Christmas is coming, are your employees ready? Most of the sales are happening in the last two months of the year. The shopping rush starts at Black Friday and lasts until New Year’s and not all of the customers will keep the items they bought. Therefore be ready for many returns during this period.
In 2017, 28% of customers returned at least one of their Christmas gifts!
– smallbiztrends
The goal is to make your team ready for the upcoming holiday! We believe that to provide brilliant and seamless customer service the business needs happy employees. For this Christmas, we have prepared a wish list of an agent to make it more understandable how to make employees more content and do the work more efficiently! Happy employees mean great customer service!
The wishlist of your agent:
- Good atmosphere
- Work from Home
- Day off during non-busy times
- Extra shifts – extra money
- Reasonable schedule
- To be prepared by the company
Good atmosphere
The atmosphere is a crucial factor. Christmas time is special and your employees will need to handle much more irritated and frustrated customers than usual. Make the office more cozy by decorating for Christmas, so your employees will enjoy coming into the office during the holidays and in the end be more relaxed to do their job.
Work from home
Sometimes it is not required for agents to be at the office if possible let them work from home. This way they can spend more time with their families, due to saving the commute time and get the job done, as they work with fewer distractions. As we have mentioned in our blog post, working from home has already become a trend in the customer service world!
Day off during non-busy times
To show how much you appreciate the agents working during hectic times let them get rest whenever it is possible! After busy days your employees deserve a day off to relax and ‘recharge batteries’. Studies shows that being constantly tired at work decreases efficiency and have a negative influence on employees health.
Reward the employees
Providing your agents with an opportunity to make extra money during Christmas time, can be a great motivation to stay longer at work during the rush period. For those who work the most have something special ready, maybe a new device (a tablet or a smartphone) for the office, weekend in a spa or a short trip. It is essential to show that you care and appreciate the effort!
“Always treat your employees exactly
as you want them to treat your best customers.”
– Stephen R. Covey
Reasonable schedule
Look at the calendar and schedule carefully, talk to your employees before and be consistent when planning support during the holidays. Don’t make one person stay during Christmas time and the New Year’s Eve if he has already been working this Easter! Taking care of the well-being of agents is another way to show that you care about them!
To be prepared
The Christmas time is upon us and it is not an easy task to provide support at this time. Provide your agents with guides and training which will help them to handle a large number of issues! As a start take a look at our previous blog post: “Skills you need to make your e-commerce customer service rock!”
The right tools for your agents can raise the quality of your customer service, one of the best ways to be ready is getting a help desk solution (we recommend Zendesk) and prepare a thought through strategy (offering discounts to dissatisfied customers, free return policy, etc.), this way you make it easier for your agents to do their job!
By understanding the employees and showing them how much you appreciate their work you build good relationships in the company. Overall the idea is to provide your employees with the right tools, let them work in a friendly environment and always remember to reward a great job and dedication. A stable and strong customer service team build of happy agents is the key to success! Use the knowledge for your advantage and be ready to rock in your customer service!