Why You Should Celebrate Service

My sentiments are perfectly mirrored in the famous quote by Maya Angelou “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Celebrations Galore at Edcor

The theme for the International Customer Service Week 2022 is “Celebrate Service”. This calls for a double-celebration at Edcor as we are also proudly celebrating our 41^st year of providing excellent service. So, this Customer Service (CS) week we are going all out to celebrate our customer-facing teams who have made us proud by providing impeccable services throughout.

Over the past few years, we have proven how resilient, resourceful, and tenacious we are.  Our commitment to give our Clients the best support possible has not waivered even in this difficult year. We have faced challenges head-on and made it through whatever was standing in front of us.  Edcor has had a great year with growing not only our Tuition service line, but also our Freedom and Scholarship lines.  Our company has had countless achievements, accomplishments, and even our share of missteps that have all led to making us the best in class. Not many businesses can say they have been in business for 41 years. It takes all of us to make a strong company like Edcor. Thank you and Happy Anniversary!

We are once again celebrating International Customer Service Week at Edcor honoring our Customer Service and Customer-facing teams. Each day will be marked with different goodies and activities for all. We are bringing back old traditions of our favorite lunch, and baked treats throughout the week.

Here are the top reasons why organizations should Celebrate Service:

The path to success is a process, not an end game. In this process, organizations develop better ways of working that foster positive behaviors like teamwork, creativity, and customer focus while promoting employee well-being. To this end, recognizing employee effort and celebrating it all year round is a great way to build a thriving work environment. Below are my top picks on why impeccable service should be celebrated.

1. Boosts motivation, morale, and team focus to provide exceptional Customer Service. Customer service is the only differentiator that sets a business on either an exponential growth trajectory or a downward slope. Celebrations around the CS week boost team morale and shower the much-require praise and appreciation on all customer-facing teams. This creates a feeling of purpose and encourages positive performance.
2. Calls attention to the importance of Customer Service in the company. We celebrate what we give importance to, and great Customer service is a behavior that deserves rewards and positive reinforcement. The celebrations bring the whole organization together on the same page on what’s the most valuable behavior. The organizations that celebrate customer service are unsurprisingly thought of as the ones who not only value this behavior but also want to promote and ingrain it in their organizational fabric. This is also a great way to show the customer that your business is committed to providing exceptional customer service and rewards this behavior. Trust me when I say this, Customers notice how employees are treated.
3. Recognizes employee effort. Employee recognition is a driver of retention and productivity. Employee-focused companies have customer-centric teams. Period. Employees are the organization’s internal customers, who interact with the external world. Having an equitable and inclusive workplace where all employees feel valued has an 83% uplift in responsiveness to changing customer needs. Such celebrations remind the leaders of the hard work that is being put in by the frontline. Moreover, this serves as a great opportunity to thank other departments that support customers. Overall, it helps build a great work environment.

Here are some top tips on how you can Celebrate Service:

1. Build traditions around International Customer Service week. The first week of October each year is celebrated internationally as Customer Service week. Even though great customer service should be celebrated all year round, the activities during CS week call attention to the year’s theme and are a special way to recognize the frontline workers and customer-facing teams. HR can get many ideas and branded content from CSweek.com on ways to celebrate. Additionally, organization can come up with their unique traditions during the week.
2. Out of sight, but Not out of mind. Many customer service and customer-facing teams work remotely as a part of the new normal way of working. Take extra care to include them in the celebrations by mailing those goodies and instructions beforehand. The larger team can then take the activity online where everyone opens their stuff at once and shares how they feel. Online games, team-building exercises, and leadership appreciation calls are all great ways to remain connected to remote team members and include them in the celebrations.
3. Timing doesn’t matter, the intent does. It’s ok if you can’t celebrate the Customer service week in October, as long as you have the intent to celebrate and recognize your teams at another time in the year. Your organization can design unique ways to celebrate this throughout a month or the year with the right communications, activities, and team-building exercises that are beneficial for on-site and remote workers.
4. Recognize efforts by providing opportunities for professional development. The best practice in this realm has always been Education benefits for upskilling employees. These benefits lead to engaged, motivated, and involved employees who positively impact the bottom line. The cherry on the cake is that ROI on these benefits is pegged at 129%.

Edcor has been providing Education benefits administration services to Fortune 500 companies for the past 40+ years, growing from strength to strength. Together with our valuable employees and partners, we have empowered companies to gain a competitive advantage by developing, retaining, and nurturing their most valuable asset – their human capital.

Customer service is ingrained in Edcor’s brand personality, which differentiates us from competitors. It’s a sentiment that runs through each vein in the organization. We pride ourselves on being both a customer-first and people-first organization.

At Edcor, we have accomplished a lot together during the first 41 years.  I have no doubt we have more great things in our future. I look forward to celebrating with everyone for years to come.

Let’s Future Together!