Customer Service Week Agendas —
Host Festive Activities
Chair Decorating Contest
The service team at United Stationers Supply Co. has been celebrating Customer Service Week for several years. This year’s event featured the return of their popular prize wheel, known as the Wheel O‘ Fun, plus many creative new ideas.
Each morning members of the leadership team greeted associates at the door. Theme days, puzzles and activities, and a special breakfast or lunch each day rounded out the week.
But the activity that really caught our attention was called “Pimp Your Ride.” The activity is loosely based on the TV program, “Pimp my Ride.” In each episode a dilapidated car is restored and customized in an over the top effort to reflect the owner’s personality and interests.
In this office edition, associates were asked to customize their own rides. Otherwise known as their desk chairs. It was all part of the “awesome week” at United Stationers Supply Co.
Celebration on a Dime
Carolyn Reynolds describes her celebration as, "Customer
Service Week on a dime." But there was no skimping when
it came to planning a week full of activities, beautiful
decorations, and thoughtful gifts.
And best of all, it provided the Metro Government of
Nashville and Davidson County Information Technology
Services Technical Support Center "a much needed
opportunity to thank our internal and external customers,
and, for the department leaders to recognize our Service
Desk Analysts for the terrific job they do."
Highlights of the week included:
• Team members kicked off the week by signing the Customer Service Week pledge and recommitting themselves to their
service mission.
• Throughout the week staff acknowledged the great service, follow-up, phone etiquette, and teamwork of their colleagues
with Caught in the Act Cards. Click here to learn more and to print your own Caught in the Act Cards.
• On game day, there was something for everyone as team
members participated in basketball, pool, Mad Gab, and
checkers tournaments throughout the day.
• A stress-relief break, featured ice cream sundaes and
stress-relief goodie bags.
• Throughout the week, coins were awarded both for
participation and for winning events. These coins were
very important because the team member with the most
coins received a grand prize and all others were entered
in a prize drawing. The order of the draw was based on
the number of coins awarded.
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Celebrate with a chair parade
A new Customer Service Week activity at Martin Group is bound to become an annual favorite. Involving reps, other departments and a creative expression of the company’s commitment to service, it’s just what Customer Service Week is all about.
To share their service spirit with the entire company, the Customer Care Support Team created a chair parade during Customer Service Week.
The group was randomly divided into teams of four. The teams were asked to create an Office Chair Float, which represented their commitment to excellent customer service.
A total of seven floats joined the parade traveling through the building tossing candy, Mardi Gras style, to laughing spectators who lined the hallways.
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Creativity and planning enhance world tour
The team at Masterbrand Cabinets celebrated Customer Service Week with a trip around the world. Well, okay they really did it all without ever leaving home. But what a trip it was ...
The week began with associates traveling to the MBCI (Masterbrand Cabinets, Inc.) Airport where they were greeted by supervisors who handed out passports, itineraries and salty snacks for the journey.
Each day, associates returned to the airport where they boarded a “Unite All Airlines” flight to their destination. They received a goodie bag with items for their trip, enjoyed a lunch of regional specialties, and played travel and location themed games.
Monday — Flight to Mexico. Each associate received a goodie bag containing a stress relief tangle, Mexican jumping beans and candy. Lunch included tacos, chips and salsa. And the games included pin the flag on Mexico, ring toss in which rings were tossed onto a cactus, a memory game in which associates were shown travel-sized items for 15 seconds and asked to recall as many items as possible.
Tuesday — Flight to Hawaii.
As associates arrived at the airport, they were greeted with a traditional Hawaiian lei and a goodie bag filled with candy, sea shells, and a bottle of bubbles. Lunch featured Hawaiian pork sandwiches. While games included pin the flag on Hawaii, a timed hula hoop contest, and a golf putting challenge.
Wednesday — Flight to China.
At the airport, associates received Chinese take-out boxes filled with goodies such as chop sticks, a compass, and candy. Lunch included egg rolls and various lo mein dishes.
And the games featured ping-pong, a suitcase packing game, and a timed game that involved putting various objects into a take-out container box using chopsticks.
Thursday — Flight to France.
Each associate received candy and a stress-relief toy for the journey. They enjoyed a lunch of croissant sandwiches and non-alcoholic Champaign punch. The day’s games included a French history quiz, pin the flag on France, and a painting contest.
Friday — Flight to New York.
To wrap up the week, associates visited the Big Apple. At the airport they received a top hat filled with candy and a stress-relief ball shaped like an apple. The day’s meal included New York-style pizza and cheese cake. Games of tacky tourist, pin the flag on New York, and an adaptation of the television show Cash Cab rounded out the celebration.
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An element of surprise adds to the fun of a shopping spree
While some organizations celebrate Customer Service Week with a host of events and activities each day, others choose to make a big impression with a single special event.
The team at PSA, celebrated for just one day during Customer Service Week but their special event and the element of surprise made the day a huge success.
For months, director Jackie Ready had been telling reps that they would be celebrating with a cookout in a local park.
But when the big day arrived reps were blindfolded and driven to a secret location — the mall. Once there, reps received gifts cards and spent the afternoon shopping and enjoying a relaxed lunch with their colleagues.
Jackie says that the staff was, “surprised and shocked and said it was one of the best Customer Service Weeks ever.”
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Invite unexpected guests to theme days
A great deal of thought and planning went into the Customer Service Week celebration at Estep Enterprises. Each day featured a different theme with coordinating decorations, food and activities. Many guests were also brought in to entertain and amaze the team.
• Monday’s theme was farmyard fun.
The office was decorated with down home farm flavor and each associate fit right in with the cowboy hat and bandanna provided. But no farm would be complete without animals so Estep brought in a petting zoo complete with alpaca, sheep, cows, a rooster, and more.
• Tuesday’s theme was magic.
The office was decorated in black and silver with giant playing cards and top hats. To add to the excitement, a professional magician performed for the team.
• Wednesday’s theme was camping.
Once again, the office was decorated appropriately with a wall-sized poster depicting fall foliage, a campfire complete with tissue-paper flames, and a tent.
The team enjoyed breakfast and lunch at their “campsite” as well as a little friendly competition to see who could pitch a tent, climb inside, and zip the flap the fastest. Team members then moved outside to test their skills on a giant inflatable rock-climbing wall.
• Thursday’s theme honored Estep’s Georgia home.
The office decorations were inspired by Georgia icons and included a representation of the Chatahoochee River running right through the department. An arts and crafts activity was the highlight of the day as a local paint-your-own pottery studio came to the office. Associates decorated mugs, which were then fired at the studio and returned to Estep.
• Friday’s theme was the Olympics.
Olympic rings, glowing torches and shiny medals decorated the department. Associates competed in a range of relay races and other events to see who would bring home the gold, silver and bronze.
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Make your managers stars for a day 
The customer support team at Network Communications Inc. was hard at work planning for Customer Service Week since the beginning of the year.
After all, a companywide celebration for 600 takes an enormous amount of planning and coordination. And while the celebration is on a large scale, many of the elements can be incorporated into a celebration of any size.
The festivities start the Friday before Customer Service Week when members of the customer support staff visit all employees to deliver goodie bags. The bags contain
an agenda for the week, puzzles and games such as word finds and crosswords, and a few sweet treats.
During the week there are three catered celebrations for the entire staff of 600: a Monday morning kick-off breakfast, a Wednesday luncheon, and a Friday afternoon
Closing Ceremony complete with an assortment of tempting desserts.
Throughout the week, the entire company is invited to try their skill at a wide range of puzzles and games where participants are awarded raffle tickets. Then at the end
of the week, tickets are drawn and prizes are awarded. Participation in all activities is high, because there are some very exciting prizes in the raffle. For example, last year's prizes included iPods and other consumer electronics.
Don’t have the budget for big-ticket gifts? Russell Schuster, Customer Service Week Chairperson, tells us that many of the prizes are actually vendor gifts. So if your company policy restricts employees from accepting vendor gifts, why not collect them for your own Customer Service Week raffle?
Finally, the highlight of the celebration is a fully costumed movie staring the NCI customer support managers. The movie was built around the official Customer Service Week theme, “Building Bridges to Customers,” and featured a team of cavemen and women building a bridge which featured the support staff as the columns.
Seven screenings throughout the week, including one evening screening for the night shift, ensured that everyone had a chance to see the movie and to enjoy some traditional movie-time treats.
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Host a spirited pep rally
It is always wonderful to see the creative activities that people develop based on the Customer Service Week theme. The “Spirit of Service” theme inspired the team at Delta Dental of New Jersey to show their spirit with a companywide luncheon and pep rally.
Delta Dental celebrated with a wide range of activities each day all leading up to the luncheon and pep rally on Friday.
The entire company was split into teams of roughly 20 people each. Smaller departments joined together and larger departments were broken down into smaller teams. Each team was asked to create a cheer and to decorate a rolling office chair for their float in the pep rally.
During the company luncheon each team rolled out their float and performed their cheer. Ellen Schworn in the human resources department describes the scene, “We laughed as we watched associates become cheerleaders and drill sergeants before our eyes, heard clever spirit-filled rhymes, and were genuinely amazed at the floats as we saw originality beyond belief.”
The winning team was called the “First Floor Flossers.” This is Delta Dental after all. The team dressed in navy blue, built a float called the “S.S. Spirit of Service,” and created a cheer to the tune of the theme song from the television show “Gilligan’s Island.”
While the event sparked a lot of creativity and spirit, perhaps most important of all was that everyone came away with a new appreciation of their friends and colleagues.
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Challenge everyone with an Amazing Race
Teambuilding games and exercises of all types abound during Customer Service Week. One exciting example comes to us from the Information Services Department at the Cobb County Government in Marietta, GA.
Over the years we’ve seen a lot of examples of teambuilding challenges based on the television show “Survivor” (see Get Everyone Involved). The popular reality program “The Amazing Race” also works well for Customer Service Week.
The TV show features 11 teams of two racing around the world to win a cash prize of one million dollars. The teams compete in 13 legs traveling all over the world. In most legs the last team to arrive at the pit stop is eliminated.
In Marietta, GA, teams traveled through the office. Each day, they were given a clue that described the location of the first “pit stop.” When all teams arrived at the “pit stop,” they competed to complete a task. The last team to complete the task was eliminated from the race.
Each challenge took just 10 to 15 minutes and each person on the team was required to participate.
Following are examples of three of the “pit stop” clues and tasks:
Pit Stop #3 Clue
You will now make a visit to the place where the Great Oz resides. There you will find task #3.
Task #3
The task is to eat the collard green pie. The last team to finish the pie will be eliminated from the race. If your team completes this task successfully you will be given the next clue.
Pit Stop #4 Clue
Navigate your way to this office. This is where very few Information Services staff visit, but they support the entire county's needs for all geographic locations. There you will find task #4.
Task #4
The task is to complete the crossword puzzle provided within 10 minutes. If you do not complete the crossword puzzle within 10 minutes your team will be eliminated from the race. If your team completes this task successfully you will be given the next clue.
Pit Stop #5 Clue
Customer service is defined in this area. This area handles all your technical support needs. There you will complete the final task and the winning team will be announced!
Task #5
Today your team will answer some tough questions. Pick a captain and when the question is asked talk among your group and come up with the correct answer — hit the bell and you will be given a chance to answer. If you get the answer wrong — two points will go to the opposing team and they will get the opportunity to answer the question. The team to get 100 points first wins the Amazing Race.
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Share a meal in style
For Valerie Johnson’s first Customer Service Week celebration, her goal was to do it all!
To accomplish everything she had in mind, Valerie dedicated a day to each of her main goals — thanking customers, thanking the people who support customer service, increasing awareness of the work customer service does, building bonds companywide, and showing her reps how much she values them.
Each day was filled with activities, but the day Valerie recognized her own team was especially exciting. Reps arrived on Friday morning to find that their department had been decorated and a bag filled with stress relief goodies had been placed on each desk. But that was just the beginning. Over the course of the day, at roughly one hour intervals, Valerie announced a new teambuilding activity. Many came from the CSWeek.com website and email bulletins.
The highlight of the day, however, was lunch. While in-house lunches can be routine, this was anything but. The table was set with linen, china and crystal and served by Valerie, who donned a waitress uniform for the event. And because some reps had to be on the phones during lunch, she provided take-out containers so that everyone could enjoy the feast. It was attention to details like this that made this first Customer Service Week celebration such a success.
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Use passports to ensure maximum participation
At Masterfoods USA, the Customer Service Week celebration involves 60 customer care representatives and over 400 associates. It was a full week of events such as “lunch and learns,” department open houses, appreciation breakfasts, and more.
Manager Yvette Miller shared details of some of Masterfoods most popular activities along with a great idea for keeping everyone (all 400+ of them) involved.
| It all started with Recognition Day on Monday. The staff was greeted at the front of the building and invited to the Customer Care Open House where they could learn about the department’s work, spin the trivia wheel and enter a raffle. Later in the day, the entire company gathered and each department was recognized for their efforts. Following the company-wide recognition ceremony, each group returned to their department with cake or other treats to share as a team. |  |
The video/photography team was on hand all week documenting the many events. Special care was taken to include each activity and department. Then on Friday during the closing ceremonies, a six-minute video was shown. Photos of the week were also posted at the company’s website.
To ensure maximum participation, each employee received a “passport.” As they traveled from one activity to another, their passports were stamped. If employees attended a certain number of events, they were eligible to enter a special prize raffle.
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Support worthy causes during Customer Service Week
While the weeklong celebration at Conair was filled with fun and festivities, what really stands out are this team’s charitable efforts.
Each day was celebrated with a different theme such as red, white and blue day and with games, puzzles and surprise gifts each morning.
But as Ruthann Nuzzo says, “We always try to do something serious each year.” In 2005, the team raised money, which was donated to the Red Cross to support the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. In 2006, they raised money to support breast cancer research.
The American Cancer Society holds its annual Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in many areas in October. So it was fitting that one of the team’s theme days was Breast Cancer Awareness Day. Team members dressed in pink, the decorations were pink and all the snacks were healthy.
Each day the team also held a 50-50 raffle. The money raised was used to sponsor team members who participated in the Making Strides walk.
If you’d like to learn more about Making Strides Against Breast Cancer, please visit the website at
http://makingstrides.acsevents.org.
Oh, and if you’re wondering about the 50-50, it’s a raffle in which 50% of the money raised is donated and 50% is given to the raffle winner. It’s a great way to have a raffle if you don't have a big prize.
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Roll out the red carpet
Manager Janine Tracy wanted to show her reps just how important their work was to management consulting firm Runzheimer International so she rolled out the red carpet, literally.
The excitement started when reps were asked to come to work in their best clothes. At 11:30 they gathered in the building lobby for a group photograph. But the photograph was simply a distraction to get everyone in the lobby so that managers could unroll a red carpet leading from the front door to a waiting limo.
Senior managers were on-hand to hold the doors and help all 32 team members into the limo as their coworkers looked on from their office windows above.
After a brief ride, the limo pulled up to a downtown restaurant where the street had been cleared to allow the limo enough room to park. Guest speakers, gifts and lots of laughter highlighted the buffet lunch. Then, upon returning to the office, each rep was greeted with a voice mail message from the company president thanking them for the work they do.
To keep the memories of this wonderful day alive each rep received a photograph of the entire team in front of their limo.
Finally, two special touches ensure that everyone in the company knows about the important work of customer service and had an opportunity to acknowledge the team.
First, an email was sent to the entire staff alerting them to the celebration because, as Janine says, “It was important to show recognition for these individuals on a company-wide level, not just a departmental level.”
And second, a program was created for the event, which included accolades from co-workers about the wonderful work of the customer support team.
To view a copy of the recognition program, click here.
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If you’d like to share your agenda and photographs, please send them to CS Week Relationship Manager, Mary Dalessandro. You may email them to mdalessandro@CSWeek.com or send them through the mail to Customer Service Group, 712 Main Street — Suite 187B, Boonton, NJ 07005.
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