The end-of-year period has always been a pivotal time for customer service teams: increased activity, visibility actions, stock management, multiple orders, increased number of questions.
All of these issues lead to a number of problems to be anticipated:
At SEIF, we give you some good practices to optimise your customer relations during this festive period while maintaining customer satisfaction!
There are several ways to estimate the volume of requests over a given period:
This will give you a clearer picture of your organisation. Don't forget that digitalisation is the key word!
You may need help during this time and there is no shortage of customer service outsourcing providers!
There are many outsourcing services that can provide you with help and/or support on an ad hoc basis. The important thing is to choose the one that best suits your needs, your business and your mindset.
It is up to you to decide on the strategy of this outsourcing:
This can also allow you to adjust the size of your team in case of sickness or other reasons.
You will need to prepare a solid brief in advance to facilitate the onboarding of these people and optimise their efficiency at the start.
At SEIF, we like Tête à tête, Onepilot, Webhelp, Assist digital, Manners...
There are many customer relations companies that can complement your team and ensure that your objectives are met while maintaining your DNA. Don't be afraid to take the plunge.
And take the time to establish your precise brief, your objectives for this period, the indicators of your customer relationship that you will monitor with your partner, how often and also your budget.
On this point, you can decide to manage it by staff time spent, by number of tickets, or by overall budget allocated to the period.
It's D-day and what you fear is happening: your team is already underwater.
Don't panic! Here are the 2 best ways to save yourself:
60% of consumers expect a response to a chat within a minute. So chats are good, but if no one can respond in time, it's better to send an email!
Only reopen this channel once you control your main channels (emailing for example).
There is no need to remind you of the benefits of self-service for your customers and your team.
The help center is a good way for your agents to focus on the most complex cases and leave the basic requests for your help centre and allow for a more personal customer relationship.
An outdated FAQ could give your customers the wrong information, or worse, increase the volume of contacts. Not to mention the image it creates. The customer journey must be seamless!
An up-to-date helpdesk will allow your customers to find an answer to basic questions on their own, without having to contact your department. Customer relationship management also requires an efficient self-service.
Finally, if you have macros that you send to your customers on a regular basis, make sure that the content is up to date. These template responses are designed to save your team time!
If you exceed your response time, don't wait to send an automatic message to warn your customers after a certain period without a response from you. This will always be more appreciated than no news from you.
If you are still several weeks away from the rush period, you can set up your chatbot: a chatbot like Hello my Bot will quickly answer the most common questions about your product/service.
The idea is not to replace human interaction, but to relieve your team who can focus on the rest of the more complex requests. Intelligent automation is not to be overlooked!
Make a list of emergency contacts for each department you work with on a daily basis (technical team, marketing, finance, etc.). You can also make a holiday schedule to know who is present each day, who is on call, with emergency phone numbers and times.
For example, you can think of the following situations:
Don't start a new channel two weeks before the turning point: the time for experimentation is over! It's time to review your existing processes and fine-tune the details.
So if you suddenly get the idea of integrating chatbots to improve your customer interactions, put it off until January:
If you already know that your service will be closed for a period of time, or that your opening hours are different from the usual ones: don't forget to interact with your customers through customer marketing (website, emailing, posters...)
Be transparent: you will not be open for a certain period? be comfortable with this and invite them to contact you before or after this period, specifying your response time if you can.
This time of year is always a trying time for customer service teams: customers in a hurry, demanding, a hectic pace, a sometimes tense atmosphere...
If you remain open during the festive season: small croissants on Christmas morning, a small buffet on New Year's Eve or simply a short coffee break with several people... is always welcome! Putting the customer at the centre is important, but so are your teams.
But that is not all, of course: if tensions are too great and create crisis situations, dialogue and exchange remain the best means of calming the situation. Don't hesitate to provoke these moments.
We quote Jonathan Lefèvre: "The team we build is the company we build". Thank you Jonathan!
The important thing is to maintain an essentialist approach to customer service at this time, while not neglecting the customer experience: keep what works and put on hold what doesn't. The idea is not to make a mistake, but to make a difference. The idea is not to abandon current projects, but to postpone them until the right moment!
Happy Holidays