{"id":31635,"date":"2017-12-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/how-to-deliver-better-customer-service-during-the-busy-holiday-season\/"},"modified":"2024-01-18T21:10:03","modified_gmt":"2024-01-18T21:10:03","slug":"deliver-better-customer-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/deliver-better-customer-service\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Deliver Better Customer Service During the Busy Holiday Season"},"content":{"rendered":"<a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/deliver-better-customer-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-14212 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Holiday-Stress.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"432\" \/><\/a>It\u2019s holiday time! What a joyous time of year!\r\n\r\nAnd, then there is the <a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-experience-2\/year-round-holiday-season-customer-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">holiday shopping experience<\/a>\u2026 This is how I see it. I get in my car. About a mile from the mall I begin to experience heavier-than-usual traffic. Not just a little heavier, but sometimes it seems like worse than rush hour. Is there an accident? No, there\u2019s a traffic jam at the mall. Once I\u2019m at the mall, I experience the search for the parking spot. Then there\u2019s the crowded stores, the lines to check out, and then the reverse commute to get home.<!--more-->\r\n\r\nNow, I\u2019m not a curmudgeon who throws out the words, \u201cBah Humbug!\u201d around the holidays. I really do <a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-3\/holiday-wish-every-customer-receives-amazing-customer-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">love the holidays<\/a>; I just don\u2019t like going to the mall during the holidays. Yes, Amazon and other online retailers are my salvation.\r\n\r\nAll of this is a set-up for the lesson. Stressful times for customers means stressful times for employees. They must be more empathetic and patient as the stress of the holiday shopping experience causes customers to behave in abnormally strange \u2013 often referred to as rude \u2013 ways.\r\n\r\nSo, what is an employee to do? How should they handle these customers? What\u2019s the secret to making it through the busy season with tact and diplomacy? In reality, it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s the holiday season. It could be any busy overly busy time for your business.\r\n\r\nHere are four ways that companies and individuals can manage the busiest and most stressful times\u2026\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><strong>Hire Right: <\/strong>As an employer, <a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/amazing-business-radio-show\/amazing-business-radio-nick-friedman\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hire the right people<\/a>, to begin with. If you are going to be hiring new people, realize there are people who love stressful customer situations. They thrive on it. They are resilient and love the drama. Yet they seem to be masters at \u201ccalming the storm.\u201d If you plan to put people into positions of stress, be sure that you hire a personality that can deal with it.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Staff to Meet the Demand:<\/strong> This is obvious. Staff properly. If you\u2019re a retailer, you know that holidays are busier than the rest of the year. So, plan for it. Same goes for any business that has predictably higher-than-usual volume than any other time of year.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Don\u2019t Take It Personally:<\/strong> A customer who\u2019s experiencing stress, inside or outside of your business, may take it out on you (or one of your employees). Don\u2019t take it personally. If you are truly customer-focused and are doing everything right, then it\u2019s not your fault the customer is having a bad day. But, it\u2019s your opportunity to start to turn that bad day around. While you don\u2019t take it personally, you do own it and do your best to deliver an experience that is frictionless and stress-free.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Let Good People Do the Job They Were Hired to Do:<\/strong> If you\u2019ve hired good people, let them do their job. Don\u2019t make them go to a manager to get approval for things they know will get approved. This causes stress for everyone; the employee who is uncomfortable bothering the manager, the manager who is going to approve the request anyway, and the customer who is forced to wait.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\nThe holidays are intended to be a joyous time of year, filled with spending time with friends and family. This can also be the season that causes the most stress. As a retailer of any kind, be aware of this and go above and beyond at this time of year to make things easier for the customer. If you can please a customer during the busy times, which is hard to do, it\u2019s likely that this same customer will be more likely to shop with you the rest of the year as well.\r\n\r\n<em><a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shep Hyken<\/a>\u00a0is a customer service\/CX expert, award-winning keynote speaker, and New York Times bestselling author. Learn more about Shep\u2019s\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/speaking\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer service and customer experience keynote speeches<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/training\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">customer service training workshops<\/a>\u00a0at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hyken.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.Hyken.com<\/a>. Connect with Shep on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/shephyken\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">LinkedIn<\/a>.<\/em>\r\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>(Copyright \u00a9 MMXVII, Shep Hyken)<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s holiday time! What a joyous time of year! And, then there is the holiday shopping experience\u2026 This is how I see it. I get in my car. About a mile from the mall I begin to experience heavier-than-usual traffic. Not just a little heavier, but sometimes it seems like worse than rush hour. Is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":38726,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6796,6800,6807],"tags":[4644,5751,5861],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v22.5 (Yoast SEO v22.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How to Deliver Better Customer Service During the Busy Holiday Season - Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hyken.com\/customer-service-culture\/deliver-better-customer-service\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to Deliver Better Customer Service During the Busy Holiday Season - Shep Hyken | Customer Service Expert\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It\u2019s holiday time! What a joyous time of year! And, then there is the holiday shopping experience\u2026 This is how I see it. I get in my car. About a mile from the mall I begin to experience heavier-than-usual traffic. Not just a little heavier, but sometimes it seems like worse than rush hour. 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