It’s no secret. Peak season offers brands a huge opportunity to increase sales and maximize revenue. But this year more than ever, companies need to keep the customers they attract during peak season. Those that can will reap significant rewards. Harvard Business School found that increasing customer retention rates by just 5% increases profits from 25% to 95%. So how can brands achieve this?
According to Microsoft, 96% of consumers worldwide say customer service is an important factor for brand loyalty. So, to keep customers coming back after peak season, brands need to uphold the same high standard of service on their busiest days. But peak season can cause a huge strain on support staff. This is due to an influx of ‘Where is my order’ (WISMO) calls. To combat this, a growing number of retailers are investing in Operations Experience Management.
Deliver proactive communication
Reduce customer service inquiries during peak season by removing the need for it. Communicate proactively with customers from pre-dispatch to delivery and beyond to provide customers with all the information that they need. In effect, you should answer the customer’s question before they have the chance to ask it.
Use Operations Experience Management to send bespoke, informative and branded messages to keep their customers informed. To do this, reflect on your own sales journey to identify milestones to communicate with customers.
You can use data to prioritize these milestones. When do you receive the most calls? What are the calls relating to? What issues do your customers highlight the most? In understanding this, you can create a communication workflow that better suits the needs of your customers.
Once your touchpoints have been planned, you should consider how to make them as informative as possible. Adding relevant, valuable content to each interaction will improve your engagement rate and reduce customer service inquiries.
Provide an Order Status page
Sending an order confirmation is considered standard procedure in 2021. But, the majority of brands are not taking advantage of this customer interaction. Instead of simply reviewing what the customer has ordered and when it will be delivered, retailers should add embedded content.
An Order Status page is a customized landing page that provides customers with instant, real-time details about their order. Order Status pages can be fully branded and integrated into your online shop. This means that all the traffic it generates will be automatically driven back to your online shop, rather than a third-party site. Customers’ individual data can be used to personalize each touchpoint.
Using an Order Status page will help reduce your inbound call rate because it gives customers specific details about their order, its delivery and any real-time updates as they occur. This will help your customer support team to manage the busy peak season. Customers are confident that any changes will be communicated to them proactively via the Order Status page, so they do not feel the need to call in.
Leverage technology for the best service experience
Communicate proactively with customers to give them the information that they need in advance. This will reduce inbound inquiry rate during peak season. Drive customers to self-service landing pages or social media support to take a huge strain off customer service teams. More than that, it will leave customers with a positive experience of your business. Customers will feel confident to reuse and recommend your service, again and again.OX Fest is designed to blend the expertise and innovation of different industries with e-commerce trends, and challenge conventional thinking. Register to attend our flagship event now.
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