How to Manage Customer Service Downtime This Holiday Season

As the holidays approach, there will be an influx of travelers inquiring about your availability and asking you to provide more information about the tours and activities that you provide. Your online reviews will increase, and your social engagement rates will boost significantly. At the same time, your customer service team may be taking extra time off to spend Christmas or New Years with their own friends and family.

The reality is that your customer service downtime cannot impact the level of service that you typically provide your travelers. Here’s how to keep your customers happy and engaged during your customer service downtime:

Create an employee schedule that maximizes your customer service engagement

It’s understandable that your customer service staff members are going to want to take some time off during the holidays. At the same time, your team needs to know that they cannot all be off on the same day. In the months leading up to Christmas and New Years, let your customer service team know that someone needs to be available during every business day. Give them time to work out a cooperative schedule, and incentivize them by offering additional days off in the future during typically slow periods.

Implement technology that automatically responds to customer inquiries

When you are operating with minimal staff, you will want to have technology in place that can still provide interested travelers with the information they need as quickly as possible. Tour booking software, such as Rezdy, allows you to schedule automatic e-mails and implement instant responses to customer inquiries online. In addition, you can add chatbots to your website that can answer basic customer service questions so that your team can focus on more complex responses and solutions.

Be open and honest about your current availability

Manage traveler expectations by being honest about customer service downtime. You can use social media to let your followers know when your staff will be available. When possible, give notice of any time off so that interested travelers can reach out to you in advance rather than wait until the holiday rush to connect with your brand.

Update your content to reflect your holiday schedule

Any automatic responses that you have scheduled need to be updated to reflect the most relevant information for the holidays. In the weeks leading up to the holiday rush, refresh your content so that your current hours, available tours and holiday schedule are being distributed to anyone who interacts with your tour company.

The key to successfully managing your travelers’ expectations this holiday season is to implement technology that will complement the efforts of your customer service team. An innovative tour booking software, such as Rezdy, can help you send automatic communications to your travelers that will give them the information they need while your staff takes some time off during the holidays.

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