Exchange Celebrates Contact Center Teams With Fun Activities for Customer Service Week

The Exchange’s contact center teams spend most of their time resolving issues for MILITARY STAR_® and eComm customers. But during this week, they’ll have some fun in addition to their regular duties as the Exchange celebrates them during Customer Service Week.

“It’s a time to celebrate and reset and show those who do the job every day how much we care about their work, because their work keeps the customer coming back,” said eCommerce Customer Experience Manager Crystal Chism. “Their work keeps customers happy. It keeps the lights on.”

Since February 2022, the Exchange has had two contact center teams: One for eCommerce and one for callers with questions about the MILITARY STAR card. For several years, the issues were handled by one team, but the teams were split to shorten response time on calls.

“Customer Service Week allows us to thank our employees for their hard work and commitment to delivering exceptional service to the best customers in the world.,” said Exchange Credit Program Senior Call Center Manager Priscilla Soria. “It boosts morale and teamwork, and it raises awareness of the important role that customer service plays in the Exchange’s success.”

Both teams are celebrating their associates this week with a series of lighthearted events. In fact, both got head starts.

“We kicked it off with a picnic,” Chism said. “David Lemons, the SVP of eComm, plans a spring and a fall picnic for the Customer Experience directorate, and he scheduled the fall picnic for Sept. 29 so that it happened near Customer Service Week. We had catered barbecue, games for everyone, and handed out T-shirts to say thank you to the associates for what they do every day.” The picnic was at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie, a Dallas-area city not far from Exchange headquarters. On the same day, the contact center held “T-shirt Day.”

Exchange Credit Program associates worked together to ship 120 goodie packages to ECP contact center associates in 15 states, as well as Puerto Rico and Guam. Items in the packages included a Candy bag with $15 Exchange gift card, a custom company logo cool & dry long sleeve shirt, a custom company logo soup mug, a custom company logo cable management organizer, a selfie ring light and cleaning gel putty for their keyboards.

The MILITARY STAR contact center’s activities for Customer Service Week include:

Oct. 2: Pink Out Day. Associates are encouraged to show off their best pink swag to honor Breast Cancer Awareness Month as well as kick off Customer Service Week.

Oct. 3: Jersey Day. Associates show off their love for their favorite sports teams

Oct. 4: Exchange Swag Day. Associates are encouraged to wear Exchange apparel—especially the long-sleeve shirt that was included in their goodie package.

Oct. 5: Decades Day. Associates dress in the fashion of their favorite decade.

Oct. 6: Superheroes Day. Since contact center associates are heroes in their own right, they are encouraged to honor their favorites superhero.

Last year was the first time that the two contact centers celebrated the week separately. “The eComm team has really tried to get its own identity and create its own culture, so they wanted to do it separately,” Chism said. “It went very well. We got a lot of positive feedback from the team.”

Chism added that the entire Customer Experience Directorate gets involved in celebrating Customer Service Week, honoring contact center associates on all shifts with events modeled after the ECP team’s celebrations. The week includes daily drawings, games (hosted virtually) and goodie bags filled with candy, snacks and Exchange swag.

The eComm contact center’s activities for Customer Service Week include:

Oct. 2: All Pink Day. Similar to the MILITARY STAR center’s Pink Out Day, this also supports Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Game of the day: Bingo.

Oct. 3: Crazy Hair Day. Game of the day: Emoji Challenge.

Oct. 4: Red, White and Blue Day. Game of the day: Trivia.

Oct. 5:  Crazy Hat Day. Game of the day: Logo Challenge

Oct. 6: Jersey Day: More showing the love for favorite college or professional teams by wearing a team jersey or shirt. Game of the day: Unscramble /Challenge

“It’s going to be a really fun, rock-out week,” Chism said. “We get bigger and better every year.”