The holidays can be a challenge for customer service teams. But if you take the right steps to prepare, you can keep both your customers and your employees happy during the winter holidays. Here are a few of our top tips on how to succeed at customer service during the winter holiday season, and enter the New Year at your best.
1. Be Ready To Scale Up Your Support For The Influx Of Holiday Calls
Particularly for retailers and other consumer-focused companies, the holidays mean that you’ll be getting a lot more calls from new users and customers. Before, during, and after the holiday season, you need to be ready to scale up your customer support team to handle these calls.
Being prepared means that you’ll be able to reduce wait times, provide satisfactory support, and turn new users and customers into life-long brand advocates. Of course, internal hiring – such as hiring seasonal workers or even full-time staff – is an option if you want more hands on deck for the holidays.
But another good option is outsourced customer support. With an outsourced partner like Incept, it’s easy to scale up for the holidays – and then quickly scale down support once holiday calls stop coming as quickly.
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2. Work Out Holiday Schedules In Advance To Keep Your Employees Happy
Make sure that you’re working ahead of time to accommodate employee requests for time off for holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and the New Year. You should also definitely consider closing your office completely for major holidays.
Usually, customer service team members will have to work at least some of the days surrounding holidays, so consider a rotating system – a worker can get more time off around Thanksgiving one year, and more time off around Christmas next year.
Remote work is also an option to consider. With remote work, your customer support team can still travel to visit family, take trips, and work when needed without their job preventing them from traveling.
3. Be On The Lookout For Another “Great Resignation” And Be Ready To Deal With It
Last November, a record was set for people quitting their jobs, with many more workers quitting in December and January. We don’t have a crystal ball, so it’s impossible to say whether this will happen again, or if this was a one-time trend due to COVID-19, a strong job market, and other factors.
But in general, the winter holidays are a popular time for people to leave jobs – and customer service jobs have high turnover rates, with some call centers having burnout rates of 30% to 45%. This means that customer service team members may have a higher likelihood of quitting compared to workers in other roles.
Taking steps to boost employee retention around the holidays – such as holiday pay, bonuses, parties, and employee appreciation – may help you reduce turnover and burnout. But just in case, you should be ready to hire more workers in January, or to outsource customer service work to a third-party if some of your customer service team decides to quit.
4. Update Your Self-Service Portal And Policies Before The Holidays
81% of customers try to get answers to questions from self-service portals before turning to your customer support team. So this is a good time to make sure that your information is updated and accurate. Confusing, conflicting, and inaccurate information on your website can cause serious customer frustration – and an influx of holiday calls to your business.
So make sure you check on and update answers to common FAQs, revamp your return and shipping policies for consistency (including any extended returns for the holidays), and take other steps to make sure the information on your website is thorough and accurate.
5. Invest In Team Building And Training All-Year-Round
A well-prepared, tight-knit, and trained team will be able to handle calls, prioritize requests, and deliver exceptional service. In contrast, a team that’s unprepared may not be able to deliver the kind of customer experience that will turn new customers into life-long brand advocates.
So don’t just focus on the holidays. You should be investing in your team all-year-round to make sure they can handle the holidays with less stress. Training new hires properly, hiring enough workers, and taking steps to build morale and teamwork all are essential steps in building a team that can handle the holidays – and everything that comes afterward.
Related Post: How to Show Appreciation to Your Customer Service Team
Scale Up Your Support Team For The Holidays – Contact Incept Today!
At Incept, we’re here to help you get the support you need to deal with the holiday rush. Our outsourced customer service team has the experience, skills, and tools you need to deliver an excellent customer experience, no matter your industry. Get in touch with us today to learn more about our outsourced customer support solutions, and how we can help your business thrive during the winter holidays.