As the holidays near, there are going to be more opportunities to sell products and services as gifts. And while a surge in purchases is expected, you should also expect to start seeing a surge in customer service requests, whether that is through text marketing, social media, email, or even phone calls. Here are some ways to prepare for customer service during the holiday season through social media.

Customer Service Reps should be informed

A couple of years ago, Target accidentally posted a deal that let customers get a couple of pieces of jewelry for free. It was a misprint, but customers were trying to figure out if it would be honored still. Someone on their social media team responded to a customer on Facebook telling them that Target would be honoring the deal at all their stores, though the response was made without management’s approval. So, Target was stuck honoring this deal and giving away thousands of dollars of free product because of one social media customer service representative’s mistake.

So often, customers go to social media to ask questions and are given responses from customer service agents who may not really know the answer. To protect you and your customers, make sure the reps are well trained and informed on the product, so they can quickly answer questions without giving the wrong information and without offering vague responses that don’t actually answer the question.

Offer 24/7 responses

It is very valuable to offer 24/7 customer service because it means your customers can get help no matter what their situation. One really great way to do this is through AI Chatbots that can recognize a customer’s answer and respond to them no matter what the time of day, and you aren’t stuck paying for 24/7. Twitter and Facebook have both been working to add this feature to their business offerings as well. For now, you can just use text.

Respond publicly to criticism

Often, an angry customer will get on Facebook or Twitter and immediately complain about something that went wrong while working with you. It looks really bad if you just ignore this, but you can actually turn that into a positive by responding to the comment. Apologize for any wrongdoings and ask what you can do to resolve it with them? If you resolve it (or at least show you are open to resolving it) openly, then it will show future customers who are researching their options that it was resolved and they can continue to trust your business.

Be extra prepared

Because the holidays will bring in a lot of customers with high expectations of the product or service they are receiving, you will want customer service to be extra prepared. Make sure everyone is trained to answer questions about products or services, so they can respond quickly to anyone who has a question. If answers aren’t given quick enough, customers may start researching someone else and switch to another company that responds faster. And if there are problems, customers will be desperate to fix them before the holidays because they want everything to be perfect, so make sure you are quick to help with any issues that arise.

Source: Customer Think