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Many companies when they think about Black Friday, they think and prepare for sales, but they neglect another point as important as – the customer service.
Seeing and anticipating everything that can – and probably will – happen in terms of service as a result of this very important date for commerce, means not suffering losses of different natures, consuming the additional gains that should have been made.
For this reason, we are going to cover everything you should take into account to provide effective service and customer satisfaction.
Why bother with service during Black Friday?
There is a common belief that if I already provide good service throughout the year, it will be no different on this occasion, just doing everything exactly as usual.
However, there are a good number of reasons to pay special attention to attendance on this particular date and some of them involve work, preparation and planning, which is why you need to start well in advance.
1. New customers
Depending on the discount levels granted, you will have some – or several – consumers who do not normally buy from you, because the regular prices are above the amounts normally paid by them.
In other words, they do not know the company, its products, its policies, its practices and several other issues that established customers are usually already aware of.
Therefore, more and more doubts and possible problems to deal with.
2. Expectations and anxiety level
There is a tendency for consumers to have a greater quantity and different expectations in relation to the rest of the year, both in terms of new customers and those who already bought, but who bought in greater quantities due to promotions.
But there is also anxiety, especially when product quantities are not enough to meet demand, or there are queues, or who knows. slowness on the websiteor other factor associated with the operation.
It is known that in these cases, there are many customers who rush to be the first to buy and not run the risk of running out.
When you have higher expectations and higher levels of anxiety and some frustration occurs, the level of dissatisfaction is also higher.
And greater dissatisfaction implies a service with greater levels of tension and difficulties to treat and not rarely a longer service time.
3. Doubts
Customer service is not just about solving problems.
There are many customers who need to clarify doubts before completing their purchases, increasing the number of calls for this reason.
Questions that are poorly clarified, or worse, when they are not clarified at all, affect sales or produce sales with later problems.
4. Increase in sales
The increase in sales alone results in increased support in the same proportion and sometimes on an even greater scale.
It will be in greater proportion when there are more new customers, when sales of less sold and/or new products increase, as well as as a result of higher expectations and anxiety or even poorly or untreated doubts.
5. Infrastructure
If the infrastructure necessary for the operation to take place well, is not sized or falls short of expectations, there will be problems that will flow into the service.
It can happen either in in-person salesas in internet sales. That is, issues such as stock, delivery logistics, deadlines, freight, payment gateway, website preparation for the number of visitors, among others, need to be adequately prepared to withstand the expected increase with some slack.
It is important to remember that Black Friday 2022 will be the first post-pandemic and, therefore, in an environment of reasonable normality and in a better economic moment, which can produce even greater sales and demand more infrastructure compared to previous years.
For each element of the infrastructure that fails or is not adequate to the demand, a consequent increase in service will be observed.
Last but not least, do not forget that service is part of this infrastructure and, therefore, if it is not properly dimensioned, it will increase the waiting time, queues and all the problems arising from being incompatible with the increase in demand. .
6. Change of rules and policies
It is not uncommon for companies to have changed rules or policies specifically for Black Friday.
These may be changes related to exchanges and returns, payment methods, delivery times and freight, Privacy Policy all of this together or even other issues, both because sometimes the increase in infrastructure requirements cannot be met, and because of other particularities that some segments have.
When there are changes of this type, an increase in the volume of service is expected, especially since there will be more doubts and dissatisfaction with regular customers, who were used to other rules and policies.
7. Dissatisfaction
The direct consequence and with the greatest negative impact is consumer dissatisfaction.
The more of the above factors cannot be adequately addressed, the greater the level of dissatisfaction produced, which will lead to direct and indirect losses, such as detractor customers and low NPS (Net Promoter Score), loss of customers and sales, returns, increased Support and problems of after sales.
6 tips to provide good service on Black Friday
Once you are aware of the reasons to be concerned and look more carefully than usual at the service on Black Friday, the time has come to know how to provide it with efficiency and quality.
1. Sizing
One of the first aspects to pay attention to is the dimensioning, which should include:
- Personnel – the number of employees destined to provide assistance. Depending on the increase in demand, it may be necessary to hire temporary staff, or reallocate staff (provided that with the profile appropriate), or even change the scales. If the number is insufficient, the service time, the queues and waiting increases and consequently the level of stress and dissatisfaction;
- Infrastructure – and here we are not talking about infrastructure to sell, but to support consumers. phones, chatemail, help desk / service desk, systems, and whatever else there is and that is part of the structure, just as the number of employees, needs to support the eventual increase that will occur.
2. Training
Provide training both for situations that may arise due to possible changes in rules and policies, as well as for dealing with the possible increase in demand and even for situations arising from overload, such as unavailability of the website or other service channels.
It is also essential to train new employees, whether temporary or relocated from other functions.
3. Contingencies
Have one Contingency plan is always indicated and particularly in these moments.
A well-designed and complete plan must have contingencies for Black Friday and the occurrences that may occur in the period, as it helps to reduce the negative impacts of eventualities and emergency situations, thus minimizing possible dissatisfaction.
4. Channels
Which service channels to provide and the balance is another crucial point.
Studying and planning properly involves a number of variables.
If, for example, a large increase in new customers is expected, a greater volume of doubts is also likely, and in this case, channels such as chat and telephonic servicewhich are more conducive to real-time service, will be heavily used.
Therefore, both the infrastructure must be adequate and there must be sufficient personnel.
But attention should also be paid to the omnichannel which means that regardless of which channel is chosen or even in the event that the same client uses different means, the service provided will always be the same in terms of standards, procedures, information, language and results.
5. POPs
have a good set of standard operating procedures (POPs) is a relevant point to provide good service.
It involves several aspects:
- The attendants know – they have been trained – exactly how to proceed in each situation;
- Each procedure must be as less bureaucratic as possible for customers and attendants, resulting in fewer steps, less complication and less service time;
- The repetition of each type of occurrence always produces the same solutions. Few things have such a negative impact on the company’s image than different solutions to the same problem;
- Contingency plans are closely linked to their respective SOPs, while well-structured SOPs can reduce the need to put contingencies into action, simply because you are more organized and less susceptible to errors and the unexpected.
6. Communication
Effective communication it presupposes eliminating or reducing as much as possible the noise that exists in the exchange of information.
In practice, it is to make clear, transparent and easy to locate and access all the information needed by customers, as well as the employees involved, which includes salespeople and promoters, in face-to-face sales, for example.
Yes, because a salesperson who does not have information, or it is dubious / inaccurate, can result in a poorly conducted sale and a post-sales problem that must be dealt with by an agent.
Therefore, communication at any stage of the process and through any available channel must be done as well as possible.
Conclusion
Providing customer service on Black Friday involves several particularities that, if not known and worked on, will compromise your results.
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