Prepare for Black Friday & Cyber Monday in 3 Simple Steps
Natterbox Team
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are soon approaching, are you ready? As always, it is integral that retailers are as prepared as possible, and as early as possible.
It is one of the most crucial times of year for the retail industry to get its customer experience right. And this year, businesses also have to contend with several new challenges, including drastically different consumer expectations compared to those just two years ago.
To support this, a recent report by McKinsey found that consumers across the globe have responded to the pandemic crisis by experimenting with different shopping behaviors and have expressed a high intent (65% or more) to continue these behaviors going forward. These include shopping for convenience and availability, as well as prioritizing quality and purpose (such as a desire to support local businesses) when choosing new brands.
With so many battlegrounds for retailers to compete on, it’s vital that every business gets their customer experience spot to retain customer loyalty and gain new customers.
Here are some of our tips on how you can do so:
1. Know your customer’s journey
Businesses must take the approach that a customer’s entire journey with the brand is the responsibility of everyone within the business. This includes everything from the customer’s first visit to the website, right the way through to any customer service they receive post-purchase. It is about the entire lifecycle of a customer journey, including every touchpoint a customer encounters.
Knowing your customer’s journey is about anticipating demand for different channels, making sure you meet your customers there, and then making sure there’s around the clock support for them at each touchpoint should they need it. Taking this approach will ensure they have the best chance at securing your best deals and will increase the chances of them remaining loyal to your brand. This
applies all year round, but particularly on Black Friday, when
retailers will be fighting tooth and nail to make it a success.
2. Unify your communications
Unified comms is now the norm for customers, i.e. using multiple channels to interact with a brand. However, this means any customer service agent that we engage with is likely to be a different person each time, which has created an increasing issue of disparity and complexity for businesses when it comes to consistency and personalizing communication with customers.
However, using a cloud telephony platform will ensure that no matter which agent a customer speaks to, they will have all the information they need on the customer’s previous interactions with the brand to provide the best service. With so many offers on for Black Friday and thousands of customers hunting for the best deal, this will help save time for both the customer and agents, who will be working around the clock to make a success of the event!
3. Utilize technology without losing the human touch
Companies must ensure they are utilizing the technology that’s available to them, but it can’t come at the price of the human touch. Customers are going to be speaking to a vast number of brands around Black Friday as they look to secure the best offers, so you need to make sure your brand stands out. This can be done by having the latest technologies to make the customer journey seamless, but working alongside it, you need employees whose service stands out when called upon. This means retailers should be ramping up their hiring, not only in the build up to Black Friday, but the entire holiday season, to make sure you have the best talent for the job.
Don’t let the Black Friday opportunity pass
Black Friday and Cyber Monday are daunting for any retail business, but these three tips can help your brand capitalize on the business opportunities that it presents.