6 Tips on how to master your Customer Service during the Holiday Rush

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6 tips to master Customer Service during the Holiday Rush

I look forward to Christmas all year long: singing carols, drinking hot choco and watching all the cliche Christmas movies. Believe it or not, I am the kind of colleague who shares her Christmas playlist in the team chat when it's barely October. But although the holiday season brings a lot of joy - I also know from experience that it can be stressful, especially for your Customer Service.

So, sit back, take a nip from your hot choco, and get prepared for the holiday season. I'm going to help you with six tips on how to master your customer service during the holiday rush.

6 tips to master your customer service during the holiday rush

1. Get insights on last year's holiday trends

My first tip is to check statistics on last year's holiday trends. For example: which were your most busy channels, how long was your overall response time, and how many tickets did your team handle in total?

It is best to start measuring in September. The sooner you start, the more time you have to act on the results of the statistics, for example, by putting more agents on your most busy channels this year.

Check your statistics on:

Incoming and closed conversations
Response and handling time
Personalized labels

2. Update your help center

Make sure that all information available on your website is up to date and easy to find. It will save your team a lot of time when customers can help themselves.

In Trengo, you can create your own help center and easily update your content.

My second piece of advice here is to put the help center where it catches the eye. 👀 For instance: you can place Trengo's help center next to your other communication channels on the website widget.

3. Set clear customer expectations

You can release a lot of stress from your customers and a lot of pressure from your team by setting clear expectations.

"Hi! Thanks for your message. Our team is super busy with packing all of the gifts, so we may not reply as fast as you are used to from us. We will respond within 24 hours. In the meantime, you can check out our help center full of answers to frequently asked questions here: [link to help center]. Happy holidays !🎄"

The benefits of using auto replies? Your customers know when to expect support, and your agents have the time to give every customer the best support possible.

Plus, by adding a link to the help center, you don't leave the customer empty-handed.

I told you - great stress relief for both parties.

4. Use an omnichannel inbox

Every customer prefers to contact you via their favorite channel.

The thing is: there are so many channels nowadays, your team will lose a lot of time monitoring all of them. And in this busy period, you can't afford that.

Here is my tip: start using an omnichannel inbox, an inbox in which customer conversations from all channels come together.

5. Use collaboration tools

The busier your customer service, the smoother you need to collaborate as a team.

Trengo offers tools to do just that:

Labels & rules: you can use labels and rules to get a customer question to the relevant department without any interference from an agent.

Internal chat: tag your colleague in the internal chat underneath the customer's conversation, and get help on the customer's question.

By using collaboration tools, you can offer fast service, even in the busiest times of the year.

Extra tip: you can look back on all internal and external communication in the thread of the conversation.

6. Formulate quick replies

By using quick replies, you can keep high response times and provide the customer with an answer within one click.

How?

Write down answers to frequently asked questions and formulate them as quick replies.

"Hi [customer name],

Thank you for contacting us.

Our shipping costs are € 3,95 in Europe. For more information about our shipping costs, we would like to refer you to our help center: [add a link to the help center].

Happy holidays and kind regards,

Team [businessname]"

Quick replies will save your team a lot of time formulating the same answers over and over again.