For businesses and retailers large and small, holiday customer service is essential to ensure a successful season. These days, because so many consumers do their holiday shopping online, it’s important for companies to prepare effectively for an increase in call volume. Though the holiday buzz begins around November 1, beginning Thanksgiving weekend, from Black Friday up through frenzied last-minute shopping weeks later, how well your company performs rests on how well your contact center can respond to the increase in the volume of customer queries. Providing overall customer satisfaction during a generally chaotic period is not only a challenge but vital for the success of every business owner.
One way to help manage the call volume is to consider the benefit of partnering with a professional contact center service. Outsourcing your customer service functions allows your company to focus on the business. Contact centers are staffed with experienced and professional representatives committed to replicating your company’s policies, brand messaging, and best practices to seamlessly provide continuity of service. Partnering with a contact center can enable companies to meet the needs of every one of their customers during the busy holiday season.
To help improve holiday customer service, here are 3 meaningful ways a professional contact center can benefit your company this season:
Handle More Calls, Serve More Customers
During the holidays, call volume can spike unpredictably throughout the day. This can leave businesses scrambling to have the right number of employees to handle the call volume at the right time. One option is hiring temps who will need sufficient time and money to train properly. Another option is to increase the hours of current employees during the peak demand of November and December. But it’s unlikely they will be able to perform to their full capabilities under heightened duress over an extended four to six-week period. A third option is having a scalable contact center to handle customer inquiries. A scalable contact center will always have enough knowledgeable agents to answer the calls during extreme volume. Rather than managing the challenges that accompany an in-house support team during the holiday season, consider a scalable call center staffed with professionals to answer every incoming call when the demand is there.
Leveraging Technology
While contact centers are staffed with experienced agents that provide your company with quality customer service, several other support services can enhance and improve your customer experiences. This would mean having access to the latest technology, professional tools, and advanced hardware and software constantly updated and managed by experienced operators. Such communication tools can be seamlessly integrated into your website or platform and used in any combination of omnichannel support services—voice, email, chat, mobile, web, and social media. IVR (Interactive Voice Response) offers customers a self-service approach with a click of a few buttons. Leveraging such technology enables those customers who prefer to help themselves move from channel to channel easily, and at a pace they are comfortable with, at any time of day or night. In the process, it improves their customer experience but also frees up customer service agents to address more complex questions and issues.
Extended Hours Means Better Customer Service
As the holiday call volume ramps up and phone lines get busier, contact center hours can be easily extended to accommodate those early morning or late night customers. Coverage can be provided for every time zone across the U.S. beyond normal business hours. You can also opt to be “open” 24 hours a day by extending coverage with around-the-clock availability. Omnichannel support also allows customers to order or get the product information they need when it fits their schedule.
Partnering with a contact center service provider to handle all or some of your customer calls can help ensure a successful holiday season for your business. Contact centers offer scalable solutions to manage seasonal surges in call volume effectively. Professional and experienced agents are on hand to work extended hours and provide exceptional service to your customers in every time zone. Access to existing omnichannel contact center infrastructure further improves customer satisfaction by providing the opportunity to help themselves at a comfortable pace. Telecom is a US-based company staffed with experienced US-based agents. Our contact center services offer businesses professionally-trained customer service representatives and access to the latest innovations and state-of-the-art technology to provide your customers with exceptional service and satisfaction throughout the holiday season.