Online Customer Service During the Holiday Season

During the month of December, everything gets quite a bit busier. Just as the stores fill up with customers doing their holiday shopping, the phone lines and internet also light up with customers who have questions about products or services.

Here are some tips you can follow to help you prepare for the busiest online customer service season of the year.

First, be ready for all kinds of feedback on social media sites. Sure, customers may come to your Facebook or Twitter pages to talk about how great of a shopping experience they had at your business, but more often than not they go online to sound off after they’ve had a negative experience.

On Facebook, you should always have it set so that people who “like” your page can post on your wall and tag your business in photos, but you should also have it set so that you get a notification every time someone does so. That way, if there are negative posts to address, you can do so quickly, and if there are positive posts, you can thank them immediately for their business.

The same goes for Twitter. Chances are that the users who choose to message you are going to do so to complain about something. Make sure you have your Twitter set so that you receive an email notification every time someone mentions you or sends you a direct message, so that you can address every issue as it arises.

Review sites can be just as powerful as social media when it comes to how your business is perceived by the general public. If you haven’t already done so, make sure that you have accounts for your business on sites like Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Yelp. Make sure you get notifications via email every time a new review is sent in. If you have a bad review, make sure you leave an appropriate response. You don’t want to censor these reviews, but you do need to reassure other customers who might find the review page.

The holiday season is also a great time to offer discounts, considering how much shopping the average person is doing. One way to do this is by giving special discounts to anybody who checks into your business via the social network Foursquare. Another is to put together a discount policy for unsatisfied customers. You want to keep people coming back to your store, and unless you do something to make their situation better they probably will not do so.

Customer service isn’t always easy or enjoyable, but it is extremely important that you provide the best service possible, particularly during the high-stress holiday shopping season.