It’s mid-July. Half your team is away, it’s hot, and your online store is still running as usual. Someone places an order at 9:00 p.m. and has a question about the delivery time. A message comes in via WhatsApp or your social media about a return. And there’s no one there to respond. Sound familiar?
Summer lays bare what has been going on all year long
Many online stores view the summer as a slow season. Less traffic, less hustle and bustle, so fewer customer service staff on duty. But your customers don’t adjust their expectations to fit your vacation schedule. They keep placing orders and want answers—preferably right away.
This year’s National Voice Monitor shows that long wait times remain the biggest source of frustration in customer service, cited by 52 percent of consumers. In the summer, those wait times only get longer. And the second biggest annoyance—a chatbot that freezes up—is on the rise. Only 12 percent of questions asked of a chatbot are answered satisfactorily.
An unanswered question is a customer walking away
The cost of poor accessibility is higher than you think. A customer who doesn’t get a response won’t wait patiently for you to return from vacation. They’ll click over to the competitor who does answer. And 73 percent of Dutch people say they miss human contact in an increasingly digital world. It’s precisely when the system fails that people want to speak to a real person.
That means summer isn’t the time to put your customer service on the back burner. It’s actually the time to make sure it’s running smoothly.
Here's How to Keep Your Online Store Accessible
Closing your online store or posting an “out of office” notice is a missed opportunity, because your sales keep coming in. The solution is to remain available without putting the burden on you or your team. You can do this by outsourcing your customer service during exactly those times when things get hectic: evenings, weekends, peak periods, and the summer months.
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