Customer Service Reps

Balancing Humanization and Digitization: 3 Key Customer Service Trends
March 29, 2021 at 7:15 pm

Of the many challenges that brands had to confront last year, the shifting behaviors and heightened expectations of consumers still remain the top issues in 2021. As such, one truth still sits above the rest for brands: the customer always comes first. Indeed, organizations were required to adapt to the status quo or risk losing…

Email Customer Support is Failing. Here’s Why Retailers Need to Pay Attention.
February 10, 2021 at 12:21 pm

Customer service has become a competitive differentiator for retailers — on par with quality and price. When a person reaches out to a company with a question or issue, the experience has an immediate and direct impact on whether they will do business with a company again — now or in the future. Retailers like…

Customer Experience: How Angry Customers Can Actually Help Your Business
February 4, 2021 at 3:57 pm

Fifty-four percent of consumers say they’ve had at least one bad customer service experience in the last month. Dealing with impatient, dissatisfied or angry customers is never easy, but if the contact center handles the situation well, you may be able to build a stronger relationship with the customer over the phone and create opportunities…

How Retailers With Call Centers Can Effectively Communicate With Customers and Maintain Compliance During a Pandemic
January 25, 2021 at 1:38 pm

Outward communications are critical to retail business operations today. However, most retailers weren't prepared for a global pandemic. Communications can become complex during unprecedented times. This has left many retailers to wonder the most appropriate ways to engage their customers while maintaining legal compliance. It’s important to consider that the customer must feel empowered — i.e.,…

Retail Recovery and Rebuilding Customer Loyalty Beyond COVID-19
December 21, 2020 at 4:02 pm

The pandemic has changed everything in retail — and it’s not ending anytime soon. Just as stores started to adjust to the “new normal” of frequent disinfection and face masks, the spread of the virus is picking back up in regions across the country, forcing many retailers to close their doors to the public again.…

Verizon's Chief Customer Officer on How Employees Pivoted During COVID-19
October 21, 2020 at 3:11 pm

This video originally appeared on Total Retail's sister site, Women in Retail Leadership Circle. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and Verizon had to close its retail stores, instead of laying off or furloughing thousands of employees, the telecommunications company used it as an opportunity to train thousands of its store sales associates on its customer service…

Retail Reshaped by Chatbots and AI Technology During COVID-19
September 1, 2020 at 12:13 pm

There’s no doubt that recent circumstances surrounding COVID-19 have reshaped the way retailers operate and connect with their customers daily. Shelter-in-place ordinances and stay-at-home mandates have forced retail brands to rely on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and chatbot technology to manage much of the workload required for servicing their customers’ needs. In fact,…

3 Tips for Up-Leveling Your Customer Care in the Wake of COVID-19
August 12, 2020 at 7:18 pm

While the impact of COVID-19 has put substantial stress on the retail industry, savvy brands have realized that a strong customer care strategy is a retailer’s first line of defense against disruption. In the wake of the pandemic, more consumers are shopping online, and as a result the demand for timely customer care has significantly…

Retail Call Centers: Improving Efficiency and Productivity
July 6, 2020 at 4:46 pm

Retail call centers are an important step in many customer journeys, and for online customers they may be the only human interaction with the brand. Retailers have multiple ways to operate to fulfill the customer need. Should they be in-house or outsourced? Offshore or home-based? How do you expand capacity for business peaks? Whatever route…

Why Now is the Time for Retailers to Adopt a D-to-C Mind-Set
March 23, 2020 at 11:43 am

In the midst of mounting uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, the presidential election, and other stressors, customer service needs to be dialed up now more than ever. In the retail industry, with more employees working from home and less shoppers visiting physical stores, the time is now for brands to strengthen their direct-to-consumer (D-to-C) mind-set.…