Customer Services — Planning for Christmas
With the festive season nearly upon us it’s time to plan for the busier times ahead. Customer services departments can find themselves overrun over the Christmas period, with the number of queries increasing by 75%. If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to plan ahead!
Planning Seasonal Opening Hours
There are crucial decisions to be made, and the first of those is customer services opening hours. A small business may decide to shutdown contact channels completely on Christmas day, where as some larger businesses will feel the need to offer even more support than usual over the festive period.
For those remaining open staffing levels need to be calculated. Predicting demand is difficult, looking at data from the previous months and also from previous Christmas periods may help you calculate a more educated estimate.
Check you’re up to date
For those deciding not to offer support over the holidays, be sure to set up autoresponders on social media, live chat and email so the customers are aware you have received their enquiry and will get back to them in due course. Also make sure any ‘self service’ customer service tools you may have on your website are up to date and show the latest products, delivery and returns details etc.
Spread the Word
Once your plan is complete let your customers know what to expect in advance. Put your seasonal opening times on your website, (front page, not hidden away!) and all over your social media channels.
