‘Tis the Season for Customer Complaints: How to Handle Holiday Frustrations

“I felt like I was stuck in a holiday version of Groundhog Day. Every time I thought I’d made progress, I’d get disconnected and have to start over. By the fifth call, I could recite my booking reference without looking.”

That’s Sarah from Glasgow, who spent three hours trying to change her flight home for Christmas last year.

The holidays are here, and that means a spike in customer complaints. Shopping carts will fill up, travel plans will multiply, and your contact centre will brace itself for an annual surge of customers. Many of these customers will be frustrated.

According to the National Retail Foundation, temporary seasonal workers in the UK can number over half a million each year. But easing customer frustration isn’t just about having the numbers – it comes down to preparation, process and proactiveness. That’s what we’ll discuss in this article.

Why holiday complaints spike: The grinch effect

How does the most patient customer turn into a modern-day Grinch? The answer; the holiday season.

Financial pressures, time constraints, and family expectations create a powder keg of emotions that often explodes in customer service interactions.

Contact centres bear the brunt of this seasonal stress surge. Customer service interactions peak during peak holiday periods – it’s not just that the customers are under pressure, it’s that there’s more of them, too.

Be ready for a spike in volume: Proactive prep

Those Christmas adverts that pop up in September are annoying. But smart companies prepare for the festive period months in advance. As with marketing – customer service must go through the same strategic planning in order to stay on top of things.

Make no mistake; retailers that excel during the holiday season leave nothing to chance.

Take Nordstrom, for example. The retailer’s proactive approach to holiday customer service includes implementing AI-powered chatbots that handle basic customer queries, freeing up human agents for more complex issues.

Successful strategies often combine technology with human touch:

• Implement predictive analytics to forecast call volumes – this can help you get ahead with the planning.
• Deploy chatbots for common queries (tracking orders, store hours, return policies) – take a massive weight off the workload of your human agents, who will be invaluable during the festive period.
• Expand self-service options on websites and mobile apps – allow customers to help themselves and reduce the strain on agents even further.
• Cross-train existing staff to handle multiple types of inquiries – staff must be prepared for all the potential issues that could crop up during this busy time.
• Hire and train seasonal staff well in advance – it isn’t enough just to hire agents in advance, you should have enough time to train them, too.

The power of empathy: Humanising the experience

When tensions run high, empathy becomes your secret weapon.

Take the infamous case of British Airways during the 2017 IT failure, when thousands of flights were cancelled.

While the situation was dire, individual customer service agents who showed genuine empathy and went the extra mile became social media heroes.

Agents can feel they are swimming against the tide. But treating each enquiry with empathy is an irreplaceable approach.

Research backs this up – according to a PwC study, 59% of all consumers feel companies have lost touch with the human element of customer experience. The report concluded: “What truly makes for a good experience? Speed. Convenience. Consistency. Friendliness. And human touch—that is, creating real connections by making technology feel more human and giving employees what they need to create better customer experiences.”

Offering solutions, not more problems

When customers have to tell the same thing three times to three different agents, it frustrates the life out of them.

Successful companies are adopting a ‘first-contact resolution’ approach:

• Empower agents with authority to make decisions
• Implement better CRM systems that track customer interaction history
• Create clear escalation paths for complex issues
• Provide agents with ready-made solutions for common holiday problems

When a new system is implemented that gives agents complete customer history and the authority to make most decisions without escalation, you can expect customer satisfaction scores to rise.

After the holidays: Gathering feedback and improving

Once the festive period is over, the work to excel during this peak period doesn’t end.

It’s time to take stock of what worked, and what didn’t. Where did customer complaints arise from? Was it website performance, inventory accuracy or delivery? These insights can lead you to significant signposts for investment over the coming year.

Actions you could take:

• Analyse complaint patterns and identify common issues
• Survey both customers and employees about their experiences
• Review staffing levels and training effectiveness
• Assess technology performance during peak periods
• Start planning improvements for next year

A thorough post holiday review will see you better equipped for the following year’s rush. A drop in customer complaint rates is a good metric to measure success.

Making Christmas a win

Contact centres can be the unsung heroes of the holidays. Preparing adequately and giving them the means to do their job can turn your agents into firefighters for your brand.

Remember the case of Sarah from Glasgow? After her flight-change ordeal, the airline completely overhauled its customer service system. This year, she changed her holiday flight in under five minutes using their new chat. “It was so easy, I actually checked twice to make sure I hadn’t missed something,” she laughs.

This holiday season, give your contact centre the platform to be heroes, and your customers the gift of a positive interaction.

Cirrus understands how to equip contact centres for holiday season success by handling extra enquiry volumes, helping to turn complaints into satisfactory resolutions and allowing agents to do what they do best; adding a human touch.

Read more about our contact centre success stories or speak to the team for more information on 0333 103 3333