The busy holiday shopping season – which is the present time of year (“present”, see what we did there?) – isn’t just about retailers enjoying rushes of new customers through their doors. It’s also a time when individuals who work on the phone are inundated with heavy waves of phone calls from customers. Needless to say, ensuring top-quality customer service should top the to-do lists of all companies that conduct business over the phone.
At this time of year, it’s important to inject some festive holiday cheer into the interactions you have with your customers. We’ve touched on this topic before. So, here are three reminders of how to offer festive customer service over the phone:
1. Open each conversation with a holiday greeting.
Normally, it’s a safe bet that answering the phone with “Good afternoon, this is John, how may I help you?” is a good way to start a call. With the holiday season here, you may want to substitute “Good afternoon” with “Happy holidays” or better yet, try, “Good afternoon, this is John, I hope you’re enjoying the holiday season so far. What can I do to help you enjoy them even more?”
This unique approach to answering the phone will endear many a customer to your brand. Many will we inspired to remain long-time customers. Remember that, in today’s business world, consumers are looking for a lot more than just high-quality products and services. They want to enjoy their experiences with the companies they support. A company that helps to make the season bright is one that is bound to keep customers for the long haul.
2. Regularly refer to your customers by name.
This is a customer service practice that we recommend using all year long. However, during the holidays, you’ll want to especially make sure that you’re making each and every one of your customers feel good about calling your company. Believe it or not, the simple act of using your customers’ names will help them to feel respected and valued.
In the past, we’ve blogged about the importance of using customers’ names over the phone. And being a “smaller” company, MeloTel has enjoyed the advantages of being able to remember each of our customers by name.
3. Make holiday music your hold music.
As many MeloTel clients are well aware, our Founder and CEO, John Meloche has recorded not one, but two different volumes of holiday songs. Entitled Uncle John’s Holiday Hits, these projects have served as amazingly festive hold music for both our company and a number of its clients. Of course, you can go with any songs of your choice to serve as hold music for your callers. You may even want to record them yourself!
You see, your hold music doesn’t actually have to be music. In fact, you can record holiday announcements for promotional purposes so that callers will remain engaged while they’re on hold. Recorded messages are arguably, the best ways to turn hold time into advertising time. By keeping them jolly, the holiday spirit will have a better chance of continuing throughout the call. Not to mention, the messages will help lead to more sales!
For a dose of MeloTel’s brand of festive customer service, please don’t hesitate to contact us at 1-888-MELOTEL. You may also use the Live Chat feature on our website to ask us about any and all of our cloud-hosted services. Be sure to inquire about our VoIP-based Commercial Phone Services which offers Custom Hold Music as one of its many features!
