Ever wonder why Customer Service Week is in October? Well, Halloween is in October: you dress up as make believe characters receiving and handing out sweets. Customer Service Week can be like that too - companies pull out all the stops to create images of themselves as service superheros and give away awards and prizes to everyone around them.

I think the mission of Customer Service Week is a great one. I know folks who have all the giddy anticipation for it that a 6 year-old with a Spiderman costume has for October 31st. Here’s my concern: don’t let this be the only time you put your customer service best on display. Don’t make celebrating customer service a one-week event.

Mark Sanborn talks about the instinct for exceptional service in his book The Fred Factor. He was inspired by his mailman Fred, who exemplefied being personally motivated to give excellent care to customers. He observes:

It is easy to find and point out what’s “wrong” with quality, customer service and business in general. Finding examples of what’s “right,” or even praiseworthy, is much harder. Yet here was Fred, a gold-plated example of what personalized service looked like.

Wouldn’t you like to be known as a Fred? Wouldn’t it be great if your company gave such amazing service everyday that people checked the calendar to see if it was the first week of October? Take note of the following that Mark also says:

To this day, I can’t tell you what motivated Fred. I know he didn’t get paid more for his extraordinary work. I doubt he received any special recognition from his employer (if he did, I never heard about it). I know he wasn’t privy to any exceptional training or incentive programs.

If you think your company needs Customer Service Week maybe you need to freeze the calendar to the first week of October until it becomes an everyday instinct of everyone from top to bottom in every department.

Don’t settle for costumes and treats for one week - challenge your team/department/company to go beyond 5 days of wowing your customers.

Make the effort to become an everyday customer service hero. There’s only treats to be had from such an attitude.

PS - You can take the test to see if you’re a Fred.

Technorati Tags: Customer Service Week, Halloween, Fred Factor, hero