E-commerce platforms cope with Black Friday pressure with exceptional customer service expansions
Every year, e-commerce platforms tend to make exceptional and unusual expansions to keep up with the increasing demands from their customers during the Black Friday sales season by temporarily appointing new batches of customer service employees or raising the efficiency and developing the skills of those already in place.
Ta3heed newsletter surveyed the plans of a number of famous e-commerce sites on how to deal with the heavy pressure in customer requests during last November, coinciding with the Black Friday sales campaign
Hoda Shafky, Jumia Group’s Regional Operations Director for Egypt, Ivory Coast and Senegal, said that her company prepared this year to meet the increasing demand for Black Friday sales by injecting new blood in September and October to maintain good customer service.
Shafky explained that the customer service quality team has prepared employees through intensive daily training sessions, in addition to providing continuous reminders of the most important information that contributes to providing optimal support to consumers.
She pointed out that monthly awards were announced to honor the best customer service representatives last November, with the aim of encouraging everyone to provide exceptional performance that reflects the highest standards of quality and professionalism.
She pointed out that Jumia customer service during the Black Friday discounts witnessed an increase in the volume of incoming calls during peak times, which often coincide with the delivery period that usually begins in the afternoon, noting that during this period, rest periods for customer service representatives are reduced in order to enable the team to respond to the largest possible number of calls and meet customer needs effectively.
She stated that as for unusual calls, they often come from young customers – children – trying to place purchase orders, noting that in such cases, customer service representatives are keen to ask to speak with the guardian to ensure that the purchase process is completed in line with the approved policies and procedures.
Regarding the most frequently requested inquiries from customers, she added: Jumia receives many inquiries related to tracking the status of orders. After providing the necessary assistance, the customer is directed to the method of tracking shipments via the application, especially since Jumia’s policy is based on providing all services and answers to inquiries easily through the digital platform.
She added that some customer inquiries revolve around product return requests, and after this process is successfully completed, customer service representatives guide the consumer on how to use the application to make a return request in the future, with the aim of saving their time and enhancing the self-service experience. She said that the average call duration is about three and a half minutes, which reflects the efficiency of the customer service team in providing quick and accurate solutions.
Karim Ahmed, Head of Marketing and Customer Service at Homesmart, said that his company has raised the level of maximum preparations to keep up with sales and the volume of expected operations, whether voice calls or communication with customers via social media, two months before the start of the Black Friday season, noting that it has appointed a new batch of employees on a seasonal pitch contract until all revenues are prepared.
Ahmed explained that his company may retain any qualified cadres within this new batch if it needs them, noting that the new employees receive intensive training for 3 weeks on all services that Homesmart provides to customers to avoid any potential problems.
He stressed that his company is ready to receive and respond to any inquiries from customers, but some questions may seem strange, including the weight of people expected to sit on a particular piece of furniture (sofa), and others ask customer service to grant discounts of up to 70% considering that he is about to get married, noting that the strangest request of all is a customer calling to execute an order and requesting it to be delivered within 6 months.
He pointed out that among the most prominent products requested from the “Homesmart” platform during the Black Friday 2024 discounts are wardrobes, beds, and others, noting that the average duration of the call with customer service in this season’s offers ranges from 4 to 5 minutes.
