3 Ways To Show Holiday Cheer Over The Phone

In our last blog, we discussed the importance of providing unbeatable holiday season customer service. Needless to say, this is the time of year when business owners will have major increases in the number of opportunities they have to impress customers. This is true for both face-to-face and over-the-phone interactions. If your business provides customer service over the phone, added efforts to spread holiday cheer should be employed.

Here are three ways to show holiday cheer over the phone:

1. Make sure your phone staff is full of energy. Quite obviously, customer service provided over the phone is a whole different animal. Without the benefit of facial expressions, hand gestures and other forms of body language, phone agents are required to put added efforts into making their interactions pleasant ones. Smiling over the phone can go a long way. Communicating with an enthusiastic and friendly tone will help to build your brand’s reputation.

“A large majority of consumers dread calling customer service,” Dennis Casey informs us on MultiChannelMerchant.com, “In fact, more than one in 10 said they would rather shop amongst crazy crowds on Black Friday than call customer service. Keep customers happy by always portraying a positive and friendly interaction. Try smiling while you’re on the phone – as cheesy as it sounds, people can ‘hear’ a smile over the phone.”

2. Try not to keep your callers waiting for too long. No one likes waiting. And that goes double during the busy holiday shopping season. When people call your company over the next couple of months, they’re going to want expedient service more than ever. Try to shorten hold times as best as possible. On Entrepreneur.com, Matt Lautz explains that lessening the amount of time a customer has to wait on hold can go a long way.

“Hold times are often triggered by issues such as inflexible phone systems that can’t scale to handle fluctuating call volumes, improper staffing or utilization of staff, or poorly structured call menus,” he writes, “By decreasing hold times, customers will feel better serviced and may even spread the news about how impressed they were with the experience.”

3. Re-train your staff to emphasize “cheery” customer service. Training is always important all year round. But during the busy holiday shopping season, you should implement training sessions that promote added emphasis on “cheery” customer service. As well, be sure that your team members all well equipped with the knowledge to quickly answer questions and satisfy customer concerns.

Lautz highlights the importance of getting customers answers to their questions quickly. “Get customers to the right person, right away,” he advises, “Make sure your staff has the needed information at their fingertips, without having to flip through numerous screens or scripts. The goal is to provide a personalized service experience that speaks to the needs of the customer.”

At Canadian POS Corporation, we pride ourselves on our excellent customer service. To experience it for yourself, please don’t hesitate to call us at 1-877-748-2884 or email us at info@localhost. Be sure to ask us about our Countertop and Wireless POS terminals what will allow you to accept all credit cards, debit cards and gift cards as methods of payment in your store!