Every October, two powerful yet often underutilized observances arrive: CX Day and Customer Service Week. These are more than calendar events; they are meaningful chances to recognize the people who make great experiences happen. But for many companies, they pass with surface-level gestures, such as a company-wide email, a box of pastries, or a quick post on LinkedIn.

Then it is back to business as usual.

But here is the missed opportunity: CX Day is not about one day. Customer Service Week should not end with Friday.

Used strategically, they can jumpstart culture change and reinforce that customer experience (CX) is not a department. It is a shared responsibility.

And if you did not mark the calendar this year, that is okay. You can start the transformation anytime.

The Cost of Treating CX Day Like a Holiday, Not a Strategy

CX Day was created by the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA) to elevate the importance of CX across all industries. Customer Service Week, recognized by the U.S. Congress since 1992, honors the essential frontline roles that drive daily experience.

In 2025, CX Day lands on Tuesday, October 7. Customer Service Week runs from Monday, October 6 through Friday, October 10.

But many organizations treat them as isolated events, not as levers for long-term change.

Cupcakes will not reduce burnout. Pizza parties do not fix broken processes. Superficial praise will not satisfy rising employee or customer expectations.

Without a bigger vision, these celebrations become performative. That is where the opportunity gets lost.

Turning a CX Moment Into a Movement

Start with Reflection, Not Just Recognition

The best organizations do not treat CX Day as a one-and-done event. They use it to launch deeper conversations and connect employees back to their purpose.

Try this:

• Ask teams to map how their work touches the customer. You will identify process breakdowns, communication gaps, or policy friction points.
• Run cross-functional retrospectives. Focus not just on wins, but on operational roadblocks and needed support.
• Share real customer stories. Metrics tell you what happened. Stories show how people felt and why they will return.

DoingCXRight Insight: When CX becomes personal, culture shifts. Give employees the space to see themselves as creators of experience, not just executors of tasks.

Leading With Gratitude (It Starts at the Top)

Why Leadership Visibility Has Outsize Impact

Recognition from leadership is not a nice touch; it is a high-impact signal. According to Gallup, only 23 percent of employees strongly agree they get the recognition they deserve, but those who do are four times more likely to be engaged.

Even more telling, 24 percentof employees say the most memorable praise comes from senior leaders or the CEO.

This is your cue:

• Record a short, heartfelt video message.
• Handwrite a few thank-you notes to unsung heroes.
• Share a customer outcome that began with an employee’s extra effort.

It is not about perfection. It is about presence.

Celebrating the Everyday CX Champions

Do Not Just Reward the Loud Wins; Highlight the Critical Frontline Contributions

The flashiest stories are not always the most meaningful. Often, the most powerful examples of great CX are the subtle, consistent ones:

• A service representative who stays calm during a tough call.
• A warehouse associate who catches a shipping mistake before it affects the customer.

Create peer-led recognition moments:

• Use internal tools like Slack or Teams to create recognition threads.
• Highlight unsung CX heroes in town halls.
• Share anonymized customer feedback that reinforces your values.

Pro Tip: What gets noticed gets repeated. Make it easy and expected to call out behaviors worth modeling.

Keeping the Momentum Alive Year-Round

How to Operationalize the Spirit of CX Day and Customer Service Week

A great week will not change your culture, but it can start something bigger.

Here is how to embed CX thinking into everyday operations:

• Appoint CX Champions in each department. Give them tools and support to surface feedback and share best practices.
• Invest in ongoing training. Go beyond onboarding. Add CX skills to your learning and development roadmap.
• Close the loop on feedback. When people share ideas, show them it matters, either by implementing or explaining why not.

Red Flags You Are Missing the Bigger Opportunity

Not sure if your CX recognition efforts are making an impact?

Watch for these signs:

• Recognition is limited to a few highly visible roles; behind-the-scenes contributors feel overlooked.
• CX celebrations do not lead to any follow-up actions or strategic shifts.
• Customer experience is viewed as a team’s job, not an organization-wide priority.

These are signals it is time to rethink your approach.

Looking Ahead: Why Customer-Experience (CX) Culture Is a Business Imperative

Human-Centered Experience Is the Competitive Advantage AI Cannot Copy

As AI handles more transactions, what remains as your brand’s identity is how it feels to do business with you. The human connection becomes your brand differentiator.

Companies that reduce CX to an annual event lose relevance. Those that integrate it into daily habits create emotional loyalty that leads to sustainable growth.

McKinsey reports that U.S. companies leading in customer experience achieve more than double the revenue growth of their peers.

CX Day is your signal: Your people drive your brand.

Small, intentional actions done consistently create lasting competitive advantage.

Final Thought: Culture Change Is a Daily Choice

CX Day and Customer Service Week are not just calendar events. They are opportunities to re-anchor your culture.

An invitation to:

• Reflect on what is working.
• Connect across roles and departments.
• Recommit to building a customer-obsessed organization.

Do not wait for next October.

Start now. Start small. Start intentionally.

Hear More Details on Doing CX Right®‬ Podcast Ep # 193

Key Topics Discussed

– The origins and significance of CX Day and Customer Service Week. Featuring insights from Greg Melia, CEO of CXPA, who shares how CX Day began and why it’s become a global movement honoring everyone who delivers exceptional experiences.

– Strategies for meaningful celebration without large budgets

– The role of leadership in reinforcing customer experience values

– Practical ways to recognize and reward customer-centric behaviors

– Using these events to break down silos and unite departments

Subscribe for updates on your favorite podcast channel.

Have you heard about CX Day? Every October, people worldwide celebrate with their employees, agents, and clients. It reminds me of “Mother’s Day” or “Father’s Day.” It’s a time when we intentionally celebrate and express gratitude to people who matter in our lives. It doesn’t mean we stop appreciating people all other days of the year. It’s a time to pause, reflect, and take actions that are extra purposeful. CX Day falls in the same week as National Customer Service Week (NCSW) and has a similar meaning, yet not the same.

CX Day & Customer Service Week: The Basics

CX Day was established ten years ago by the Customer Experience Professionals Organization (CXPA) to empower and unite companies, CX networks, and all people around the world to come together annually on the first Tuesday of October (4 October 2022). Though there are benefits to being a CXPA member, you are not required to be one to take part in the festivities.

Customer Service Week was created in 1991. The U.S. Congress signed a proclamation in 1992 establishing Customer Service Week as a nationally recognized event. The goal is to emphasize the importance of customer satisfaction and listening to customers as critical components of building a successful business. Since then, the commemoration has spread across the United States and internationally to more than 60 countries. Celebrations this year are happening Oct 3-7, 2022.

Who Celebrates?

I recommend everyone in your company celebrate because everyone has a CX job, even if it’s not in their job title. If you’ve never be an active participant, then pick a few activities and build on from there. Take the lead, bring cross-teams together and start. You’ll see it will quickly become an annual company tradition.

20 Ways to Participate With Purpose

As people are recovering from the mental and physical impacts of the global pandemic, 2022 is an excellent year to assess how your company is advancing customer experience and service principles. It’s an ideal time to raise awareness, promote involvement, and express gratitude to those who make customer excellence possible. And it’s an opportunity to show others how committed you are to giving them top-notch service. There are plenty of ways you can take part of CX Day and Customer Service week, such as:

1. Pay for a meal. Provide lunch or snacks to work teams to express appreciation. If a remote work environment, offer a delivery voucher to pick a restaurant. Eat together via video conferencing.
2. Measure customer satisfaction and related metrics like Net Promoter (NPS) and celebrate positive scores. Send cake or balloons to top performers and those with year-over-year improvements.
3. Recognize employees and service agents when customers mention their names in surveys, social media, and other sources of feedback.
4. Distribute a CEO video email message thanking people for creating passionate promoters.
5. Send customer thank you notes and token gifts of appreciation.
6. Conduct fireside chats (informal yet structured discussions between a moderator and a guest.) It’s an effective way to engage customers and CX experts and provide relevant content that keeps people interested in your brand.
7. Enable people to recognize each other. Gamify experiences. Tie prizes to customer value.
8. Offer a bonus or day off to those who routinely demonstrate customer excellence. Fridays are ideal as a 3-day weekend is a valuable gift.
9. Offer CX swag, like banners, balloons, stickers, buttons, shirts.
10. Provide training – empathy, customer listening, closing the loop, design-thinking, journey mapping, and more. There are many online certification options.
11.  Host “thank you” events for your customers. Showing appreciation goes a long way.
12. Create a room in your office to share CX projects and progress so everyone stays informed. For remote teams, leverage platforms for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
13. Highlight CX examples at meetings and have people talk about best practices. Work teams want to hear from their peers more than Headquarters staff.
14. Lead a contest that involves both customers and employees.
15. Encourage people to join webinars. Create your own or give them a list of online events.
16. Plan activities and virtual games with different departments in your organization—leverage the week as a way to strengthen internal relationships and break traditional silos.
17. Use the day for branding opportunities. Partner with your marketing / PR team to design assets highlighting admiration for customers.  
18.  Create fun backgrounds for video meetings to keep CX at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
19. Grant people a few hours in the day to volunteer at a local charity.
20.  Host a customer appreciation sale. Create a promotional offer that’s more enticing than other times of the year, so it appears authentic.

Final Words

• Employees and customer service agents are your heroes. If they don’t feel important, your customers will feel it.
• Don’t wait for formal end-of-year reviews. If you do not appreciate people throughout the year, your competitors will. They’re searching for exceptional talent.
• Do something to celebrate. Get creative and be sincere. People will remember the big and small acts of kindness when CX Day and customer service week ends.

Get More Inspirational Ideas To Drive Positive Outcomes  During CX Day and Customer Service Week

Listen to the Doing CX Right podcast featuring CXPA CEO, Greg Melia and Stacy Sherman.

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