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Contact UsGetting Mother’s Day customer service right is essential. Mother’s Day isn’t just a chance to celebrate the importance of our mothers, but is also a major sales peak for retailers, florists, and many others. Demand is growing, particularly online, with e-commerce retailers seeing revenues increase by 54% year-on-year in 2022.
However, Mother’s Day isn’t simple for retailers to get right. Demand can be difficult to predict, while ongoing supply chain issues may mean many items are in still in short supply. And with many people sending flowers, there’s always the possibility that they’ll be damaged in transit or have some special flower missing. Even trusted brands can get it wrong and disappoint customers and their mothers, as seen by complaints on social media and negative news stories.
All of this puts the focus fully on Mother’s Day customer service. To ensure you have the right processes and resources in place, follow these five best practices:
While the date may change, Mother’s Day is an annual event. So, it’s essential to look back at your data from previous years. How many orders did you get? How many people left ordering to the last minute? What were customer service queries typically about? Were there particular products or areas that had a higher proportion of issues? Collaborate with other departments such as marketing to understand what special promotions they’ll be running in the lead-up. How might that impact demand? All these insights can help ensure you have the right number of agents in place and that they are up to speed with the right knowledge.
Of course, it can be difficult to predict demand and ensure you have enough agents available to handle customer queries. But the switch to hybrid working in recent years makes coping with spikes in demand much easier. You can have agents on standby working from home, ready to help manage incoming calls when you expect queries to peak.
Also, look at your processes to prioritize those with Mother’s Day queries. For example, reprogram your IVR menu so that these callers can reach agents more quickly. Across digital channels, use AI to analyze incoming queries for key Mother’s Day terms so that they can be prioritized by agents.
Increasingly customers want to be able to contact you using their preferred channels. So not only do you need to have enough agents in place, but you also need to ensure that the right blend of skills and resources are available. Offering live chat enables customers to quickly engage with agents and share details and photos, for example.
Be proactive. Ensure customers get a text or email to confirm that their order has been delivered. And given that social media is where people are likely to complain first, be extra vigilant about monitoring customer issues on these channels so that you can quickly intervene.
Often issues related to deliveries are outside of your direct control, as they are completed by third-party logistics companies. However, your customers (and their mothers) don’t know that – and nor should they care. They’ve put their faith in you and expect you to get it right. So, plan ahead and ensure you can track and monitor what’s happening in your partners’ delivery systems. Have processes in place to enable your team to directly interact with their customer service teams. You should be able to collaborate and find the best way to resolve any issues.
Every Mother’s Day order is special to the person who sent it – and the mother who receives it. Make sure all customer service agents keep this in mind and are empathetic and understanding. If there is an issue, agents should begin with an apology. Empower them to resolve any problems by taking ownership, such as following up on late deliveries, and granting them the authority to provide refunds if necessary.
Mother’s Day has the potential to either make or break your reputation with individual customers. If you get customer service right, you will earn people’s trust for the long term. However, if you get it wrong, it can impact whether they continue to make purchases from you throughout the rest of the year. Therefore, ensure that your Mother’s Day customer service team is well-staffed and focused on helping them make this Mother’s Day the best one ever – for them and their mothers!
How do you meet all the needs of a multigenerational contact center workforce and benefit from all of their skills and experiences?
In essence a CCaaS solution enables organizations to handle all customer interactions through a single, cloud-based platform. Typically, it supports communication through a range of channels such as voice, chat, SMS, email, social media, and other media, such as video.