Beat the stress on Black Friday and Cyber Monday with a game plan

Beat the stress on Black Friday and Cyber Monday with a game plan

More and more European consumers are embracing the American shopping phenomena that are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Hoping to make some great deals, shoppers flock to the shopping centres, high street stores, and supermarkets, where large signs boast exceptional discounts and special offers. Some even queue for hours to make sure they are first in line for the best deals.

Online shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be less stressful for the consumers who do not have to venture out into the real-life frenzy. However, as an e-commerce business owner, you may feel some unease this time of year if you choose to participate in the big shopping fest. 

Website traffic is likely to spike, and hopefully, the sales will follow suit. Are you prepared? As we approach the two crucial shopping days, it is time for you to develop a solid game plan to ensure that you will not start pulling your hair out once the customers start ripping the products from your virtual shelves.

This article will discuss how you can optimise your customer service to avoid the stress of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

1. Provide Quality Customer Service

There is no doubt that good customer service is the key to developing a high-quality and memorable customer experience, and this holds true during holiday shopping seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday as well. In today’s world, customer service is not just limited to picking up calls and answering customer queries. Instead, it involves handling customers through what is called omnichannel support.

Omnichannel support employs different channels and mediums of communication to ensure that customers can reach out to your business in the most convenient way possible. By providing stellar customer service and experience, not only will you be able to increase your sales and revenue, but it will also reduce the time your customers have to spend waiting to get a response. As a result, you will be able to enhance the customer experience significantly.

Additionally, a great customer experience increases the likelihood of customers returning to your site – also when the sales fest is over, and prices are back to normal.

2. Use Automation

Automation is one of the key methods that you can use to ease the pressure on your customer service during the Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping frenzy. Set your customer service on autopilot by including chatbots, automated response features, and much more. These features will help you deliver an instant response to your customers, and fewer of them will turn away from your website due to slow or no response.

Naturally, customers expect a quick reply, and they do not care whether you have a thousand customers waiting in the queue. Most of these customers will not hesitate to raise a complaint or a ticket, which would further increase your workload. Another workaround for this issue is to develop a help centre or FAQ section that can assist both your agents and customers in finding answers to common issues or questions.

Do you know, 30% of consumers rate chatbot interactions as “very effective” in dealing with customer service issues? Chatbots are one of the most popular tools used for customer service, and they are great at enhancing the customer experience as well. They are automated tools that deal with basic questions that customers have and can provide instant replies. Not only do they address most customer queries, but they can also help you provide round-the-clock support to your customers.

3. Handle Customer Data Securely

When running an e-commerce store, you must handle a vast amount of data – from customer names, contact numbers and email addresses to banking details or payment card information. Therefore, you have a substantial responsibility to ensure that the data is managed securely and efficiently.

While data security is a major issue to many customers, so is the ease of shopping. Repeat customers expect you to have their information at hand, so they do not have to type it all in again. However, if your servers are overloaded due to the influx of customers on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, it could prohibit your loyal customers from accessing their information. This could irk many customers, and they may even decide not to revisit your site.

4. Leverage Social Media

When it comes to delivering stellar customer service and customer experiences, particularly during holiday shopping seasons like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, you must not forget social media. Many of your potential customers will not even bother opening your website to check what you have to offer if they cannot find your business page on Facebook and Instagram.

Moreover, a customer may want to get in touch with you through these social media platforms, and by staying active on those, you can win over a considerable customer base. Either you can hire a dedicated social media agent to handle correspondence with your customers, or you can make use of an integrated application that can handle the communication for you, such as the Instagram app for Zendesk.

With our Instagram app, you can integrate your Zendesk Support solution with your Instagram profile to get a quick overview. All Instagram comments will be automatically created as tickets, which can easily be answered directly from Zendesk.

5. Use Customer Data and Insights

Finally, it is always worthwhile to utilise the customer data you have and form insights that can help you tailor the customer experience to a greater extent. 

Moreover, you should also gather customer feedback regularly and use it to optimise your business. It helps you to identify the key strengths and weaknesses of your business, empowering you to work on improving them. Plus, brands are viewed more favourably by 77% of customers if they proactively invite and accept customer feedback.

Enhance Your Customer Experience with helphouse.io

As an online store owner, you will find that Zendesk is one of your best companions in terms of providing omnichannel support to your customers. The system offers endless possibilities, but you may need help integrating and adapting the solution to get the most out of it and best meet your business’s needs and requirements. This is our area of expertise at helphouse.io.

We have a wide range of Zendesk apps specially designed to help you navigate the everyday challenges and hurdles that keep you from providing your customers with a world-class experience. Get in touch with us and explore our wide range of apps today.