This Holiday Season, Give Great Pleasure to Your Customers

The holiday season is one of the best times of the year. It is the time to spread happiness with friends, family, and loved ones, and a good business always loves its customers. So, why not share some love and pleasure with your customers too?

During the holiday season, customer retention becomes far more affordable and easy than finding new ones. If you want to tell your customers why they should stick with your brand for another year or more, then it is the right time.

Well, you can delight your customers any day you like. But while holidays are around, these customer retention practices become more effective. This season is the time when your customers are more stressed about things to do and have very little patience for it.

That is why a good customer experience is essential at this time of the year. There are different strategies you can apply. Make sure that your customers end the conversation or leave the store with a smile of satisfaction. Because a satisfied customer always comes back and sometimes brings a few potential ones too.

In this article, we are going to focus on some of the practices that will help you improve your customer relations, especially during holiday seasons.

Rush Hour:

Facing rush in the holiday season is a  very common thing. Sometimes, it can be a little crazy to handle. But, as a business, you can not surrender here. Make interaction with each one of your customers in the most positive way possible.

A big queue or an engaged customer care number are both commonly faced by a customer during the holiday season. It might cause some inconvenience for that customer, and a good business never leaves its customers unattended.

So the solution to this situation is to have a well-staffed customer service team. Or, you can use cloud telephony as a solution to avoid long waits. Integrate smart IVR so that a customer is connected to the right representative.

With IVR and voice broadcasting, you will be able to answer many of customers’ calls without overloading your agents. This way, your agent can focus their energy on big issues with customers.

Social Media Messages:

For customers, social media has become the fastest way to connect with their favorite brands. Recently, Sprout conducted a survey on social media and retailers. According to this survey, in the holiday season, retailers see a 44% spike in social media messages.

Yeah, almost 50% more messages than what they got in normal months. Not just that. Retailers are sending 24% and 32% more outgoing messages on Instagram and Twitter, respectively.

Assigning a few sales reps to these messages is one best practice to take benefit of these stats. It will create more seamless communication while keeping your customer where they are. You are resolving their problems while keeping them in their comfort zone.

Word Play with Discounts:

A discount should not be for that particular deal. Discounts must encourage your customers to visit you again and shop from you again. Whether it is the holiday season or not, all your discounts should be tempting and inspiring for your customers to continue shopping with you.

Customers buy products or services depending on the value it adds to their life. So when you are discounting a product or service, do not focus on the price tag. Focus on how much value it will provide. It will make the buying process easier and a no-brainer.

While displaying your offers, choose the words carefully.
 

• “Get X% Off” represents the gain.
• “Save X%” represents avoiding a loss.

Customer Love Personalization:

Customers’ are part of a business’s journey from just a name to a renowned brand. Going above and beyond for these fellas is never going to hurt your business. So put some effort into your customer communication with a little personalization.

Telling your customers how much value they bring to your business should be a normal practice. There is nothing wrong with this. Sending them well-wishing cards, small gifts, or personalized messages can solidify their trust in you.

You can follow these tips to personalize your message.
 

• Keep the message around the service or product that the customer is using.
• Ask about their preferences and then personalize to build their confidence in your products and services.
• Sending follow-up messages should be a common practice. Ask them if they need any more help.
• Make recommendations based on their history with your products and services.

Personalized messages, gifts, or cards encourage your customers to become brand ambassadors for your brand.

First Impression of Packing:

In childhood, we used to get excited by seeing a perfectly wrapped gift. It doesn’t matter what is in it, but we were just excited about a clean gift. I always tried to open those gifts without damaging the packaging.

The same is happening with us right now too. As per a study by Dotcom Distribution packaging study, branded or gift-like packaging makes customers more likely to buy from you.

42% of respondents from this survey find sustainable packaging as a feature to make them shop again with a brand.

In simple words, the First impression may not be the last, but it is important. In our fast-paced life, it creates a huge impression for that brand or product.

Peace with Transparency:

Terms, policies, and refund or exchange policies are usually either hidden or hard to read (small prints). This non-transparency creates distrust between customers and a brand. In this busy time, it would be great if you be a little transparent with your customers by putting your terms and policies out in the open.

This practice will allow you to create a trusting environment between your customers and the brand. Displaying your terms and policies with the perks of shopping with you makes customers trust you.

Final Words:

By applying these practices with your customer service team, you will be able to delight your customers. You will clearly show them how important they are to you and you care about them.

From offering discounts to sending personalized messages to gifts, all this makes your customer service look good. And customers always come back to great customer service. So make sure you are doing all these and making yourself look good.