First things first. Make a list, and check it twice.

You certainly have the potential to pull in your share of this season’s serious retail revenue – and the key is to be well-prepared. If you weren’t ready for the swell of Thanksgiving Day and post-turkey day shoppers, don’t lose your feathers. There is still time to get things going in the right direction. Here’s a list of a few e-commerce basics that you’ll need to review:

• Double check with your IT team to find out if your servers can handle increased site traffic. If not, then add a backup server, or consider cloud hosting services.
• Keep your web content simplified for fast page loading.
• Revisit the site layout. Is it inviting and easy to navigate?
• Advertise discounts front-and-center.
• See to it that you have the right selection of merchandise.

Did you ask Santa for stellar customer care?

Servers, web content, and product availability should obviously be pretty high up on your holiday checklist. But one thing that many e-commerce retailers neglect is paramount to anything you offer online – great customer care. Unless you make it easy for your customers to shop with you, they will click their way to your competitors faster than you can say jingle bells. That’s why offering exceptional customer service at every stage of the shopping experience is hugely important. Bonus: it’ll also land you a coveted spot on the Nice List.

In some cases, customers’ needs can be addressed via live web chat. However, not everyone is comfortable with live chat. Some people need the personalized service that only a phone call can accomplish. With that idea in mind, many e-commerce companies outsource their customer support to an answering service. That’s where Specialty Answering Service comes in!

‘Tis the season for SAS.

In a flooded online marketplace, even one bad review can damage your reputation. And unhappy customers mean that you can all but forget about positive word-of-mouth advertising. So, while you focus on major e-commerce elements such as merchandise selection and site layout, Specialty’s e-commerce call center will give you a hand with order taking, answering questions, providing shipping info, and processing payments. Our well-trained, live agents are friendly, reliable, and available 24/7/365 – because the Internet never sleeps!

With SAS on your team, customers will always be connected to a real person, not an impersonal, automated answering queue. Our 14-day free trial gives you an opportunity to see how a skilled call center can help you raise revenue at the most critical time of year for all retailers – when your bottom line goes from red to black. And after the trial period ends, we can continue to grow with your business and adjust your call handling as your needs change.

Even the North Pole outsources.

A sure way to increase customer loyalty and build trust in your brand is to make customer service excellence a focal point of your business plan. That’s why Santa uses SAS. (Afterall, even magic Elves need a hot cocoa break…) With 30 years’ experience in the call center industry, Specialty Answering Service is a one-stop-shop for your sales, service, logistics, and customer care needs. We are known for our innovative call center solutions and client-friendly technology that will keep you up-to-speed as each call rolls in. So, what are you waiting for?

Get started on your free trial today, and let SAS make your holiday season bright. For those National Lampoon’s fans out there, we leave you with an uplifting quote from Cousin Eddie. SAS: “That’s the gift that keeps on giving the whole year.”

The post Give the Gift of Live Customer Service appeared first on Specialty Answering Service.

If your answering service is managing e-commerce orders, there are a few website tweaks you can put in place to ensure that each customer’s phone call goes as smoothly as possible.

• Give every product on your site an item number. As long as the customer has the number handy, this will allow for error-proof searching and speedy checkout.
• The operator will need to check out as a “Guest,” so be sure to have a guest checkout option available on your e-commerce website. Guest checkout should be set up so that it doesn’t flag the user if it sees an email address match in your database that would require the visitor to login. Unless you are using a dedicated agent to answer your calls, most call center operators are not permitted to have access to login information for you or your callers. This maintains the security of sensitive data.
• You may have a different set of instructions to follow when placing phone orders. For example, you may not offer free shipping with phone orders, but you may if the customer places the order themselves. If that is the case, you’ll want to create a separate web interface for the service. A simplified interface eliminates operator confusion and minimizes the possibility of incorrect entries.
• If you have the resources, consider building a call center-specific version of your website that’s as trimmed down as possible. Give the operators easy access to your search function, keep the graphics and web scripts to a minimum, and create a simple one-page checkout for the call center agents.
• If you have new catalogs shipping out, are running a television or print ad, or are doing any advertising that would cause a spike in volume, it’s best to let the service know a few weeks in advance. This will give them ample time to staff up.

The answering service will also work with you on programming your script to improve call flow:

• Callers may be required to provide an item number to place an order. If so, you’ll want to make sure the agents are asking for this information before they start the checkout procedure.
• If you have several product categories, the operators can ask the caller for the type of product, and then pop out to the specific webpage for that category rather than search from the site’s home page.
• If the website is down for any reason, operators can take a message with the caller’s information and requested products for easy follow-up by your team.
• Specific details regarding pricing, shipping and returns can be added to your Frequently Asked Questions as a quick reference for the operators. This will help move calls along.
• It’s important to have escalation procedures in place for calls that the operators can’t handle. When a customer is already upset, taking a message and letting them know you’ll call them back isn’t always the best course.

If you run a web store and outsource customer care to reduce overhead, following the guidelines above will help you get the most out of your service, and keep the orders rolling in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year!

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