The most wonderful time of the year for shoppers is right around the corner. The first day of November marks the first day of the official holiday season, the busiest time of year for most retail operators. For many retail players, such as brands operating jewelry, department, consumer electronics, clothing, footwear, sporting goods or other specialty retail, the time between November 1 and December 31 brings in 20% or more of total sales for the year.

And this holiday season is expected to be bigger than previous years. According to PwC’s 2016 Holiday Outlook, this holiday season is projected to be busier than previous seasons, which should make most retailers grin at the prospect of business growth. If the consulting giant is correct in its forecast, then retailers can expect to see a spending increase of 10%, an all time high since the Great Recession.

But bigger business necessitates bigger operations. NRF estimates the retail industry will hire between 640,000 to 690,000 seasonal workers this year. Many retailers double the size of their contact centers to accommodate demand. For example, one fashion retailer scales its call center to accommodate shopper demand from 100 full time employees to over 240 employees. But scaling operations and maintaining high quality service is not an easy feat.

Today, 60% of consumers will not complete an intended purchase in response to a poor customer service experience. Since the stakes of delivering high quality service experiences are high, service leaders need to take a close look at how they hire the right professionals with the right skillsets, empower them to connect with shoppers and enable them to deliver efficient shopper service.

According to the Wall Street Journal, signs of a tight seasonal labor market will put the pressure on retailers this holiday season. This means that experienced customer professionals may already be off the market. Another option is focusing on candidates with customer-focused traits. According to Micah Solomon, businesses should hire customer-facing employees who espouse warmth, empathy, teamwork, conscientiousness and optimism.

While the service agent’s pre-existing skillset and experience can move the needle in terms of getting the seasonal employee up to speed in a rapid fashion, the agent also needs to be empowered to execute on the brand promise. Customer service can be transactional in nature, for instance, most of an agent’s shift may be comprised of taking orders, locating a shipment or conducting a return, but in what manner the service agent interacts with the shopper is what creates the lasting connection.

Creating lasting customer connections start with a mission that prioritizes the shopper experience. The best retailers in the world, like Amazon and Nordstrom, are customer service centric. Nordstrom’s mission is “to provide outstanding service every day, one customer at a time,” which serves as every employee’s north star. In the case of Nordstrom, every employee is empowered to work in the best interest of the shopper, rather than within the confines of a 90 day return policy or other standard retail parameters. Before you onboard your seasonal agents, take a close look at your policies. Are your service agents empowered to deliver best-in-class shopper experiences? Or have you optimized your business processes to prioritize transaction-based interactions over shopper connections?

Going above and beyond to enable your seasonal care agents is where the rubber meets the road in retail customer service during the holiday season. Your enablement plan should focus on ramping up seasonal employees fast, helping them access information anywhere quickly, and helping them understand the shopper. When you’re hiring for a two month window, like the holiday season, a contact center application needs to be intuitive enough so that a seasonal employee can get up-to-speed quickly. You also need to consider how your seasonal employees accesses company policies and FAQ. Are they retained in a central and accessible database? When the seasonal employee can access quick standardized answers to customer queries, it means they can service the shopper more efficiently. 

Get Service Ready for the Holidays

When retailers face the rapidly increasing shopper demands and interactions during the peak holiday season - providing personalized and efficient service experiences can be difficult. So how can service leaders manage the spike in customer service requests during the holiday season while maintaining shopper satisfaction? Watch this webinar to learn 5 ways retailers can enable customer service to deal with the holiday rush.