Contact Centre Outsourcing Sydney: Holidays are the busiest as well as the most stressful period of a year for businesses worldwide. The holiday season is characterised by increased traffic, more opportunities and greater revenue. This time round, the holiday season is bound to be unpredictable as the whole year was filled with pandemic anxiety. As the pandemic has affected the economy too, shoppers will not be spending more on gifts this year. Social distancing norms have been attracting shoppers more to online stores. Driven by numerous challenges, the pandemic has also encouraged business owners to try out innovative business models. Contact centre outsourcing in Sydney has been helping small and medium businesses to compete with eCommerce giants during the holiday rush. 

Preference for Online Shopping

Online sales are estimated to grow even higher during this holiday season. The pandemic has forced customers to shop from the safety of their homes.  You will have to take a few precautions while running your brick-and-mortar store during the pandemic. You will have to keep a limit on the number of customers entering your store and make sure that they follow social distancing rules. eCommerce stores are more convenient as you don’t have to worry about the number of customers or social distancing norms. 

Busiest time of the Year

Though we are living in uncertainty, the pandemic has opened up new possibilities too. Contactless interactions have become the new norm which has boosted the eCommerce sector during this holiday season. The celebration is in the air and it is the busiest time for online stores. There is a tremendous increase in online orders and so is the need for customer support. Travel restrictions have forced customers to rely on online gifting during this holiday season. In addition to this, eCommerce stores offer seasonal sales and discounts which also attracts more customers to online shopping. Increased traffic to online stores results in an increased number of customer service requests and customer queries. Contact centre outsourcing in Sydney helps SMEs to handle the increased customer service request during the holiday rush. 

Managing Customer Support During The Holiday Season

While the holidays are a great time of the year for business, it’s not so great for the customer support team. As businesses in all domains see significant upticks in sales, leaders and the support team have to work harder to manage the increased ticket volume. The higher support ticket volume will further increase during this holiday season due to the impact of the pandemic. It is essential to keep your customer support team trained and prepared for the holiday rush. For some businesses, their current workforce may not be enough to address all customer concerns promptly. They can either hire seasonal staff or partner with a third-party outsourcing service provider. Contact centre outsourcing in Sydney will help you deliver a better customer support experience even during holidays. 

Live Chat Assistance

In brick-and-mortar stores, direct customer interactions, recommendations and guidance from sales representatives take the customer from a mere store visit to the moment of purchase. Contact centre outsourcing in Sydney implements live chat to mimic the same experience. Live chat service gives you a chance to offer virtual brick-and-mortar experience to your online store visitors. It allows you to welcome website visitors with personalized greetings and offer proactive support even when you don’t have enough customer support agents around.

You can also combine live chat experience with customer self-service to let customers solve minor issues themselves. Customers will feel accomplished by solving issues themselves. Also, some customers prefer self-help as they feel hesitant to go through the process of reaching out to customer support. Self-help will also reduce the number of customer support tickets during the holiday rush. You can use triggered messages or in-app campaigns to inform customers about support availability during holidays.

Analyse Data

Analyze seasonal data and review your processes to identify points of concern and rectify it accordingly. Collect data from previous years and identify the most commonly asked customer queries. You can employ chatbots to provide immediate answers to such commonly asked customer queries. Automated responses most common, minor customer issues save employee time and increase customer satisfaction. Contact centre outsourcing in Sydney will help you proactively resolve customer concerns before they become major issues. Self-service options will lessen the workload on your customer service representatives and make the customers feel empowered. Update your FAQs to reflect new changes and add answers for expected queries before the holiday is in full swing. Also, make sure that the FAQ and knowledge-base are readily available to all your customers.  

Order Management 

Customer expectations are rising. They want detailed product information, stock availability, multiple deliveries and return options, and more. They expect faster delivery, free shipping and returns. eCommerce businesses with multiple distribution sites face transportation and inventory management issues. All these along with the increase in orders during the holiday season makes the time more stressful for SMEs. An efficient order management system will offer more visibility to the inventory and provide real-time information on stock availability, order status, etc. Automated order management systems will help you easily fulfil a large volume of orders during the busy holiday season. It will help you receive, process and fulfil orders coming from multiple channels. Inform your customers about the possible delays in shipping or deliver before they contact you enquiring you about the same.

As you get more orders during the holiday season, your sales increase, and so do the returns. Create a straightforward return policy that is clearly communicated to the customers through your website or eCommerce platform. Monitor your return rate and collect feedback to identify the reason for return. An omnichannel, automated order management solution will help you solve all issues related to customer orders efficiently and cost-effectively.

Prepare Ahead for the Holiday Hordes

It is always hard to predict how a holiday season will be, and even more difficult during the pandemic. So always be prepared and keep your employees motivated. Provide them with all necessary IT and infrastructure support and train them to face the busy season. Appreciate your employees and reward their hard work. It will help in improving both employee and customer satisfaction. Contact centre outsourcing Sydney employs automated solutions and has well-trained staff to handle the holiday rush smoothly even during this pandemic.