This season is a great time as any to give thanks for all we have and to all the people that make our lives brighter. Including your call center team members! These hard-working people bring success to your company and have grown with you.

In a call center job, agents need to be motivated to reach their goals. They need to feel appreciated and know they are doing their job well. Don’t miss this opportunity to show your appreciation to them. You don’t need much to do it, just a little of creativity and affection. There are many things you can do to give thanks to your team. But if you ran out of ideas, here are 5 great suggestions you can try.

Write them something
Don’t use pre-written thank you cards. But if you do, add something else by you.

You don’t need to write a long message to show how thankful you are. Just write a personalized message for them, let them know what you really feel. Imagine when they arrive at their workstation and see a hand-written message that says how thankful you are for their hard work. But don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be hand-written to be appreciated. It just needs to be your words for them. And it doesn’t need to be a thank you message, you can write a recommendation letter for them. Don’t wait until the moment they want to leave the company to do it. Let them know how much you appreciate the work they do. They will feel more motivated and they will know you worry about their career and professional growth.

Praise them in front of people

Remember: Praise in public, criticize in private.

People seek recognition. They want to share their victories, they like when people know they accomplished something. That is why we always like graduations, award ceremonies, and the wall of fame. But if you want to do something more special, make a pause in a meeting to congratulate them, send an email and copy top management and team members. This can also show you want them to growth in the company. Acknowledge the team’s wins to let everyone else know they accomplished something. You can make special shirts, lanyards, or desktop trophies for them to show off their success.

Plan something fun

Make your team smile.

Fun activities at work show you care for the team, increase team integration, and lowers stress levels at work. If you want to make them happy, invite them to a free lunch, not just buy them food. You need to spend some time with them and before you start eating you can give a small speech to mention what’s the occasion for that lunch. Plan games or activities outside. Again, spend some time with them, let them forget about work for a moment, and use this opportunity to get to know them better. Also, if you don’t have much time after work, you can organize activities at the workplace: raffles, gifts exchanges, and small games with prizes are fun and don’t take a lot of time.

Small gifts

When you know your team members, a small gift can have more value than an expensive one.

Know your agents on a personal level. Learn about their family, hobbies, things they like, sports, TV show, etc. This way you can give them a small personalized gift that will make them feel happy and appreciated. Show them you care about them as a person, not only as an employee. You can take notes about their preferences to have them on hand when you want to give a present to say thanks. Movie tickets for the whole family can make a dad or mom happy.

Free time

Give them some time to do what they enjoy, and they will come back with more energy.

Free time and schedule flexibility are always valuable. They will have time to rest and this will give them more energy to come to work. This will also help lower their stress levels. As simple as letting them leave an hour earlier, letting them choose their days off, or letting them negotiate their schedule. Give them an extra day off to use it when they need it. Or in this holiday season, give them an extra day between Thanksgiving or Christmas so they can spend some time with their family. It will make them happy. Just remind them why are you doing this. It’s a way of saying thanks for their hard work and because you appreciate them.

These are just some of the many things you can do to thank your call center team for their great performance. You can come up with more ideas. Just keep this in mind:

Get to know your team to a personal level. If you want to show you care about them, you need to get to know them. This way you will not go for the typical gifts that sometimes cost you more than a unique valuable gift they will really appreciate.

Give thanks in a timely manner. Don’t wait too much to demonstrate how thankful you are for something. This way they will clearly know why, they will receive the reward right away, and it will motivate them to do more.

And finally, don’t forget that you should constantly thank your team. Not only on Thanksgiving.

At Call Center Services International we are grateful of having an exceptional team and we like to show it. We organize several activities for the agents to keep them motivated and happy. This way, we guarantee the best performance and great customer service. Learn more about our talented bicultural workforce.