Customer Service: Your Holiday “To Do” List
The catalog and e-commerce companies that serve customers well will be rewarded with growth and profitability this holiday selling season. It’s time to review every aspect of your business to insure that customers are served quickly and efficiently. Following are some tips to get you started:
1. Be sure your Web site can be navigated easily by all visitors regardless of their access. Some sites are accessible only with high speed Internet service. This severely limits your sales opportunities. Customers will leave a slow-loading site in favor of one that takes less time to reach and navigate.
2. Provide a customer service phone number on every Web page. Yes, it may increase the number of calls to your contact center, but it also will boost your sales, because it encourages customers’ trust and answers their questions. Customers should know that someone always is available to help them.
3. Have a live operator answering calls instead of a router. Train all of your agents to be able to answer basic service questions and take orders. This will minimize customers’ call time and improve service.
4. Schedule enough staff to process sales regardless of venue. If you have service centers or checkout stations in your retail stores, have at least one clerk in each store available to work those desks so customers don’t have to search for a place to complete their purchases. In your contact center, use third-party services or internal resources (e.g., marketing staff, executives) for overflow calls.
5. Communicate, communicate and communicate. Let customers know when to expect their orders, what your return policies are, etc. An informed customer is a satisfied one.
Contact Ellis at (828) 626-3756, or via her Web site: http://www.wilsonellisconsulting.com.
