Manage Your Customer Service During the Holidays

During the hustle and bustle of the holidays, don’t let your customer service slide. Your customers are more important than ever, so make sure they know it. Here are some tips to help you manage your customer service during the holidays.

Have a plan in place for problems

During the holidays, your customers may become a little more impatient than usual, so don’t make them wait any longer than necessary when a problem needs to be resolved. Designated one or two staff members as ‘problem specialists’ and let them step up to tackle those problems that need solving quickly.

Keep your staff motivated

Don’t forget to praise your staff for their hard work during the challenging holiday season, especially if they are having to work while their families and friends are home enjoying the holidays. Help them keep stress at bay with plenty of breaks, treats and praise if you want to keep them providing the best service possible.

Look to the past

Plan for future holiday seasons by looking at how busy you were in previous years and planning accordingly. You may need to hire additional staff or consider using the services of a call centre. Maybe you can simply reschedule breaks to cover the busiest times, or you may want to remain available to your customer for longer hours during the holiday season.

Empower your employees

Give your employees the ability to cut through some of the typical red tape associated with certain aspects of customer service so they can help your customers more quickly and efficiently. This will also take some of the workload off of you so you can focus on other things that need your attention.

Cross train employees

Consider cross training a few employees to help out ‘as needed’ at your busiest times. This will allow you to have extra staff in an instant so your customers don’t have to be kept waiting.