While we always advocate planning early, here’s one team that learned about Customer Service Week just a few days ahead of time. Undaunted, the customer service team at The Institute of Internal Auditors put together a wonderful celebration. Their keys to success were asking other departments to sponsor activities, and creating low-cost games, which poked a little good-natured fun at senior management.
Here’s how the week came together:
- Monday was sports day with the marketing department sponsoring a pizza lunch. The day’s main activity was a low-cost bowling game. Bowling pins were created from empty soda bottles and to add to the fun, photos of the leadership team adorned each bottle.
- Tuesday was color day and the team dressed in Customer Service Week colors. The membership and human resources departments provided a catered lunch and the team played a home-grown game called Sharpie Put. The object of the game is to hit a paper target with a Sharpie marker. And because management came in for their share of ribbing, the center of the target featured a photograph of the department’s vice president.
- Wednesday was cozy-slippers day. And who wouldn’t like to wear slippers at work. The certifications department provided breakfast and the team played basket toss with a foam ball and a trash can.
- Thursday was crazy-hat day with the event services group sponsoring breakfast. The team got to know colleagues with a matching game. A sheet was created for each of the two service teams. The sheet simply included a photograph of each team member. Then the sheets were distributed to the other team. Next, it was time for reps to write down the name of each person on the other team alongside their photograph. And if a rep didn’t know someone’s name? Then she had to go to the other department, introduce herself and ask.
- Friday was Hawaiian shirt day. The bookstore department and the research foundation sponsored breakfast and both teams played a trivia game, which helped them continue to get to know each other. Each spin of the wheel revealed information, which had to be matched to the correct rep.
Finally, throughout the week reps were given time off the phone to work together on fun craft projects like making photo frames for their desks.