Celebrating Milestones from 2020 and Preparing for the Road Ahead | #customersupport #supporticket

“Every opportunity that a company has to celebrate something, no matter how small or large that something is, they really should take advantage of it to lift the morale of the employees.”¹ That’s what Matthew Jarzynski, vice president, human resources, Synergy, advises businesses as 2020 works its way into the history books.

As business leaders, your focus this year was likely concentrated on adjusting to remote work, reconfiguring your staff according to changing business needs, retaining customers who were struggling with similar issues, and keeping your revenues moving in a positive direction. Those with customer support organizations relied on their front line support staff more than ever as they had to maintain a seamless experience for their customers when trying to solve their issues.

According to one recent article, businesses found ways to enjoy successes by pivoting, finding and capitalizing on new opportunities, and taking advantage of new or different demand. “The willingness to be flexible by far was the No. 1 asset businesses had,” Kathryn Petralia, co-founder of Kabbage, told business.com. “You certainly had to be willing and able to modify your business plan.”²

Celebrating milestones in 2020 not only looked different in terms of how we celebrated—virtually rather than all together—but also what we celebrated. Our milestones may have been smaller or different than what we would normally measure, but in a year like 2020, anything positive was worth taking a pause to raise a glass, smile together, and high-five through our computer screens.

Here are a few milestones from 2020 that we celebrated at TeamSupport:

• TeamInsights New Product Launch: Launching a new product certainly is a cause for great fanfare, but to do so in a year impacted by a global pandemic with remote work teams, it feels like an even greater accomplishment. TeamInsights is TeamSupport’s next evolution of reporting and analytics where data can be transformed into actionable information. Good stuff, right?

Your company may not have launched a new product this year, but if you had product enhancements or bug fixes that improved the experience of your customers, that is worth celebrating, too!

• Cloud Awards Top Five Finalist: Of course companies celebrate when they win an award or industry recognition. It’s well-deserved and reflects the hard work of all departments. We’ve won a few ourselves at TeamSupport. This year, we were equally proud of being a finalist for the Cloud Awards CRM of the Year award. This is a global award and to be shortlisted as one of only five is a huge honor for us as we strive to innovate for our customers.

You don’t have to wait for a big trophy to celebrate a recognition. Celebrate being named to a list of notable companies in your industry, or even in a competitive comparison report where you shine.

• Every. Individual. Matters.: For companies that had to furlough or lay off employees in 2020, it was heartbreaking for leaders that had to make the decision and those that were impacted. Celebrate when you are able to bring people back. Recognize that you were able to keep your teams connected even as they worked apart. And for sure, make a splash for every year or multiple-year milestone.

You need your people now more than ever. Make sure they feel appreciated and valued.

“The more you praise and celebrate things in your life, the more there is to celebrate.” ~ Oprah Winfrey 

¹Silver, Kate, How to Celebrate a Business Milestone in the Social Distancing Era, July 30, 2020, American Express Trends and Insights. Retrieved Dec. 29, 2020 https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/business/trends-and-insights/articles/how-to-celebrate-a-business-milestone-in-the-social-distancing-era/

²Fuscaldo, Donna, What We Learned in 2020: Businesses that Did Well and Why, business.com, Dec. 21, 2020. Retrieved on Dec. 29, 2020 https://www.business.com/articles/business-lessons-learned-in-2020/?t=1608572629?marketingid=118d5ae7dfa843698ec4f02a01d7c468