With the growth of e-commerce, customers are becoming used to higher standards of service, thus it is critical for businesses to optimise the customer experience to stay ahead of their rivals

The festive season is usually the most hectic time of year for businesses. This is when they feel the heat of increased expectations, and see larger volumes of customer requests that are often more complex. However, it is a timely reminder that good customer experience is important every day, not only during the most festive of times.

But where do you start? A good customer experience (CX) strategy starts with looking at your data and segmenting it into useful insights. Using these insights to understand what your customers’ needs are, especially during the festive season, is the next important step in implementing a strategy that meets customer expectations. From the brand’s perspective, it is important to be mindful of a customer’s buying trends, watch the peaks and dips, and also look at when festive shoppers return.

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The retail segment, for instance, comes into sharp focus during the holiday season, and a well-thought-out strategy is mandatory to deliver on even the most common expectations. Most e-commerce players see a spike in sales during the festive season, and brands that have a strong CX can leverage this as an opportunity to build loyalty.

But that is not enough. Businesses need to opt for a customer service and engagement platform that ensures seamless and personalised communication between agents and customers.

The 24×7 marketplace

Customers today are already used to shopping, booking, and ordering online. Today, they can browse products or services at their convenience in a 24×7 marketplace enabled by the rise of smartphones and tablets.

Furthermore, customers expect the brand to be intuitive and understand their needs. It is no longer about the customer going to the brand but the brand being at the push of a button. During the festive rush, the need for a satisfactory response and engagement is heightened. Speed of reply plays a direct and important role in ensuring customer satisfaction.

However, owing to increased ticket volumes during the holiday rush, support systems often lag, and speed of reply may not be fast enough for the customer. Using platforms that offer support, live chat, and self-service would be important.

Omnichannel approach to CX

Due to the availability of multiple channels that customers can now use to connect with a brand, it can be quite a task for a brand to offer consistent service across all the channels, especially during a rush.

With an omnichannel solution, customers can choose their preferred channel and all communications are streamlined into a single user interface for agents. So, if a customer tweets a particular query at a brand and also calls, whichever agent addresses the issue has historical data about the customer in order to get to a resolution quickly and with a more personal touch. Having a system like this saves resources, while boosts both the customer and agent satisfaction, which is crucial during the rush season.

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When you have an omnichannel retail experience, seasonal peaks and higher customer enquiry volumes do not make have a negative impact on customer satisfaction. This fully integrated approach transcends communication channels to include design, objectives and goals which are also integrated across devices and channels.

According to a Zendesk Benchmark Report, conducted across 45,000 brands across 140 countries, companies are increasingly moving to omnichannel customer services because of the plethora of benefits. The omnichannel approach gives a company a single view of the customer and allows them to meet the customer on the channel they are comfortable with, whichever it may be.

The study also showed that 61 per cent of customers are less patient with customer service than they were five years ago.

This means brands need to move beyond conventional channels like web forms and email, and offer live channels like chat. The study asked respondents what their preferred channel for communication was for various scenarios.

Social media was the preferred channel when they needed to complain, according to the study. Customers tend to look at self-service as a first point of contact, with 76 per cent of customers preferring self-service to alternatives.

How AI can help

Brands that use technologies like AI-powered chatbots are leveraging these to engage with customers better. The festive season is a time when potential customers are looking to buy gifts. They could be sitting at home, at their work desk, or on their daily commute, checking out a certain product or researching gift ideas.

They are constantly switching channels, likely checking out something on their smartphone and then moving to their laptop or tablet to complete a purchase. Today, if a brand doesn’t provide support in real time, the customer could move on or lose interest.

A business needs to be ready with unified responses across all the channels. Businesses need to employ the best technologies possible to engage with customers if they are to win the omnichannel game.

One effective way of engagement is via live chat. A live chat is often a brand’s way of automating engagement with customers so that the first response time is immediate and efficient. The Zendesk report says just that — it gleaned that 86 per cent of customers were open to proactive assistance when they had problems online.

Taking the omnichannel route means paying attention to not just online but also in-store experiences. Customers may use online stores and websites to research a product category and price, but they may prefer to visit a store to make the purchase in person.

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Brands that use established self-service support provide customers with the relevant information and answers to the most frequent queries at their convenience promptly.

A thorough FAQs section helps demonstrate that the brand understands the most common customer needs and already has answers, helping to build trust and transparency. Customers who visit the store come in armed with information about their purchase, saving time and providing a hassle-free experience for both the customer and the employee.

When a brand delivers this kind of omnichannel experience, particularly during a stressed out and busy time such as the festive season, the prize is loyalty. What more can a brand aspire for!

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