7 updates to make to your online business presence to prepare for the holiday season

With the holiday season quickly approaching, now’s the time to make any updates to your online profiles and websites to make the busy season easier to manage. Your teams will likely be fielding more requests from customers across channels and working double time to help address issues and meet customer needs. While it’s important to empower your customer-facing teams, there are also actions to take to make this time easier for them.

Taking preemptive action to make it easier for the customer to self-serve, or even answer their own questions, can help ease the workload for your frontline teams. Here are seven things you should do to prepare your business for the holiday season to help make things easier on your customer-facing teams and improve the customer experience overall.

7 online updates to make now to prepare for the holiday season

Prepare for the holiday season by making these updates.

1. Update your hours and contact information

Ideally, you’re already doing this regularly, but ahead of the holiday season, you should double-check that your hours and contact information are up-to-date and correct. If you plan to be closed on any holidays, be sure to include that. This should be done across all locations too.

This can be especially important for timely businesses like medical offices, home services, automotive businesses, and more. The last thing you want is a disgruntled customer or patient trying to get a hold of your office only to find that you’re closed for a holiday break. You might even consider sending an email to customers letting them know what days and hours you’ll be open. 

Where to update your business information:

• Google Business Profile
• Yelp
• Social media sites
• Your business website
• Email (including auto-responders)
• Answering machine message

In addition to updating hours, double-check your contact information so no customer inquiries go unanswered.

2. Add reviews and testimonials

Reviews have a big impact on where consumers decide to spend their money. Research shows 99.5% of people read reviews before making a purchase. You might as well show off the best ones on your own channels. While updating your website and social media profiles, add some of your recent reviews to help build trust with any prospective customers. 

Keep in mind that customers are 41% more likely to use a business that responds to all of its reviews than to none of them, according to Brightlocal. Plus, responding to reviews builds trust with your customers and can help improve the customer relationship. You can boost your reviews by leveraging tools like AskNicely’s review request feature, which automatically turns feedback into reviews. 

3. Optimize business services, products, and descriptions

One great way to help limit the number of customer service requests you get over the holiday season is to have accurate information available online. Making sure you have an up-to-date list of services you provide, and that all product descriptions are recent is a great way to help customers help themselves.

The more accurate descriptions are, the higher the chance is that it will meet the expectations of your customers. And hopefully, the less likely they are to need assistance from your customer experience team!

4. Add holiday-specific promotions or offers

You can also share holiday specials, any bundled offers, or seasonal offerings you’ve got for the holidays. Include how long these offers are available and if there’s a limited quantity for them too. Remember to make all of the descriptions clear, optimized for SEO, and that they have anything relevant for the holidays like shipping deadlines, return policies, and more. 

You might want to use calls-to-action that create urgency around these offers too. Like “Limited time only,” “Get it before the holiday,” or “Limited quantity available”

5. Create a holiday FAQ page

Another great way to help customers help themselves during the holiday season is to have a robust frequently asked questions section on your website that’s been updated for the holidays. Start this FAQ page by answering the most common customer service questions you’ve gotten in previous years. As questions come in throughout the season, add them to this page. 

6. Update your intake message

If the channels you use for customer service have the option to have an initial intake auto-response, update it with any relevant holiday information. This could mean updating the first message on your online chat to include hours, holiday messages, the FAQ page, and any updates. The same goes for your customer service email responses. Here’s a sample of a message you could use:

“Happy holidays and thank you for reaching out! We aim to respond to all customers within 24 hours. Our holiday hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. and we’re closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Please keep this in mind and check out our FAQ page for more info.”

7. Set up automations

Similar to having an intake message that responds after initial contact with relevant holiday information, you can set up automated answers to questions around holiday hours, how to contact the business, and any product, or sale information. These could also include instructions for customers on how to make returns, exchanges, or appointments if there isn’t a customer experience manager online. Leveraging your FAQs here could also be helpful for customers. 

Providing the best customer experience during holidays 

Making these updates to your business website, channels, and social media can help better prepare customers and your frontline employees alike for a business holiday season. By helping prepare your teams to provide the best experiences, you can maintain, and even raise your CSAT and NPS scores over the holiday season.