Many companies when they think about Black Friday, think and prepare for sales, but neglect another point as important as – customer service.
See and anticipate everything what 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 For this reason, we are going to cover everything you should take into account to provide effective service and customer satisfaction.
Why worry about 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 is a good set of reasons to devote special attention to service on this particular date, and some of them involve work, e.g. repair and planning, which is why you need to start well sooner.
1. New customers
Depending on the discount levels granted, you will have some – or several – customers who normally do not buy from you, because regular prices are above the amounts normally paid by them .
That is, they do not know the company, its products, its policies, its practices and several other issues that the established customers are usually already aware of.
Therefore, more and new doubts and possible problems to deal with.
2. Expectations and level of anxiety
There is a tendency for consumers to have a greater number and different expectations in relation to the rest of the year, both in terms of new customers and those that already bought, but bought in greater quantity due to promotions.
But there is also anxiety, especially when the quantities of products are not enough to meet the demand, or there are queues, or who knows, slowness on the site, or another 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 of.
When you have higher expectations and higher levels of anxiety and there is some frustration, the level of dissatisfaction is also higher.
And greater dissatisfaction, implies a service with higher levels of tension and difficulties to treat and not infrequently longer treatment time.
3. Doubts
Service is not just about solving problems.
There are many customers who need to clarify doubts before finalizing their purchases, increasing the number of calls for this reason.
Doubts 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 an increase in support in the same proportion and sometimes on an even greater scale.
It will be to a greater extent, 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 dimensioned or falls short of expectations, there will be problems that will flow into the service.
It can happen both in face-to-face sales and in sales over the Internet. That is, issues such as inventory, delivery logistics, deadlines, freight, payment gateway, site preparation for the number of visitors, among others, need to be adequately prepared to withstand the expected increase with some leeway.
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 higher sales and demand more from the infrastructure compared to previous years.
For each element of the infrastructure that fails or that is not adequate to the demand, a consequent increase in the attendance will be observed.
Last, but not least important, don’t 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. Changes in Rules and Policies
It is not uncommon for companies to have rules or policies changed specifically for Black Friday.
There may be changes related to exchanges and returns, payment methods, delivery and freight times, privacy policy, all of this together or 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 cause direct and indirect losses, such as detractor customers and low NPS (Net Promoter Score), loss of customers and sales, returns, increased support and after-sales problems.
6 tips to provide a good service on Black Friday
Once you are aware of the reasons to be concerned and look more carefully than usual for the service at Black Friday, the time has come to know how to provide it with efficiency and quality.
1. Dimensioning
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 they have the right profile), or even change the scales. If the number is insufficient, the service time, 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. Telephones, chat, e-mail, 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.
two. Training
Provide training 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 those relocated from other functions.
3. Contingencies
Having a contingency plan is always indicated and particularly at these times.
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 series of variables.
If, for example, a large increase in new customers is expected, it is also likely a greater volume of questions and in this case, channels such as chat and telephone service, which are more conducive to real-time service, will be widely used.
Therefore, both the infrastructure must be adequate, and there must be enough staff.
But attention must also be paid to omnichannel and what it 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. SOPs
Having a good set of standard operating procedures (SOPs) is a relevant point to provide good service.
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 time service;
- 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 they are more organized and less susceptible to errors and the unexpected.
-
6. Communication
Effective communication presupposes eliminating or reducing as much as possible the existing noise in the exchange of information.
In practice, it is to make it clear, transparent and easy to locate and access all necessary information to customers, as well as to 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 she is dubious / inaccurate, may result in a poorly conducted sale and a post-sales problem that must be dealt with by an attendant.
Therefore, communication at any stage of the process and through any available channel , should 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.
