Customer Service

A recent Clickatell survey showed that the typical customer spends 13 hours a year on hold — hours they would rather be relaxing (58 percent), doing chores (46 percent) or spending with family (36 percent). Additionally, one-third of those respondents said spending even five minutes to nine minutes on hold can lead to negative feelings towards a brand. Even with…

Around half of customers would switch to a competitor after just one bad customer service experience. Just one. That’s not a lot of room for error. To compete in today’s e-commerce world, retailers must invest in robust and talented customer service teams. Unfortunately, a rapid increase in online shopping plus a decrease in the labor…

Creating an exceptional customer experience is the mandate for today’s brands. Time and time again, consumers have made it clear that they expect personalized, fast and frictionless service at every step of the customer journey. Recent Kustomer research found that 85 percent of U.S. consumers expect contacting customer service to be faster, and 67 percent…

There were a host of difficulties plaguing retailers this past holiday season, including inventory shortages, production issues and shipping constraints, to name a few. The most notable shortage, however, was on the labor front. As of July 2021, the number of retail job openings peaked at 1.2 million, compared to 876,000 during the same period…

Holiday e-commerce sales will grow 11 percent to 15 percent this season, per Deloitte, with retail sales right behind at a 7 percent to 9 percent increase. In total, people will spend about $1.49 trillion to $1.52 trillion dollars holiday shopping. That’s a lot of spending — and 83 percent of people say they would stop…

Some of retail’s busiest days are coming up fast, and contact centers everywhere are going to be stretched to their breaking point as shoppers log on and call in to ask about offers, seek recommendations, chase packages, and organize returns. Whether it’s Black Friday, Cyber Monday or the first day of January sales, the contact…

This year, a different type of grinch looms over the holiday season: global supply chain shortages. The same gremlin that earlier emptied out appliance stores and caused the price of microchips to skyrocket now threatens retailers still trying to rebound from the throes of the global pandemic. And this time, no industry is safe. With…

For some of the most customer-centric retailers, artificial intelligence will be hard at work this holiday season. While there are many applications of AI for the e-commerce industry year-round, there are a few that are uniquely suited for the holiday rush this year. The global pandemic squeezed budgets for more established retailers, while influencer and…

All signs point to this being yet another challenging holiday shopping season for both customers and retailers. Amid shipping delays and labor shortages, retailers are facing a series of operational challenges that are certain to impact their ability to fulfill customer demand. All of this means more stress for support teams, which will undoubtedly deal…

With the supply chain crisis causing headaches for retailers, brands must not pass their inventory problems onto holiday shoppers. Due to various factors, including the pandemic, countries changing trading status creating port backlogs, and unplanned fluctuations in demand, brands can be affected by supply chain snags and stock-outs. If a retailer doesn’t have a current…