento to remember the week, like a Twist Top Tumbler in the Star Performer theme.
2. Patriotic Customer Service Week Theme
Celebrate Customer Service Week with a Patriotic Theme. Start the week by giving every employee a patriotic lapel pin. Encourage managers to write individual notes to the recipients with Pocket Praise mini note cards.
Activity ideas for this theme:
- Declare one day red, white and blue and encourage everyone to dress in those colors (or the colors of your choice, of course!)
- Take a picture of the entire company in their patriotic colors outside the building or in a large gathering place for a photo. Print copies for everyone.
- Host a red, white, and blue potluck and hand out awards, such as most creative use of color, judge’s favorite, and best presentation.
- Customer Service Week isn’t complete without a little competition, so create teams and challenge them to build an American monument using only toothpicks and gum drops.
3. Making a Difference Customer Service Week Theme
Customer Service Week is about thanking your employees, but you can use this week to focus on your external customers, too. This year, dedicate Customer Service Week to your community with a Making a Difference theme.
Activity ideas for this theme:
- Have a competition to collect canned goods, clothing, or loose change. Send daily updates to the entire organization about the status of the challenge.
- Volunteer as a team during the week at a local soup kitchen, food pantry, or other charitable organization.
- Begin a Pay It Forward campaign during the week within your organization using Cheerful Change.
- Ask employees to share their stories of random acts of kindness on the company blog or intranet. See how far the tokens spread outside of your organization by the end of the week!
4. Around the World Customer Service Week Theme
If your team enjoys celebrating with food, this theme is for you! Travel with your team around the world during Customer Service Week and sample all the wonderful, food, music, and history from the various areas you visit.
Activity ideas for this theme:
- Each day, visit a different country and bring in a snack that is associated with that area. For example, travel to Mexico and enjoy chips and salsa in the afternoon, or stop in Hawaii and sample a fresh fruit tray.
- Host your own geography bowl. Quiz employees on all things geography in a meeting and award the winner a prize.
- Create a passport for each employee at the beginning of the week using our specialty event paper and give them a stamp when they participate in various activities and events throughout the week. Enter employees who fill their passports into a prize drawing.
5. Super Hero Customer Service Week Theme
As the face of your organization, your front line employees are heroes to your customers! Celebrate their super powers with a Super Hero theme for Customer Service Week.
Activity ideas for this theme:
- Declare one day Dress Like Your Favorite Super Hero Day. You’ll be amazed at the outfits your team will come up with!
- Create a matching game with super heroes and the movies, TV shows, or comic books they came from. Discover who in your organization knows their super heroes the best!
- Treat the team to superman ice cream and super hero popsicles.
- Have a super team relay obstacle course as a team competition during the week. The team with the fastest time wins!
- Bring in a game console and have your staff’s favorite super hero video games available to play during lunch or breaks.
- Play super hero cartoons in the TVs in your break areas and have photos of super heroes on your intranet or television screens around the office.
6. Low Cost Customer Service Week Ideas
Many of you may not have a large budget – or any budget! – to celebrate Customer Service Week, so everything you do comes out of your pocket. Don’t worry, there are lots of low and no cost ideas that you can use and still have a great event.
First, use ePraise to send a personal note to every member of your team. It’s completely free on Baudville.com and there are cards specifically for customer service.
Next, organize a potluck lunch for your team. Ask everyone to bring a dish and set aside time to enjoy all the treats together. Your team will love tasting each other’s recipes and enjoy the camaraderie shared around lunch.
Finally, create a truly memorable gift for each person on your team using Jumbo Postcards. Print “Nice Things About _________” at the top of each card and leave the rest of it blank. Give each employee enough cards so they can fill in the blank with their co-workers’ names and write a nice note about them. Collect all the cards before Customer Service Week – don’t forget to add your cards to the pile! – and assemble them into individual booklets for your employees. During the week, present the books to employees and reinforce the fact that you’re glad they’re on your team!
We hope you have enjoyed these themes and activities and wish you a wonderful Customer Service Week!
About the Author
These Customer Service Week theme and activity ideas are brought to you by Baudville.com. Baudville have made day-to-day recognition their job. Whether it’s developing new, innovative products, blogging the latest tip, or putting on a performance for their customers, Baudville strive to create work environments where day-to-day recognition thrives.
