Customer Service – The Holidays

When it comes to the holidays…you need to go above and beyond the call of duty to satisfy your customers. After all, providing excellent customer service should be a priority in your business all year long…even more so during the holiday season.

What extra little things do you do for your customers during the holiday shopping season? Here are some things I like to do for my customers.

1. I offer free gift wrapping for holiday gifts that they purchase from me. Yes that is right folks…free gift wrapping. You can go to your local dollar type of store and purchase gift bags, rolls of wrapping paper and even a box of holiday greeting cards for only $1.00

So lets say that a customer purchases $50 worth of products from you and 2 of those products are for holiday gifts. You can wrap those gifts and place a gift tag on those 2 gifts for less than $1.50 out of your own pocket. Sure…offering this type of service might cost you 3-5% of your profit…but it will be well worth satisfying that customer during the holiday season.

2. If your company doesn’t offer direct shipping (example: customer purchases a gift but wants it shipped directly to the gift recipient)…then you can offer that service yourself. Make sure you charge your customer EXACTLY what it will cost to send the item(s)…by exactly…I mean don’t add on a handling charge.

3. If you know the customer well and this customer has been doing business with you for a long time…you can consider offering a layaway plan on large purchases of $100 or more. You could request 50% down and then the other 50% in the next 30 days. You will hold onto the purchase until it is paid off. If you decide to offer a holiday layaway plan, make sure you have something drafted up in writing and have your customer sign and date it. On my layaway plan, if a customer does not pay off their layaway by such and such date, they forfeit their purchase. So far, I have never been stuck with a layaway but I only do this for customers who I know very well.

4. Tis the season to be generous! If your customer places an order for $50 or more, you could offer a freebie item with their purchase…or you could offer a discount coupon that they can redeem off their next purchase after the holidays.

When it comes to providing excellent customer service during the holidays…try to go above and beyond the call of duty. If you a treat a customer ‘right’ during the holiday shopping season, they will often times come back after the holidays to make future purchases.

~ Shelly ~