Prepare Your Customer Support Team for the Black Friday Rush

Black Friday is just around the corner, and you know what that means – crazy deals and lots of shopping frenzy. But here's the thing: Before you launch those extra special deals, it's important to get ready for all the questions that are about to come your way. People want to know about prices, if things are in stock, when stuff will be delivered, and how returns work. Now, it's easy to get caught up in just dealing with all those questions. But what if there's a better way? What if your support team could actually reduce the number of questions coming in by using automation and self-service tools?

In this blog post, we'll go through some tips and tricks to get your customer service team ready for Black Friday. Let's dive in.

Update your customer service policies before Black Friday

First, let's talk about something essential for your online store success – policies. Yep, those rules about shipping, returns, and all the nitty-gritty stuff. Believe it or not, these policies are the real-deal that can make or break your sales game.

When customers aren't sure about your policies, your support team gets stuck answering the same old questions over and over, like "How long does it take to deliver?" or “What’s your policy on damaged package?”. But really, customers should be able to find this info easily on their own.

You need to make sure all your policies are clear and ready to go before Black Friday hits. Let your support team know what's what and put the info where customers can see it on your website. This way, you're killing two birds with one stone: fewer questions flooding your inbox and happier customers who can shop with confidence.

Let customers help themselves through self-service resources

Did you know that 67% of customers prefer to tackle things on their own rather than reaching out to a brand rep? They want to find the answer to their question as quickly as possible, without having to rely on an agent. Now, with Black Friday just around the corner, here's your golden chance – beef up your FAQs page, Help Center and other self-service options.

You see, it's not just about giving your customers the power to sort things out themselves. It's a smart move that also takes some of the load off your team during peak seasons. You’re giving your customers the tools they need while giving your team a bit of breathing space – it's a win-win!

💡Tip: You can create your own help center in Trengo. It's a great way to ease the burden on your customer support team and save them time. You can create articles on frequently asked questions and make the Help Center accessible on your website or in your website widget.

Provide 24/7 support via chatbots and flowbots

Ever wonder if your customers actually get the answers they need when they reach out to you? And how quick are you at getting back to them? These are things to think about if you want to step up your customer service game.

Thanks to chatbots and flowbots customers don’t have to wait for responses from live agents; they get immediate responses to their inquiries. You can create your own flowbot in Trengo and teach it everything it needs to know.

Flowbot helps you find the information your customers need quickly and easily. The bot will ask them a few simple multiple-choice questions to understand what they're looking for. Once they've chosen their option, it'll provide the requested info right in the chat.

Check out frequently asked questions last year during Black Friday. Are they about shipping, cancellations or returns? Then simply fill in the questions and add the right answers to the bot. The more variations of a question you provide, the smarter it becomes and the more accurate its answers will be.

You can also design the flowbot to figure out when customers need to be forwarded to a specific team or team member. The bot recognises the customers by the answers they give and know exactly when they have to be forwarded to the customer service team.

Keep your response time low with quick replies & auto-replies

We can't always give customers quick answers, especially when things get super busy like on Black Friday. Luckily, we've got a trick up our sleeve called: Auto-replies. Did you just send out a broadcast message to everyone, but don't have enough hands on deck to tackle all the incoming questions? Just set up an auto-reply to let them know when you’ll be available again to provide support. Customers appreciate knowing exactly when they can expect a response from you.

📚 Read more: Bomenbezorgd sends WhatsApp auto-reply messages outside of office hours or during their busiest times.

What if there's already a huge pile of questions to dig through? I’m guessing your agents have more important things to do than answering the same questions over and over again. What’s the solution then? Setting up quick replies, of course.

Quick replies are pre-written responses to frequently asked questions. Once you have added quick replies to your Trengo inbox, you can use them to respond to your customers. This tool can help you improve your response time, save you from repeatedly typing the same answers, and enable your team to maintain a consistent tone of voice.

💡How do you set up quick replies? → Check out this easy guide.

Build relationships that last this Black Friday

Black Friday is a blast, but the real magic happens when you build lasting relationships with your customers. You see, those conversations you have with them during the shopping chaos can actually shape how they feel about your brand. If you're friendly, helpful, and make things easy for them, they'll remember that even after the sales are done. It's like leaving a good impression that sticks around.

Trengo’s customer service automation solution helps you improve and personalize your customer service experience across all channels. With Trengo, you get chatbots, custom and native integrations, flow bots, knowledge base management, a dashboard — and so much more.

Are you thinking of automating your customer service? Start your 14-day free trial with Trengo.