Your customer service team does a lot for your company, don’t they?

They have to deal with cranky (and sometimes unreasonable) customers all day, every day, for the entire year.

Any job has its difficulties. And any time you show your appreciation to your employees (as long as you don’t short them), that helps you get the best out of them over the long haul.

So what about your customer service team? How can you recognize them?

Here’s some thoughts:

1. Feed ‘Em!

Yeah. It really is that simple.

You could cleverly think out some amazing way to really make your workers feel special.

Nothing wrong with that.

But, according to an article at Inc, 60% of 1100 employees surveyed said food makes them feel “valued and appreciated.”

And that’s a pretty simple thing to do for your workers whether they work from home or come into the office.

2. Ask Them

No. It’s not up to you to dream up the perfect reward.

Surprises do go over well, but to really know what motivates others most, you can simply ask them.

Then you construct a rewards system that matches what they want.

Everyone’s different. So, you really don’t know exactly what’s going to be most motivating for each person.

And employees are always happier when their opinion is heard and acted on.

3. Play Games

Employees are more productive when they’re having fun.

A die-hard work-all-the-time attitude gets exhausting and eventually burns people out, causing their productivity to plummet.

And when you have to deal with customers all day long and all year round, you don’t have control over their attitudes and the issues they come to you with.

So in the environment you control, your office, keep things as fun as possible.

And again, ask your employees what they want to do.

This is another one where everyone can interact if they work from home also so you can keep everyone motivated whether they’re in the office or miles away.

4. Do Something Charitable

Who wants to work for a miserly company that has a sole focus on hoarding as much money as possible?

Compare that to a kind, compassionate company that takes pride in being of service to the community in which it operates.

Which do you think your employees would feel better about being a part of?

And then consider how that pours over into employee motivation and finally shows up in their productivity.

Again, make it a joint decision, as that gives your employees the most motivation.

These are far from the only ways to motivate your customer service team.

But, now you have a beginning list of ideas so you can work with your CSRs to create a motivating work environment that helps them perform their best every day!