Black Friday and Cyber Monday are weeks away, with Christmas and New Year following hot on their heels. These four days represent the biggest shopping events of the year, and even after the challenges of the past few years, brands can expect enormous demand. However, with shopping habits shifting towards e-commerce approaches, having a contact center that can handle increased calls, messages and emails are vital. Here’s to make sure you’re ready to meet the surge in interest.
Invest in Scalable Operations
Long waits and disconnects make for unhappy customers. Picking up right away, on the other hand, is an indicator that you value your customers’ time and needs. The trick to success here is being able to scale up your customer contact staff to meet a sudden increase in demand. With a cloud-based solution such as ACD’s customer contact platform, you can instantly tap into a workforce of trained, US-based representatives – ensuring no one is left hanging on the line.
Monitor Trends and Stats
In today’s data-rich world, a business that monitors trends, habits, and projections is able to get ahead of customer complaints. Monitor what people have called up about in the past, and get ahead of potential questions or complaints by addressing issues before they arise. Build out a robust FAQ, provide video how-tos and onboarding guides, and ensure that highly popular items are well stocked. If supply chain issues might be a problem, brainstorm ways to address them – and make sure your customer service team is prepared.
Use IVR to Handle Easy Issues
Holiday shopping comes with a sense of urgency. People are buying big ticket items for themselves or others – and want to ensure that those gifts will arrive safely and on time. Take the pressure off your customer service reps by making the logistics part of your business as robust and streamlined as possible. Communicate clearly and often via automated texts and emails that share when a product is in stock, shipping, and out for delivery. Set up an automated IVR chat system for returns and refunds or incorporate it into your webpage. This will help reduce calls and support tickets.
Train and Support Your Reps
Holiday shopping can be a stressful time. Customers have elevated expectations, and tensions can be high. Training your reps to help de-escalate challenging situations and empowering them to resolve a situation in multiple ways can help ensure a good experience for both your customers and your team. Provide scripts, do role-plays, and use past call logs to identify areas for improvement or team input. You can also set your reps up for success by giving them the ability to escalate challenging calls to senior reps. This will reduce stress and will free up your reps to answer other incoming calls.
Elevate Your Experience with ACD
Position your business to meet the demands of the holidays with our flexible cloud-based customer contact platform. ACD’s contact center as a service solution offers a two-pronged approach to customer service, giving you access to a robust customer contact platform and a database of experienced, on-demand virtual reps who can help meet demand on the fly. To put your best foot forward these holidays, get in touch!
