The festive season is upon us once again. How do employees handle stress during the holidays? What do they find challenging, and what is enjoyable about working during the festive season? We asked Robin, a trainee team leader who has been with ContactCare for 6 years now.
As a customer expert, Robin has worked on a wide variety of projects and is therefore familiar with a very diverse group of customers. She has worked with clients from small and large organisations, Dutch, Europeans, and even Americans. Each target audience requires a completely different approach. It's this diversity that Robin finds most challenging and enjoyable. It sounded odd to us; even friction and resistance during customer conversations can be quite fun!
“For many organisations, the pressure during the festive season significantly increases. Customers become more demanding during this time. Webshops and clothing stores especially feel the pressure. Not only are parcels for family members a topic of discussion, but also items for personal use, like new shoes for the Christmas dinner, are considered very important.” According to Robin.
Peak Moments
Our whitepaper advises to take potential busyness into account before, during, and after the festive season. When, in your experience, is it busiest and why?
“It’s precisely in the period just before the holidays that the pressure is greatest. For PostNL, DHL, and the like, it’s difficult to predict what the traffic will do. Especially during the Covid crisis, this was no longer sustainable.”
During Christmas and other holidays like New Year's and Sinterklaas, it’s very quiet. People have different priorities than calling customer service during this time. After these traditional holidays, it gets quieter again. Logically, more contact is made during Black Friday and Singles Day. This is the time when people have questions about discount actions and campaigns.
Practice Makes Perfect
There's a big difference in how customer service representatives handle resistance during these days. Customers are stressed, more irritable, and quicker to anger.
“With my many years of experience, I stay very calm, but for new employees, it takes some getting used to. I personally find such conversations fun and challenging,” says Robin. Training at the ContactCare Academy sets the foundation for conducting resistance conversations. The end goal for a customer expert during a resistance conversation is to calm frustrated customers and conclude the conversation normally. Attending training alone is not everything; it provides the first set of tools to start. Real success in conducting resistance conversations begins with actually doing it!
“Often, customers know the consequences of their actions are their own fault. This can be difficult because, although everything is done to help customers further, we as customer experts can often do no more than give advice. We cannot make the delivery drivers or sorting centres work faster.”
Many new employees don’t communicate clearly to the customer straight away. They are very kind at first while the answer to the help request is already clear. It's a misconception that customers are always looking for empathy. Many customers prefer certainty and clarity over beating around the bush. I help new employees communicate more clearly to customers.
What Do Customers Need?
During the expression of their frustration, customers are not always realistic. They expect the brands we call for to hire a van to deliver things personally. Of course, this is not feasible. In such cases, it’s perfectly fine to indicate that this is not an option. In some cases, customers want to cancel, and if the product is already with the distributor, we cannot change anything.
Nonetheless, it's not all doom and gloom. If something is out of stock that customers would like to order, as a customer expert, you can look for alternative options. Customers often enjoy this, and as a customer expert, it results in pleasant situations and happy customers.
A Lifelong Learning Journey
In the six years that I have worked here, I have been part of different teams. Recently, I have become part of the small dedicated team. We are a team that is very supportive of each other. We give each other feedback and tips to become a little better each time. As a senior customer expert, I help new employees with calls. I have learned a lot within the ContactCare Academy. The training ContactCare provides offers tools and tips & tricks on how to do things. I've truly developed my leadership skills here, but most learning happens in practice. With the knowledge and experience I have gained, I hope to become a good team leader in the future.
“The closer it gets to the holidays, the busier it becomes.”
Holiday Chaos
During the holidays, we get many questions about deliveries. Customers, of course, want to receive their parcels on time. From my experience, it is busiest before the holidays. Clear communication is a must, especially during the holidays! The key to good customer contact during this period is preparation. A good start is half the battle.
Robin’s tip for new employees? Stay calm, be clear to customers, and don’t be deterred by longer queues.
