It’s the holly jolly holiday season! And businesses all over North America are experiencing their busiest time of the year. For that reason, it’s important to ensure that your customer service has never been better. Work with your staff to set in stone the various ways in which you want your customers to feel when they do business with you.
Injecting holiday spirit in your customer interactions is vital this month. It will go a long way in not just pleasing your holiday shoppers, but encouraging repeat business well into the future.
Here are three ways to provide holly jolly customer service during the holidays:
1. Make it quick!
There’s no time of year when consumers appreciate immediacy more than right now. During the holiday shopping rush, most customers are in…just that…a rush! When you provide quick and accurate answers to questions, you’ll make customers very happy. As Kevin Baldacci points out on Salesforce.com, setting goals to reach customers as soon as possible is a great way to make them happy because it assures them that support is reachable.
“However, bear in mind your team could consist of agents that pick up a phone within two rings or average an hour response time via email,” he writes, “But, if they require multiple contacts over a period of 2-3 days to solving each case, then your agents might not be as effective as you thought.”
2. Update all of your automated services.
There are few things more disheartening for customers than when they call up companies and hear outdated voice recordings. “Unfortunately, we can’t take your call at the moment, as we are currently closed. We’ll be back open on Monday, December 2nd” is a pretty bad outgoing message if someone is calling you today. Customers are aware you’re not available to serve them 24/7. But be sure to have your automated services regularly updated to let them know when you are!
“Adjust your auto-reply message,” advises Matthew Patterson on HelpScout.com, “Update your message for the holiday season to set expectations and include links to the most common issues. Update your contact page. Address common questions and link to self-help resources so customers can get answers quickly, without needing to contact you.”
3. Empower your employees to make decisions.
Give your employees the power to resolve issues on their own. This will work wonders in boosting employee morale which, in turn, will boost customer satisfaction. When your team members truly feel like they’re part of a team, they’ll perform better. Your customers will take notice.
“By giving agents trust and confidence to make their own judgment, they will be able to deliver a fast, personalized customer experience without having to jump through any hoops,” assures Baldacci, “A team of support agents that deliver a fun and fast customer experience has the potential to be a huge competitive advantage during the holidays.”
For a dose of MeloTel’s holly jolly customer service, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-888-MELOTEL or use the Live Chat feature on our website!
