Holiday season shapes the business year. For many businesses, holiday season determines whether they are going to end up being profitable in any given year. twenty to forty percent of yearly sales for small and mid-sized retail businesses occur in the last two months of the year. As always with holiday planning, it’s better to start earlier.

Top tips to ensure you deliver an amazing customer experience during this busy season

1. Improve your customers’ on-hold Experience

Nobody enjoys waiting. But, studies show that small changes to the way you treat people while they’re waiting can make a dramatic difference to the way they feel about the experience. Sporadically, customers are just looking for some basic information like hours of operation, an address or the date of an upcoming special event. It can be as simple as “press 1 for store hours and information.” That way, many customers can get what they are looking for right away without jamming up phone lines or customer representatives.

2. Always provide some form of self-service

Customer interactions can be called the lifeblood of your brand because such interactions help businesses to be heard and to stand out in a crowded marketplace. This can be accomplished by offering customers a detailed FAQ section that can include a variety of information in different forms, screenshots of potential problems, explainer videos, audio files, and much more. Never force your customers to take one approach over the other, instead offer a mix of services and let the customers know you value their time and effort.

3. Provide omnichannel support

Offering omnichannel support is a necessity and somehow a lot of brands are still not offering it. Omnichannel service involves enabling seamless, integrated service across all channels including desktops, mobile devices, and the web. A customer should be able to switch channels without losing any momentum. If they start interacting with you through a survey form, but then need to make a call, ensure their experience is a seamless continuation of the conversation, and reduce chances of customer churn.

4. Hear out your customers

Feedback matters: At DropThought we believe that to build a sustainable relationship with a customer, we must value their feedback. Especially with the COVID-19 crisis and a holiday season that has a high risk of breaking the social distancing rule, it is crucial to know if your customers feel safe and secure. We all love when we are heard and when our opinions are appreciated, bring in the same emotion into the business perspective: think about the kind of impact it will leave on customers and their overall experience.

5. Take care of your employees

Your support team will be flooded with requests, tickets, and working their back off during the holiday season. Showing them a little extra gratitude and hearing out how they’re handling it makes a huge difference. Make sure to appreciate your employees and do something special for them since EX and CX are in a virtuous cycle and they feed off each other.

6. Get the best CX platform

Dropthought has created an integrated enterprise solution to help turn the voice of your customers into actions. We help businesses discover the “why” behind your customer feedback. Finding new ways to provide exceptional customer satisfaction has become a priority for many. If that sounds like a problem you’re also trying to solve, we’d love to help you out.

Our dedicated Customer Success Team will work closely with you to create a tailored customer feedback program to avoid typical pitfalls that stop businesses from taking action. After all, it’s holiday season, gift your customers with exceptional customer experience through DropThought!

Request a Demo to learn more!