Holiday Return Rush: How to Handle the Season of Exchanges
It happens every year: Christmas comes and gifts are given. With nearly 40 percent of consumers expecting to return gifts, the days after Christmas are all about returning and exchanging. As a retailer, it's important to arm yourself throughout the return rush. Using its latest Q3 Benchmark Report on customer satisfaction and Global Customer Service Survey, Zendesk has identified tips for retailers to ensure they're the paragon of customer service during the holiday return rush.
Timing is of the Essence
Recognizing customer support weak spots is critical to supplying good customer service. Not surprisingly, December is the worst month for customer service, partially due to the fact that it's difficult for a company to stay fully staffed throughout the holidays. The worst day of the entire year for customer support is Dec. 29, according to Zendesk data. The average time it will take to hear back from a support agent on that day is 66 hours.
Another important factor for customer service is time of day. Customer support tickets submitted outside of normal business hours understandably have the slowest first reply times. The best time of day for customer support is 9:00 a.m. The worst time to seek customer support is 6:00 p.m., with an average wait time of 12 hours to 14 hours.
Saturday is by far the most inopportune day of the week to submit customer support tickets, namely because tickets can go unanswered until Monday. Wednesday and Thursday have the fastest first reply time — on average, four times faster than Saturday, while Mondays are traditionally affected by the backlog that builds up over the weekend.
Strengthening support teams during the identified weak times is the best bet for companies worried about their customer service scores dipping during the holidays. While you can't have employees working around the clock, you can ensure great customer support by having a strong self-support page where customers can get answers to the most common questions on their own.
Customers Love Rewards
Setting up a rewards program is another way to ensure happy customers during busy times. Customers, particularly Americans, appreciate a good rewards program. Seventy-three percent of U.S. consumers say that being rewarded for purchases, feedback and referrals is important. A rewards program can include incentives from free shipping to surprising online customers and rewarding them for their support.
Provide Customer Service Through All Channels — Especially the Phone
Providing customer service across multiple channels (e.g., email, phone, social media) is becoming increasingly important. This is an area where most companies struggle, as it can be difficult to provide consistently great service across every channel. Of note, most customers are least satisfied with customer service provided via social media.
Most customers believe the phone is the fail-safe method for customer service, yet several are disappointed with response time. When an email goes unanswered, 71 percent of customers would then call the company. When social media goes unanswered, 55 percent said they would then rely on the phone for support. When phone calls go unanswered, 54 percent try to call again. As such, customers’ expectation of this channel is unparalleled to other options.
Bolster Support and Win Lifelong Customers
It's important to strengthen customer support during this tough time as brand image is incredibly important to U.S. consumers. In fact, in return for receiving great customer service, customers are more likely to return to that company and spend more (37 percent), compared to a global average of 33 percent. Additionally, 84 percent think a company's reputation for customer service is important when deciding to make a purchase.
Recognize the most difficult times for your customers to receive the support they need and make sure you have all your channels covered, whether it be by updating the hours for customer support agents, hiring more agents both during the holidays and the critical support days after, or creating an easy-to-use self-service page. Consider instituting a rewards program that has additional incentives. Customers are your company's biggest marketing channel. A bad experience can travel the world in a second, but a happy customer can also spread word-of-mouth just as far. Ensure your company is protected by putting its customers first.
Amy Kelman is the vice president of customer success at Zendesk, a software development company that offers help desk ticketing, issue tracking and customer service support.
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