Speaker 1 0:00

Music. Welcome to the aim podcast, where we bring you actionable insights on E commerce, customer service and AI innovation, hosted by help flow. This is your weekly guide to staying ahead in the world of E commerce. Let's dive in.

Speaker 2 0:18

Black Friday, Cyber Monday, those two little words that can make a retailer's heart either race with excitement or, well, maybe a little bit of dread too, right? Because, yeah, the sales are thrilling, but the customer service scramble that comes with it, that's a whole other story. Yeah, you shared some really interesting stuff from help flow about forecasting customer service volume for bfcm. Let's dive into that absolutely, yeah. How can we use those insights so our teams are not just surviving peak season, but actually like coming out on top? Yeah?

Speaker 3 0:50

You know, I think the thing that just jumps off the page when you look at what help flow put together is just how massive Black Friday has become. I mean, last year, online sales in the US almost hit ten billion Wow. Just think about the sheer volume of customer interactions, and let's be honest, probably problems that are kind of buried in that number.

Speaker 2 1:09

Yeah, that's a lot of pressure. And you know the article saying, if you're not prepared, if you're caught off guard, things can go downhill really, really fast. Oh, yeah. So imagine this. Okay, it's a Cyber Monday. Traffic on your website is going through the roof, and suddenly your payment gateway decides to take a vacation, yeah? What happens? That's a nightmare, right? And suddenly, your customer service team, they're on the front lines of a digital stampede, yeah? And that's why, you know, one of the things that help flow talks about, that I think is so crucial, is you've really got to understand your past Black Friday, Cyber Monday data. So

Speaker 3 1:45

it's like that old saying, Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it, or in this case, repeat their customer service nightmares

Speaker 2 1:52

Exactly. And you know, help flow recommends really digging deep into your data from previous peak seasons. And this is everything we're talking about, live chat logs. We're talking about help desk tickets, anything that can give you a feel for what your customers were struggling with, where the pressure points were. So

Speaker 3: 2:09

it's about pinpointing the patterns. Yeah, like, Oh, wow. Remember that year when everyone was freaking out about shipping delays, right? Or didn't our website practically meltdown last bfcm, when we hit that traffic peak? Yeah, exactly. And you know what's interesting when you look at those patterns help flow, notice that there are these three major spikes in customer inquiries during bfcm that you need to be really prepared for.

Speaker 2 2:32

Okay? So spike number one, and this one just feels like a no brainer, shipping and delivery times. Yeah. I mean, everybody wants their Black Friday deals to, like, magically appear on their doorstep, right? Especially,

Speaker 3 2:42

especially if the holidays right around the corner, right? You know. And it's not even just about gifts, right? Think about it like during these peak shopping times, people are buying things they might need right away, like maybe that holiday party outfit for next week, right? Or electronics for a trip they've got coming up, or even just, like, stocking up on things that they're worried about, potential shipping delays for Yeah, so there's this real sense of urgency that I think just kind of ratchets up the pressure even more. Totally,

Speaker 2 3:06

totally. No one wants to be the one to tell their kids that Santa's package is stuck in transit, right? And speaking of things that tend to pile up during bscm, returns and exchanges, I mean, it feels like a given right. Of course, more purchases, more chances of you know that sweater not fitting quite the way we hoped?

Speaker 3 3:27

Yeah, and you know, those like easy return policies are amazing for shoppers all year round, the best, but they can really, really add to the workload for your customer service team during what is already just this incredibly intense period, yeah. So you know, being prepared for that wave of returns can make a huge, huge difference. Okay?

Speaker 2 3:48

And BFC and pain point number three is the one that makes me cringe a little bit just thinking about it, payment and checkout issues, because it's like, you've got a massive amount of people all trying to buy things at once. Yeah, something's bound to go wrong somewhere. It's

Speaker 3 4:01

almost inevitable, right? I mean, you have website slowdowns, payment gateway hiccups, you know, even just a tiny little glitch in your checkout flow, right? And suddenly that equals, you know, potentially lost sales and definitely frustrated customers, if you are not prepared to respond, yeah. And

Speaker 2 4:17

this is where things get really interesting, in the Help flow article, right? Because they start talking about how AI can actually be a game changer, not just in like, handling those surges, but actually in getting ahead of them, like predicting the future kind of, kind of, yeah, okay. So not robots taking over the world, but maybe, like, giving my customer service team superpowers, okay? I

Speaker 2 4:39

it's not about replacing humans, right? It's about using AI to make our human teams even better. So think about this way, have you ever you know used like a music streaming service and they recommend a song to you that you've never even heard before you end up loving?

Speaker 3 4:53

Oh, absolutely my Discover Weekly playlist is dangerous, dangerous in a

Speaker 2 4:58

good way, right? Like. Of surprises that you end up adding to all your favorite Well, that's AI in action, right? It's analyzing tons and tons of data to figure out what you like and then predict what else you might enjoy. Now imagine taking that same power and applying it to your customer service data.

Speaker 3 5:15

Okay, so instead of me like manually assisting through mountains of old chat logs trying to spot these patterns. AI

Speaker 2 5:21

can do the heavy lifting for me. I see where you're going with this

Speaker 3 5:25

exactly. Yeah. So you've got aI powered predictive analytics that can look at massive amounts of data. I mean, we're talking about your past bfcm interactions, what's selling well right now, even external things like what's the weather forecast looking like, or what's trending on social media, and it uses all of that to try to get ahead of what your customers might need before they even reach out.

Speaker 2 5:48

Wow. And it can actually do that like accurately.

Speaker 3 5:51

The speed and accuracy are honestly pretty incredible. Okay, that's amazing, yeah.

Spaker 2 5:55

So the article mentioned some specific tools, like Zendesk, explore IBM Watson Analytics. Are these things that only like mega corporations can afford to use, or can smaller businesses get in on this AI action too?

Speaker 3 6:09

That's the great thing. These tools are becoming more and more accessible, really, no matter the size of your business. And you know, it's less about having these mountains and mountains of data and more about using the data that you already have, but in a really smart and strategic way that is

Speaker 2 6:21

really good to hear. Okay, so we've got aI predicting the future of customer questions, right? What about like in the moment, like as those customers are flooding my website? What can I do then?

Speaker 3 6:32

Yeah, that's where real time monitoring comes in, okay? And this is another area where AI can be a huge help. So your CRM system, whether you're using Salesforce HubSpot, you know, whatever it might be, yeah, that becomes, like, a goldmine of information during bfcm. So it's more

Speaker 2 6:47

than just, like, you know, tracking how much we're selling, right? We can actually see what our customers are doing on our website, like, right now. So you've got this, you know, X ray vision into what our customers are thinking and doing exactly. We can see what's working, what's not working, and actually, like, make changes in real time. That's incredible. Yeah, and you know, a lot of these platforms, they've even got aI powered alerts built in, so you might get a notification, Hey, your live chat wait times just hit 20 minutes. Maybe think about bringing on some extra help. Or, you know, we're noticing a bunch of people abandoning their carts when they get to the payment stage could be a technical glitch worth checking out. It's like having this AI co pilot who's always got an eye on the radar, you know, ready to give you heads up if there's turbulence ahead. I like that. But even with all of this incredible technology, it still feels like there's a human element to this, right? Yeah, like, I can't just automate everything and expect things to just run perfectly.

Speaker 3 7:43

You're absolutely right. And in fact, you know, help flow really stresses this customer service during a time like Black Friday, Cyber Monday. It's not just on your customer service team's shoulders, right? It needs to be a company wide effort. Okay,

Speaker 2 7:57

so what does that actually look like? How do we get everybody on the same page and working together.

Speaker 3 8:01

I think it starts with, you know, just really, really clear communication across departments. So let's say your marketing team, they're putting together, you know, an amazing flash sale. They need to be sure to loop in customer service, make sure that there are enough agents scheduled to handle the fact that they're about to, you know, drive a ton of traffic to the website, and that those agents, they know what's going on, they're ready to answer questions about the specifics of that sale. Totally.

Speaker 2 8:27

The last thing you want is your customer service team completely off guard by a promotion they had no idea was happening exactly.

Speaker 3 8:34

And then there's also the training aspect, right? So use that data that we've been talking about, that forecast data, to make sure that you've got enough staff, you know, scheduled for those peak times, and that those folks are trained on how to handle the issues that are most likely to pop up,

Speaker 2 8:47

so things like, you know, gracefully handling a mountain of return requests, or being able to answer where's my order for the 100th time with a smile, exactly,

Speaker 3 8:59

exactly. And of course, you know, none of this is possible without your tech team, you know, working their magic behind the scenes, right? They're the ones who make sure that the AI, the automation, all that stuff, is set up, right? And, you know, it all works together seamlessly. And

Speaker 2 9:14

speaking of automation, it really does feel like one of the secret weapons here. You know, it's like having this army of AI chat bots ready to handle all of those like frequently asked questions about shipping times or return policies, freeing up your human agents to really focus on those trickier issues. And, you know, deliver that personal touch that can make such a big difference. I

Speaker 3 9:36

think it's all about finding that right balance, yeah, you know, using the technology to take care of those routine things. So your team, your human team, they can focus on those interactions where you know, they can bring in their empathy, their creativity, that human touch that's irreplaceable, because even during you know the craziness of bfcm, customers still want to feel heard. They want to feel a. Understood 100%

Speaker 2 10:01

Okay, so we've covered a lot of ground here. We've talked about data, we've talked about AI teamwork. If there was just one thing that you want our listeners to take away from this conversation, what would it be?

Speaker 3 10:12

I think it's this, don't just try to survive Black Friday, Cyber Monday, yeah, with the right planning, with the right tools, and if everybody in the company is, you know, truly committed to amazing customer service. You can use this time to your advantage. I love

Speaker 2 10:27

that. So instead of just thinking about surviving bfcm, what if we could actually thrive during that time,

Speaker 3 10:33

think about it this way, when a customer has a good experience with your brand, even if it's like the busiest, most chaotic time of year that builds trust, that builds loyalty, and that's gonna last way beyond you know, when they're putting away the holiday decorations. So

Speaker 2 10:48

it's not just about securing those bscm sales, it's about turning those one time shoppers into lifelong fans. I like the way you think

Speaker 3 10:56

you got it by really going above and beyond, especially during those critical moments, you're not just closing a sale, you're building a relationship. That

Speaker 2 11:04

is a great point. So as our listeners get ready to conquer bfcm, customer service like the rock stars, I know they are any final words of wisdom to send them off with.

Speaker 3 11:13

You've got this with the right plan, the right tools and a team that's got your back, you're not just ready to handle the bfcm Rush. You're ready to crush it.

Speaker 2 11:22

And on that note, we'll wrap up this deep dive into prepping for peak season customer service success until next time, everyone Happy Selling

Speaker 1 11:33

thanks for listening to the aim podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, make sure to subscribe and follow us on social media for more insights that will help your E commerce brand grow until next time, keep aiming for success. You.

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