Published on 23rd November 2021 by Gemma Harding
As we approach the most wonderful time of year, there are many reasons why both consumers and business owners are rubbing their palms.
From the viewpoint of a consumer, this is an opportunity to reward themselves with a substantial discount. Wishlists are being honed, and the online community is waiting for companies to sound the discount alert.
However, with all of the discounts and flashy advertisements enticing the customer’s imagination, it may be difficult to close the sale and move your consumers from browsing the website to converting and purchasing.
Your customer service representatives and the client experience are critical to the success of Black Friday and Cyber Monday!
The Importance of Exceptional Online Customer Service
When it comes to success in the competitive world of eCommerce businesses place plenty of upfront emphasis on products, pricing and promotions. Often leaving customer service as an afterthought – they do so at their peril – service isn’t an add-on, it’s an essential part of your customer proposition. Design for customer success and design for customer satisfaction, loyalty and increased lifetime value.
Every business must make each client feel unique. Many companies do this by offering outstanding customer service. Excellent customer service aims to go above and beyond the client’s expectations. These experiences are the most effective marketing strategies a company can use to get consumers to return.
Online companies often overlook customer service since they don’t see the necessity because they aren’t physical shop. But, keep in mind—your customers still have questions and concerns, just like customers at a physical store. The lack of a physical shop where customers can go if they can’t reach someone on the phone removes the convenience and security customers previously relied on. As a result, make every effort to ease their concerns by ensuring that someone on your team is always accessible whenever anything comes up. Failure to do so may increase the likelihood of losing a convert on your site.
Most companies that disregard the significance of online customer service will struggle to thrive. No matter how a business works–how they treat their consumers, and their capacity to meet their requirements will hugely impact how successful they may be.
Although providing great online customer service may seem challenging, providing a pleasant experience that will inspire your consumers to return is quite easy.
How to Get Ready for Black Friday?
Prepare your support inbox for the influx of holiday customer service questions because Black Friday Cyber Monday craziness is on its way!
The surge in demand is a great stress test for your customer support representatives. Above all, this is an opportunity to put your internal system, team procedures, and customer journey to the test.
A significant increase in your web traffic and strong support demand, on the other hand, is an excellent chance to create a GOOD first impression and close the sale!
Top Four Tips for the Best Black Friday Customer Service
After price and quality, convenience is one of the most significant considerations for holiday buyers this year. This post will look at the best methods to meet this goal by providing an exceptional client experience.
Online brands prepare for the holiday season months in advance. From developing attractive discount offers to establish a launch schedule on discount marketplaces, as well as creative resources for promotional initiatives. Because the whole business, from sales to marketing to logistics, is likely to be engaged in the process, why not utilise that information to get everyone on the customer service battleground?
This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to include the whole business and expose them to how consumers feel about the firm and its goods. Furthermore, each employee will have the chance to learn about or refresh their memory about the goods or services offered by the business.
You can simply bring everyone on board same for using existing expertise from customer service colleagues and the brand’s customer service playbook!
- Predict the Most Frequent Customer Inquiries
Examine your support team’s most frequently asked questions and make them available to your agents and customers:
FAQ that is simple to use. It would help if you had an informative and easy-to-navigate FAQ area on your website to relieve your staff of repetitive questions. To minimise confusion, create assistance articles for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and place them in important places of the buying experience. The more information you provide, the more time your agents have to concentrate on more challenging situations.
An extensive knowledge base. Make sure your Knowledge Base is readily available and updated with all of the Holiday Sales information that consumers or agents may be looking for. The Help Centre is a huge time saver that offers high-quality self-help and directly influences the performance of your contact centre.
Saved Responses are quite useful. Having some prepared answers on hand can help your agents prepare for large numbers of unexpected client inquiries. Create some comprehensive responses regarding shipment or exchanges to help you respond faster.
Spending effort improving these resources will return dividends many times over when the Holiday Rush begins.
- Ensure That Agents and Chatbots Work Together
Chatbots offer many advantages for retailers, but they may also cause consumer annoyance if not correctly designed. In the extremely competitive environment of Black Friday, any consumer annoyance will drive them to a rival. To prevent this, keep in mind that you should only use chatbots for simple and specific queries, such as giving shipping information or referring to the appropriate product page.
Even when chatbots are devoted to particular needs, problems may arise. You should establish a handover to prevent irritating clients with prolonged discussions with chatbots that cannot comprehend their issue. The engagement may then be easily moved between chatbots and agents.
- Satisfy Customer Expectations
Like it or not in a connected digital world, your customers are ‘always on’ and they expect that eCommerce providers will always be available. 9-5 service in a 24/7 world is a thing of the past.
Always remember to underpromise and overdeliver. This assists in managing expectations and laying the groundwork for a good encounter.
Availability. Inform your clients about your extended or decreased working hours, so they know when to contact you.
Time to Response. If response times are considerably longer than normal, notify customers ahead of time. Update your chat message and auto-reply email to include how long it takes for you to respond. Set reasonable expectations to elicit tolerance and understanding from your clients.
Returns and Delivery. It’s critical to define your return policy and delivery dates precisely if you want to keep your customers happy throughout the holidays.
Final Thoughts
Most support teams take a passive approach on Black Friday/Cyber Monday and are overwhelmed by the number of support requests. This hurts both your brand and your revenues. Customer support is a tool in your arsenal to provide a positive client experience and assist with the marketing push. Please make the most of it!
Posted by Gemma Harding
As Head of Client Services, Gemma is an expert in the customer service industry. With over 20 years of experience in the call handling process she will guide your organisation to an improved customer service strategy. Hobbies include all thing equestrian.
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