Holiday season sales are critical to retailers. In fact, November and December sales traditionally account for up to a quarter of the annual sales of department stores and specialty retailers.
The National Retail Federation forecast that holiday retail sales during November and December will grow between 6% and 8% over 2021 to between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion.
Economic factors, however, may impact this year’s gift giving. Prices continue to increase at a faster-than-expected pace and nearly 60 percent of U.S. shoppers (up 14% from last year) say finances are factoring into their holiday shopping decisions, according to a survey by Sensormatic Solutions. A survey by marketing research firm NPD Group found one in five holiday shoppers will spend less this season because their economic situation has changed.
With the potential for a dip in consumer demand this holiday season, there’s a greater urgency for brands to distinguish themselves from competitors, build long-term loyalty and prepare to meet customers wherever they start their journey.
One of the smartest things a brand can do to prepare for the new digital-first CX landscape is create a customer service framework that provides an exceptional experience that’s both flawless and flexible.
When shoppers invest loyalty in a brand, the expectation is a brand will invest in their experience so their end-to-end journey is successful. Salesforce found 70% of shoppers say loyalty is influenced by a company’s understanding of their needs, with an overwhelming 91% saying they’re more likely to make a repeat purchase after a positive experience, and 71% saying they’ve made a purchase decision based on the quality of their experience.
Here are our top three examples of brands getting frictionless customer service right, and how making improvements to their CX paved the way for better business results, including a coveted higher Customer Satisfaction Rating (CSAT):
CX wish list
Gifts for audiophiles
A Bluetooth speaker or noise-canceling headphones would be music to any audiophile’s ears. A good place to start shopping for the music lover in your life is Bose Corporation, which makes a variety of audio accessories.
The company amplified its CX experience for customers with the roll out of NICE CXone, the world’s #1 cloud native customer experience platform, in three key contact centers supporting the North American market with several hundred agents just in time for the 2021 holiday shopping season.
With its previous platform, Bose had little real-time insight into trends and issues impacting customer experience and employee performance. Reports provided only a general overview, relying on data rollup from multiple sources. This meant Bose’s approach to customer service trends was far from proactive.
“We were constantly challenged to track down issues and generally didn’t know we had an issue until there was a complaint,” said Ryan Stanard, Bose’s Global Director of Customer Enablement and Engagement. “Consolidating platforms on NICE CXone was a no-brainer. Allowing central management of our voice presence was critical to improving our management capabilities and technical support. It also simplifies the networking and infrastructure.”
After switching to CXone, Bose reported a 34% increase in year-over-year satisfaction ratings. Improved agent availability and reduced need for callbacks helped decrease the need for contacts by 23% year-over-year in the markets where CXone was used. Overall, agents successfully doubled service-related revenue year-over-year.
Bose also experienced a decrease in time needed to identify customer issues, since the contact centers that moved to CXone gained the tools to seamlessly capture customer feedback. Using CX analytics to identify areas for agent training and operational efficiencies while also comparing customer satisfaction with the contact center to other journey touchpoints such as website and in-store experiences brought results. In addition, Bose achieved flexibility by being able to bring new contact centers online faster.
Building on those early successes, Bose accelerated its CXone rollout to other service centers, starting with centers in the UK, Australia and New Zealand and then continuing into additional markets representing 13 languages total to achieve a global impact.
Download the Bose case study for more details.
Gifts for travelers
With travel returning to pre-pandemic levels, luggage or a new tote bag for a weekend getaway would be perfect for that person on your list with a case of wanderlust. Iconic American bag and luggage lifestyle brand Vera Bradley, Inc. carries a variety of bags featuring its signature quilted design, and fun designs.
Vera Bradley is next on our list of retail brands getting CX right. The company selected CXone for its overall capabilities that aligned with Vera Bradley’s business goals.
“NICE CXone stood out because of its cohesiveness. There was so much great functionality we gained, like comprehensive reporting, gamification, workforce management, PCI compliance and more,” said Susan Campbell, Director, Customer Experience.
After making the switch to CXone, Vera Bradley saw an immediate 75% decrease in call abandonment rates.
“With CXone’s reporting, we also know now that for every three calls we take, one results in a sale,” Campbell said. “We’re no longer missing out on revenue, and more importantly, our customers are no longer waiting in queue and then getting cut off.”
She added, “CXone has been a huge transformation for us—it’s like moving from black and white into color.”
Securing a high level of payment card industry (PCI) compliance also was a critical need for Vera Bradley to ensure the security of credit card transactions so it could take payments through a secure IVR.
“The customer inputs credit card information—without the agent being on the line—and CXone securely tokenizes it,” Campbell said. “It’s enabled us to launch our work-from-home program because our customers’ sensitive information is protected, regardless of where our agents are located.”
Preparing for holiday sales promotions is another area where Vera Bradley was able to realize improvements. The company had relied on spreadsheets for forecasting, which was time consuming and inaccurate. “We often take calls and fulfill merchandise for our partners, such as Disney,” Campbell said. “With CXone Workforce Management, we can now accurately forecast how many agents will be needed for those promotions.”
Vera Bradley’s contact center was empowered to optimize its hours without any negative impact on the customer experience, increasing its Net Promoter Score® by 2.7% and CSAT by three points.
“We’re no longer missing calls, our team is more engaged and our customers are happy. We also know CXone will evolve with us, so we can continue to improve the customer experience—even into the future,” Campbell said.
Download the Vera Bradley case study for more information.
Send a centerpiece, holiday bouquet
Whether you’re attending a party in person or want to be part of the festivities from afar, gifting a centerpiece or bouquet will brighten anyone’s day. Teleflora offers a variety of floral arrangements and features global delivery.
Teleflora is our third example of a brand that created a frictionless customer experience. Managing five disparate contact centers, as Teleflora once did with its on-premises system, was complex and inefficient so adopting CXone as a unified cloud solution helped Teleflora deliver a frictionless customer experience and streamline its operations.
“With CXone, we can deliver a fast, reliable and consistent customer experience,” said Jeff Griffith, Director, Telco and IT Services, Teleflora. “We learned a lot about our business when we switched to NICE CXone. We didn’t realize how busy we really were, and we didn’t know how many customers had been blocked with our old system.”
Making it easier for people to use the channel of their choice was critical, as Teleflora’s previous systems lacked chat capability. CXone enabled the firm to provide a true omnichannel experience to meet consumer demand.
“With CXone we can handle multiple channels, and we can easily increase channel capacity, too. We didn’t have to buy additional licenses for email, so it was very cost effective. We also offer chat in the same channel,” Griffith said.
Teleflora was limited by the inability of its old system to handle widely fluctuating call volumes without costly upgrades.
“We were constantly balancing our call loads based on where agents were located. It was a nightmare—especially during peak holidays,” Griffith said.
To ensure that customers could always contact Teleflora, the company used redundant phone carriers in case there was a system failure, resulting in exorbitant expenses. Carrying more licenses for its on-premises system was necessary to support its busier holiday times but the expense added up and was unnecessary for off-peak times.
“The cloud offers us economies of scale that are nearly impossible to achieve with on-premises systems,” Griffith said. “With CXone, I only pay for what I use each month. We have much more flexibility with licensing and capacity.” He added, “Here’s my advice for contact centers with multiple locations. Just do the math for 10 years down the road, and you’ll see that it’s much more cost effective to be in the cloud with CXone than staying with an on-premises system.”
Download the Teleflora case study for more details.
Streamline and save with CXone
As these leading retail brands shared, there are real-time advantages to adopting a cloud-based solution to handle increased customer inquiries more seamlessly.
Find out more about how CXone has the digital CX solutions to elevate both the agent and customer experience. Start by watching our demo and then contact us for a quote.
Give your contact center the gift of empathy
The best brands know that their success is tied to building a connection to customers. Helping customers find answers quickly whenever they need it and on whatever channel they prefer is important to build loyalty.
Customers demand and expect a personalized and compassionate experience, and it’s important to deliver as economic forecasts suggest people may not be as willing to spend this holiday season.
Get our Be the wow: A guide to creating the most empathetic contact center eBook for tools and resources you need to deliver exceptional CX and realize long-lasting relationships with customers.