The holiday season is among us and this means a couple of things. For some, this means relaxing and dealing with a much smaller clientele. For others, on the other hand, this translates to complete anarchy that strangely only gets crazier year after year. You simply cannot afford to fall short of your clients’ holiday expectations if you own or manage a business or a team in a sector that is negatively impacted by this chaos (like, say, the retail industry).
Increased Stress
When it comes to Christmas clients, you can rely on one thing only: just because it’s that special time of year, doesn’t mean they’ll be lowering their standards. They will, at most, not change. In the worst case scenario, they’ll raise their standards and demonstrate a complete unwillingness to be content with the customer service you offer. Customer service should therefore be your top concern over the holidays. The sales don’t matter at this point. This is the moment when client service counts.
Bringing Convenience to It
Customers will still desire convenience throughout the holidays, even though it’s the holidays and pretty much everyone else is doing the same thing. You can bet that around 75% of consumers would like to be able to make an online purchase and return it to a physical store. They are essentially dissatisfied with the single method of conducting business with you. You have to make yourself as convenient as you can for them. Try to give them the impression that they are still valued and in control, even if you are unable to give them complete control over everything.
The ease of use extends beyond the transaction of goods. Your staff needs to be able to respond to inquiries from clients regardless of their origins even before the madness that is the holiday shopping season. While some choose to call in, others prefer to make inquiries via social media. There are folks who would be ecstatic to speak with you in real time via your website. Both your purchase alternatives and client support should be as flexible as possible.
Arriving Equipped
Another characteristic of holiday shoppers is their readiness. Over the past few weeks, they have examined every offer, product, and small item you can imagine (and some you cannot). Even though they are very clear about what they want, they will still ask questions. There are inquiries to be made at all times. For this reason, your holiday staff members should also be well-prepared. Make sure your staff members attend the pre-holiday training, where they will learn about new items and how to obtain more information about them should the need arise, as it inevitably will.
This suddenly well organized holiday consumer will also have the benefit of knowing how to concentrate on the important things in life. You may still recall the debate around the Starbucks Christmas cup from the previous year, when it turned out that the public wasn’t all that interested in it.
During the holidays, people don’t have time to worry about little matters. Shopping needs to be done!
Quickness, rapidity, rapidity
For shoppers, speed is crucial because the holidays mean they are busier and don’t have time to squander. Throughout their buying experience, they desire speed. They will want the salespeople to welcome them as soon as they enter the store, to start with. They will expect prompt responses and prompt payment processing.
They will expect even more speed in terms of processing and delivery, particularly when it comes to online purchasing, when making the buy. Free options are far more appealing than you might expect, while we’re talking about shipping.
Even in terms of basic customer service, your clients will anticipate prompt attention. This is true even for customer service methods that are less conventional, like social media. Seventy percent of customers who ask a question on social media want a response the same day, according to the Radial survey that is cited above.
This holiday season, your customers essentially demand promptness, ease of use, and assistance. Someone else will give it to them if you are not prepared to.
