The holiday shopping season is a busy one for retailers. It is the time of the year when good customer service becomes more important than ever. Failure to recognize this is a major mistake all retailers need to avoid.
It is safe to say that holiday shopping leaves many consumers on edge. This will only get worse if you provide them with bad customer service. One way to avoid that is to properly train your staff to handle the holiday madness appropriately. They should be fast but efficient at payment processing as well as handling large crowds. Completing transactions as quickly and pleasantly as possible is also important during the holidays.
In addition, your staff should know the best ways to positively influence each customer they encounter. They need to know how to turn a disgruntled customer into a satisfied one. Otherwise you run the risk of angry customers and employees, which is a recipe for disaster.
Online retailers also need to step up their game for the shopping season. This can mean anything from taking on extra representatives for the holidays to adding more information to your website. Handling a larger volume of orders than unusual can cause problems if your staff is too small. The longer customers have to wait to be helped, the more likely they are to take their business elsewhere. When it comes to any e-commerce site, the holidays will bring with them additional questions from customers. Having holiday-related questions and answers on your site will save customers valuable time.
Another way to beef up your e-commerce site for the holidays is to consider adding an additional email inbox. This allows you to prioritize customers emails as urgent or non-urgent. By responding to the urgent emails first you will have more satisfied customers and a smoother holiday season.
The last thing you can do to ensure good service to your customers is to acknowledge any complaints or suggestions they make. While the holiday season is not the time to implement huge changes, keep customer feedback in mind for next year.
In short, good customer service will encourage repeat business even after the holidays are over. This is especially true when the best merchant services are offered. Anything your company can do to make the holidays easier for your customers is something they will appreciate and remember. By giving back to your customers they will give back to you.
