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How to Improve Black Friday Customer Experiences

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Any shopper brave enough to venture out on Black Friday knows to expect some customer service delays and disappointments when items are out of stock, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to give them a better experience.

Instead of using the madness of Black Friday as an excuse for slipping customer service, why not use it as a chance to really impress your customers by making Black Friday less painful than they expected?

Help Customers Find the Items They Want

Prevent frustrations by helping your customers find what they’re looking for faster. Make it clear where your key sale items are located, especially if they’ve been featured in ads.

If you’re moving items from their usual locations, provide resources to help people find what they want amid the rush. For example, you can use your mobile app to map item locations and provide interactive support for your customers.

Make Pricing Clear

As Entrepreneur highlighted at this time last year, customers are easily frustrated by “fine print” deals. Make pricing obvious, and ensure that your ads are not misleading.

Don’t make your deals too confusing or complicated for customers to use, and ensure that signage is accurate throughout your stores. If pricing issues do come up, empower your employees to provide quick resolution.

When Stock Runs Out, Offer Alternatives

It’s almost inevitable that you’ll run out of stock on hot holiday items, so plan ahead to offer desirable alternatives. Train employees to make the transition smoothly and quickly, and to help customers place orders online.

You can also offer free shipping on online orders to compensate customers for the inconvenience, and provide rain checks and reservation cards to help customers cash in on your sale when products are back in stock.

Keep Your Employees Engaged

Happy employees are engaged employees. Black Friday is the single most tiring day of the year for retail workers, so ensure your employees take regular breaks and improve morale by offering free lunch or a fun break-time treats and activities.

Try energizing your employees with friendly competitions that incentivize great customer service and keep associates engaged. Offer prizes for the employee in each store who helps the most customers, or for the person the manager sees giving the best service.

Don’t Ignore the Omnichannel Experience

On Black Friday, your focus will be on the customers in your stores, but consumers still expect support on your other channels too. Some customers will call, email, or ask questions through social media, so make sure you have a plan for consistent and seamless communications.

Many consumers will use your website and mobile app to check prices and find product information, so make sure they function properly and can handle the extra traffic before Black Friday rolls around. Perform checks and maintenance in advance to ensure that load times are quick, your site is secure, and it won’t crash.

Since many customers will already be using your brand’s mobile app, why not make Black Friday shopping easier and more fun by utilizing your app and iBeacons to create an interactive shopping experience with personalized deals that save your customers more money and increase sales?

Help Tired Shoppers

Your shoppers will be worn out on Black Friday, so ask your employees to proactively offer carts and baskets when available. Not only will it improve customer experiences, but it can also encourage them to purchase more items.

Your customers will also be tired of standing in line. When all your registers are running and your staff is maxed out, there won’t be much you can do to reduce wait times, but you can acknowledge the inconvenience. Just recognizing the fact that lines are long will improve customer perceptions of your service and demonstrate that you want to improve their experience.

Lower service expectations on Black Friday don’t mean that you should lower your standards. Improving your customers’ experience on Black Friday demonstrates that your business is dedicated to service all year round, and will encourage them to come back throughout the holiday season.

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The post How to Improve Black Friday Customer Experiences appeared first on ICC | Decision Services.


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