Top 5 Things to do for Your Customers Before the Holiday Season

Don’t let the holiday season go by without seizing this golden opportunity to show customers how your organization delivers a superior customer experience!

Here are 5 things you can do this season to maximize your customer service.

1) Improve your Self-Service Support

It’s no surprise that customer self-service continues to grow in popularity given its relative ease, speed and cost-effectiveness.  According to Zendesk, 67% prefer to help themselves when given the opportunity.

While nothing replaces the telephone for more complex inquiries, it’s vital that companies provide self-service so customers can get answers to their questions.

2) Give Every Customer the Same Experience

Allowing customers to engage with your company on their preferred channel is good business, be it social media, web, mobile or by phone.  But smart companies know that the key to success is to provide a consistent experience across all of these channels.

Give all of your agents the information and tools they need to solve customer inquiries the first time. Don’t force your customers to “channel-surf” to resolve their issues.

3) Bring your “A Game” Every Time

Customer service is a team sport. To win at it requires prioritization and effort at every level of the organization, from the CEO on down.  According to Forrester, 93% said customer experience is on their company’s list of strategic priorities and 28% said it was their top priority.

Every customer interaction matters. According to PriceGrabber’s Winter Holiday Shopping Survey, 69% of consumers plan to shop at the same retailers they did last year, 70% citing good customer service as the reason why.

4) Think of Every Call as a Way to Turn a Customer into an Ambassador

Successful companies know the importance of maximizing every opportunity to interact with their customers. In his book, “Delivering Happiness”, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh says:

We receive thousands of phone calls and e-mails every day, and we view each one as an opportunity to build the Zappos brand into being about the very best customer service. Our philosophy has been that most of the money we might ordinarily have spent on advertising should be invested in customer service, so that our customers will do the marketing for us through word of mouth.

If you can amaze your customers during the busiest time of year, just think of how they’ll spread the word and reward you with their loyalty and increased business the rest of the year.

5) Show them How Much you Value their Time

Nothing frustrates callers more than being told “your call is important to us”, while being stuck on hold with your company. Simply stated, nobody likes to be put on hold. So why do it, when technology exists that can replace hold-time with a call-back?

Fonolo’s solutions offer a cost-effective way to add call-backs to any call center with relative ease. This season, don’t think about call-backs as a “nice to have” when your customers are thinking about hanging up and calling a competitor.