Did you celebrate? This past week, October 5th – 9th, was National Customer Service Week. Not a Hallmark holiday, it was actually proclaimed by Congress in 1992 to be a weeklong national event celebrated in the first full week of October every year. And every October it is celebrated in all 50 states and even internationally across many industries including healthcare, hospitality, finance, retail, telecommunications and many more, including government agencies.
Many offices took time this past week to recognize and reward the employees that directly serve their clients across all the service channels of in-person, phone, email, social media, and others. Leadership and managers stopped for a moment to say thank you publically to those who by nature of their position are the official the voice and face of the business. Whether with small tokens of appreciation that might include a lunch or break food treat to larger campaigns that include professional development opportunities, these gestures resonate louder than words to staff out front in today’s fast paced service environments.
Many educational institutions also celebrate customer service week, but we often struggle with what to celebrate since the word customer is so maligned in many colleges and universities. But whether serving students and their families, or serving staff and faculty colleagues, there is definitely some commendable service going on across our campuses. There are teams of women and men who spend their professional lives making sure that folks in our community get what they need to be successful. That says customer service excellence to me! If you missed the opportunity this past week, take a moment soon to say “thank you for all you do” to someone you see delivering service excellence on your campus. These everyday heroes deserve recognition!