The holiday season can be a great time to be an entrepreneur, as you’ll likely see a boost in sales, which will hopefully help you finish the year on a strong note. Make sure that you’re taking advantage of this time by offering your valued customers the highest level of customer service. With these holiday season customer service tips, you’ll be able to survive the holiday rush, and form lasting relationships with your customers!
Related: Make the Most of Your Holiday Email Marketing
- Hire seasonal employees: If you’re expecting additional traffic during the holidays, you should recruit extra employees to accommodate these customers. Being under-staffed during the holiday season can be extremely detrimental; you won’t want to turn away customers, or provide them with less than satisfactory service. By hiring some temporary help, you’ll be able to handle the holiday traffic, without spending too much money on employing long-term staff members.
- Offer customer support on multiple platforms: Customers may have questions about your products or services, and you’ll want to answer all of them! While some customers may call your business, others might find it easier to leave a comment on your Facebook page, or visit your business location for in-person assistance. Make sure that you have all of your bases covered; have plenty of in-store associates, check social media, email and website comments frequently and make sure that someone is always nearby the phone. Offering prompt customer service through every means of communication is important; you want to be a reliable resource for your customers!
- Make it a personalized experience: Customers don’t want to feel like they are just another face in the crowd, so don’t treat them like one! During the holiday season, ensure that you have experienced employees available to assist customers with whatever their needs may be. If they feel like you aren’t really listening to what they have to say, they may take their business elsewhere.
- Offer perks: If you want to generate sales while pleasing your customers during the holiday season, reward them for shopping with you! Create holiday campaigns that will engage your customers and convince them to utilize your services or products. Exclusive holiday loyalty programs can be a great way to bring in repeat customers during the holiday season, so consider this when implementing holiday specials.
- Understand emotions run high during the holidays: The reality is, you may be dealing with some stressed customers during the holiday months. Your customers will be preparing for different holidays, and have various needs, so chances are many of them will be overwhelmed. Instead of combatting this with frustration, make sure that you and your employees are trained to handle customer complaints. Fight the urge to lash out at grumpy patrons; remember, they are paying your bills, and no one likes a Scrooge!
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With these small business customer service tips in mind, you’ll be able to make the holiday season a success! By focusing on customer service during the holidays, you’ll be able to increase sales, while strengthening your relationship with your customers.
Hopefully, your customer service efforts will even bring you new loyal customers that will continue to utilize your products or services long after the holidays are over. Do you have any small business customer service tips for the holiday season? If so, let us know in the comment section below!
