Understanding the Holiday Shopping Experience
The holiday season equals shopaholics galore! One of the biggest challenges during the holiday season is balancing the increase in shopping with equal customer service response. Let’s face reality, customers prepare themselves for the holidays by shopping early. During this time, malls are jam-packed with large crowds of customers fighting for items that are on sale. The holiday season is the time where stores try to score a huge profit by getting customers to shop as much as possible. This results in a major increase in customers coming through stores and possibly needing support after their purchasing.
Giving Customers an Authentic Experience
Customers want their shopping experience to be smooth and effortless. As a business, your goal is to retain customers as much as possible. Customers want an authentic experience. Holiday shopping can be a tedious endeavor. According to Forbes, “Preparation is key for the retail industry.” Malls and outlets need to be prepared for a variety of situations, especially negative situations. Negativity in a shopping experience can leave a bad impression on a customer. During the holiday season, it is important for businesses to be patient and willing to deal with the volume and variety of customers.
Maintaining Hygiene
We all care about cleanliness. But ever since the pandemic changed the world, the need for hygiene has become even more imperative. This is one of the key attributes that keeps a store attractive to lure in customers, both current and new. According to Forbes, “Achieving a high customer satisfaction score in these areas is important to maintain loyalty to a brand.” Customers want everything clean to shop with peace of mind. A professional workspace with so many people passing through needs to be kept sanitized and clean for everyone’s health and safety, now more than ever.
Online Shopping Continues to Soar
2020 was the biggest year for online shopping, mostly due to the pandemic. However, during the holiday season, online shopping booms like no other, due to the convenience and ease of getting purchases shipped right to your door. Sometimes people get better deals online rather than in-person at stores. But with the current strain on the shipping and freight industries, customers are shopping early even for online shopping, to make sure their purchases arrive ahead of the holiday season. Shop websites have implemented warning banners to let their shoppers know about known and approximate delays they’ve had with fulfilling and shipping orders. This way, customers know to shop as early as possible when ordering online.
Smooth Technical Support on All Platforms
Things are bound to go wrong in any shopping experience. Technical support is a lifesaver for the customer. This is when the concept of omnichannel marketing comes in, for providing customer support. Omnichannel marketing is a customer engagement approach in which a company engages its customers on all channels, platforms, and devices to share more about its products, offers, and support services. This means that not only would a specific business offer support on their website, but they would also offer support through Facebook Messenger, live chat, e-mail, and phone. This way, customers can find them on all digital marketing platforms, to get support for any of their shopping and ordering needs. Presenting the brand on available platforms helps customers perceive the business as ready to help in any situation or setting.
SMS Marketing and Customer Engagement
SMS marketing allows businesses and brands to stay in touch with their customers. It gives businesses a chance to lure them in again. The most common types of SMS marketing techniques include personalized promotions, offers and discounts, remarketing, and surveys. Such techniques can allow businesses to stay connected with their customers and understand their needs and expectations. The most important thing is to be proactive with your customers. This will help you build customer loyalty for both current and new customers.
Handling the Holiday Shopping Season with PxidaCX
The holidays are a busy and joyful time for customers and businesses alike. This is a perfect opportunity for you as a business to gather customer feedback to improve your brand and customer experience. Lucky for you, PxidaCX is the perfect tool to further understand the needs and expectations of your customers. Sign up now for a free trial and see how gathering and implementing customer feedback can help your business!