It’s always fun to present at internal service events.
This article is part of our Life at Work Series — where we explore the practices, challenges, and lessons that shape our professional lives.
Internal Service Events
You know — those events that most service-oriented organizations hold once a month or quarter to give out staff awards, reiterate the service vision, and help & inspire service staff — especially frontline team members — to keep up the great work.
After years of being invited to deliver short, impactful bursts of service inspiration — and sitting in as a guest at these events — I’ve come up with a short list of suggestions to make these terrific events even better.
1. Overcome Stale Air Syndrome
Many large organizations suffer from ‘stale air’ syndrome.
Imagine you host anywhere from two to six internal service events a year for your high performers or other specially selected team members.
If there is:
- Little change in format
- Little change in the Speaker line-up
- Only internal Speakers present
- Too much focus on organizational updates and messaging
You end up with a dull affair. And it’s especially dull for the high-performing team members who tend to qualify for attendance at all such events.
Advice: Mix up the format regularly. Invite in external speakers to share other perspectives and experiences. Avoid using your internal Service Event to go over internal company communications and policy.
2. Mix Up the Awards
Compliment letters are (almost) always nice.
But try to get a bit more creative with the awards you give out at such events — there are a lot more possibilities than simply tabulating compliment letters and giving out Pareto-style awards.
It’s clear that awards aren’t working well when the same people win over and over (which gets boring for everyone except the winner, perhaps).
In my old Contact Centre days we used to give out awards such as “Best Tone of Voice for the Month” or “Most Improved in Attitude over the Quarter.”
Our point was to ensure that we recognized results, improvement and effort – and not just call out the same names over and over.
Advice: Mix up the Awards given. Change the theme, the flow, implement new and different Awards. Ask Attendees what recognition they would like to see at such events.
3. Keep the Main Thing the Main Thing
Use your Service event to focus on Service.
Now’s not the time to introduce new HR policies or spend time on other non-Service related matters.
There are almost always better formats to use for activities like those.
Advice: Service Events should be about service. Not about your latest products or corporate communications.
4. Overhaul Tired Service Visions
There are still really boring Service visions out there.
Something like GST (Greet, Smile, Thank) should be stickers on cash registers – not a shared vision goal.
Cute does not equal inspiring. If it’s not inspiring – then perhaps it’s time for a refresh.
I see some organizations spend more effort (and money) on refurbishing their offices than on sitting down and crafting a service vision that truly inspires people.
Inspired people deliver inspired service. Give them something they can rally around and be proud of.
Advice: If your Team Members (or you!) find that your Service vision has seen better days – perhaps it’s time to sit down and craft a new and meaningful statement and/or set of principles that can inspire.
5. Consider the Role of Learning
When training budgets are tight, Service events make great venues for learning & sharing as well as recognition.
If you plan to host more than 1 Service event at your organization in a year’s time – why not consider putting together a simple learning plan?
You could design the Events to build on each other – so content from Event #1 should flow smoothly to content at Event #2.
We’ve even given out homework assignments at Event #1 and revisited them at Event #2 — creating a real framework for learning and application.
If you tender for external speakers for such events, consider an annual tender that covers multiple events. When real learning takes place, people want to come — not just for the free food.
Advice: Approach learning at Service events with the same rigor that you would apply to a training or certification system. Don’t just look at these as ‘one-off’ events. For some Team Members this may be the only real training they get.
Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this resonates, I’d love to stay connected.
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Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
