3 Ways to Celebrate: Agents Who Ensure Great Customer Experiences

In a normal business year, I’d be traveling cross-country, visiting with Working Solutions virtual customer service agents in the places where they live and work from home. Cities that include Atlanta, Detroit and Houston. We’d get together for group lunches and talk business. Share personal stories, too.

This year, however, is anything but normal. That’s all the more reason to recognize the excellent work of our 150,000+ agents—along with the millions of other service professionals caring for customers at thousands of other companies.

In this spirit, the Professional Association of Customer Engagement (PACE) launches this year’s National Customer Service Week, October 5-9, with the theme: “Ignite a CX Celebration!”

Show Your Appreciation

During the pandemic, service professionals are ensuring great customer experiences in extraordinary times—occurring only once every 100 years, in fact. And while social distancing and health guidelines limit in-person interaction, there are several ways to make your CX agents feel special this week—and every week, for that matter.

Here are three ways you can make your customer service professionals feel special:

1. Recognize Personally

Nothing is more personal than one-on-one. That’s true whether it’s an individual email, stay-in-touch phone call or video chat and even an old-school, handwritten thank-you note. In my visits with agents, both in person and virtual, I find the simplest things are best remembered. They resonate with people long afterward, building business bonds and goodwill with employees and contractors.

2. Praise Internally

Just as it’s important to reach out individually, the same can be said for lauding teams for their collective efforts. Intranet postings are a natural place to call out a group’s accomplishments. At Working Solutions, we recognize teamwork on our agent portal. Add to that, emails from leadership to client teams celebrate achievements. I’m a big believer in video calls for in-house business updates and engagement with employees and agents. As a virtual company, ongoing communications strengthen our remote-workforce community.

3. Compliment Externally

Be sure to champion great service and stellar agents on your website as well. Success stories can highlight client results delivered by service reps. Agent video interviews of customer commitment build out the service narrative. Blogs, social posts and client notifications tell compelling stories of agents’ good work, especially during these tough times. On our separate agent website, we profile outstanding agents year-round, with examples of their exemplary service. We also share their stories on our social channels, further amplifying their time in the spotlight.

Inside a company and out, multiple channels exist to showcase agents who ensure exceptional customer experiences. Celebrate them this week and throughout the entire year.