If you are an e-commerce business owner, the holiday season is the busiest time of year.
With customers rushing to buy pre-Christmas gifts, it can be difficult to keep up with your customer service. This blog post will provide you with some helpful tips that will help you prepare for the seasonal rush and ensure that your customers have a great experience. Here are some tips for providing great customer service
Review last year’s volumes and trends
The first step in dealing with the seasonal rush is to look at last year’s volumes and trends. Examining your customers’ data can help you identify issues that customers are experiencing. It will also give you an idea of the busiest hours or days for your business. Therefore, you can schedule customer support service accordingly during this time.
Be aware of your demographics
Research the demographics of your customer base. Conduct surveys, polls, or other research to see what they want from a business like yours. For example, if you’re an online retailer of children’s clothing, you’ll want to hear feedback on their size preferences. What if there are any specific design features they need to buy something.
Plus, look for trends in your customer base. If customers are complaining that they can’t find what they’re looking for, adjust your inventory accordingly.
Consider your customer support service strategies to meet their needs on time. For example, think about how long it takes for an order confirmation email to reach them. Additionally, also take into account what time of day they typically call when they have issues with their purchase.
Integrate chatbots into your websites
Chatbots have become one of the most popular ways to handle customer service requests. They are a great way for you to provide an immediate response. And they can help you manage your workload when you’re busy. You don’t need any special skills or training to set up chatbots on your website; all it takes is time and effort.
A chatbot can meet a range of customer service needs, from handling simple requests like answering questions about payment options to more complex tasks like supporting exchanges and returns. The benefits are numerous, including:
- Chatbots help answer queries that you might not be able to handle personally during peak times.
- They are always available no matter what time of day or night
- They can help you manage your workload so you don’t need to hire new employees.
Chatbots are a great way to improve the customer and employee experience, making customer support more convenient than ever. For an ecommerce business trying to get through peak times this year, chatbots are an absolute must.
Consider outsourcing call centers
You might not be able to handle busy calls on your own, so consider outsourcing some of the work to a call center. A third-party vendor may provide telephone support for customer support, order processing, and account inquiries. This will allow you to focus on other aspects of running the business. Let someone else take care of these calls during peak times, freeing up your time to focus on other priorities.
The benefits of outsourcing your call center are many, including increased efficiency and customer satisfaction. Moreover, with the help of a third-party provider, you can provide excellent service around the clock.
Improve self-service for your customers
Self-service is imperative for any e-commerce business. Customers are less likely to call customer service if they can find an answer on your website or app. We therefore recommend that you focus on improving self-service for customers to save money and time spent answering repetitive questions.
For example, adding videos to your FAQ. Customers are more likely to watch a video than read text, and YouTube is easier to find for customers.
Leverage social media
More 1 billion messages are exchanged between companies and people on social networks. Obviously, this is a great platform for businesses to provide customer service. You can use it to answer questions, solve problems, and provide information about your business that you might not have had the time or opportunity to post elsewhere on social media.
That said, you should always be careful to answer questions on time. If someone needs help or has a problem with your service and they are waiting for a response, it is important that their question is dealt with quickly and how to answer it.
Social media is also a great resource for gathering comments, especially if you offer an incentive to leave their opinions on your social channels, like free shipping or a discount code. This can provide invaluable data on what customers think about your business and what they like or dislike about it.
Create a workflow plan
Create a plan for how your business will handle customer service during the peak holiday season. This includes who does what, when and where. It can also include responses to –
- Are there specific services available to answer calls and emails?
- What will their workload be during this time of year?
- Are there any agencies you plan to work with for customer service? And their contact details, if applicable.
- How often will you update your plan throughout the season as things change?
Conclusion
During holiday periods, reliable customer support is imperative for your business. And often, small and medium-sized businesses don’t have enough staff to do all the work. This is where you should consider outsourcing call centers.
You will get a wide range of call center services which can guarantee that your business provides good customer service. Are you looking for a assistance in outsourcing call centers for your this holiday season? Get affordable, multi-channel, 24/7 customer support today. Our ETP price starts at just $ 7 / hour
Interesting Related Article: “The Dying Art of Customer Service”