5 Tips for a Joyous Customer Service Holiday Rush
How to go above and beyond with contact centre customer service and set your business apart during the most competitive time of the year.
Ah, the holidays. Each year they creep up on us earlier and earlier: pretty soon we’ll skip harvest time all together and jump right from the end of summer to the holiday retail season. Until that time, however, the period of weeks preceding the winter holidays will continue to be the busiest time of the year for retailers, e-tailers, and customer service pros alike.
With shoppers hitting every possible company in town and online, staying competitive by delivering a top-notch customer experience every time is especially key in preparation for Kris Kringle to come to town. Don’t forget the importance of delivering a quality customer service experience: research from American Express found nearly 60 percent of consumers report that they will try a new brand or even switch companies for a better customer experience. Here are 5 ways to prepare for the holidays and keep your contact centre on your customers’ nice lists all year round.
1. Manage Your Workforce
During the holiday rush, long hold times due to rising email, chat, or call volume and inadequate agents are major faux pas. In order to avoid contact center backlogs, be sure to review your workforce management software settings and keep your contact centre fully staffed with agents during peak times and off-hours – the holiday craze doesn’t operate on a 9-to-5 work schedule. If you don’t have adequate staff to meet your escalating needs, consider a third party contact centre support service to help keep contact channels covered and customers happy by providing seamless customer service in both official languages around the holiday clock.
2. Offer Call-Backs
It may be time to add or upgrade an existing call-back option in order to ensure that busy Christmas customers can opt-out of long hold times and attend to other matters while your agents clear their queues and call them back. No one wants to wait on hold, but time is at an especially high premium during the holidays. Re-evaluate your existing call-back system or add one now in preparation for the Rudolph rush.
3. Improve IVR
Especially during the seasonal frenzy, offering callers insights about what kind of hold times to expect can help delay or decrease frustration. Let them know about estimated wait times, and offer self-service options on improved IVR menus to cut down on unnecessary agent interactions that can backlog an already busy client service centre. Consider sprucing up your IVR menus with seasonally themed music and greetings to keep things merry and bright.
4. Simplify Service Software
With the holidays’ requisite flurry of rising contact volumes to keep agents scrambling, it’s important to simplify their workstations to allow them to operate at maximum efficiency. See if you can implement some automated shortcuts to allow agents to access full customer profiles, purchase histories, and other data in a quick, intuitive system that helps them meet customer needs quickly and easily. These types of preparatory steps now will save you and your agents major headaches when Frosty the Snowman leads the charge of holiday shoppers into your town.
5. Spread Glad Tidings Amongst Your Agents
Have you been a bit more Master Scrooge than Mr. Santa this year? The holidays are a time to spread joy and glad tidings, and your workforce shouldn’t be left off your list! Consider some jolly holiday traditions to help boost morale and motivate agents to push though the busy season with smiles on their faces and songs in their hearts. Perhaps a holiday-themed contest, simple gift swap or fun holiday party might be just the thing the doctor ordered to end the year on a high note both for your customers and the agents who serve them.
Jolly Holidays Come From Preparation Now
To ensure that your contact centre ends the year on a high note and starts the New Year off right, consider the tips above to prepare for the busy holiday season and help shepherd your team through the seasonal crunch. Remember to keep calm, no matter how crazy things get, and stay focused on the bigger picture: delivering a top-notch customer experience. For more information on how to deliver an excellent customer experience all year round, check out our free white paper.
