How to let Customers know you are Out of Office for the Holiday Season
Have you ever experienced how frustrating it is when no one answers your call, and you have no idea what the situation or reason for the unanswered call is?
The same happens with your prospects and customers when you don’t answer them too.
There could be several situations when you and your teams might need to address calls.
During the holiday season, offices are usually shut, and everybody is on leave with no one behind to answer calls.
Besides, when somebody calls you during non-working hours, or if you and the callers have a different time zone, it is tough for firms to answer calls.
This leads to customer anxiety and dissatisfaction, especially when something urgent needs to be discussed.
When callers don’t get any response and don’t know why no one is picking up their call, this could add to their anxiety and ruin their experiences with your brand.
So no matter who is calling, you would always want to let them know what the situation is.
If your team is outside of the office or unavailable to take calls, using SMS in Salesforce is perfect for updating customers.
Here's how you can engage with audiences when out of the office or unavailable
When people call you, they want an immediate answer and want to know where you’re and when you can next be available (when a call goes unanswered)
When the office is closed during the holiday season or if you are winding operations and the new year is around the corner, you can set up autoresponders.
While setting up autoresponders, you can add holiday season greetings, apprise callers of when you're unavailable, and ensure to meet next year, mentioning a tentative time when they can expect a response.
Further, if the case-assigned person or account manager is unavailable or out of the office, you can set up an autoresponder for the account manager's app or phone number.
Or you can trigger an out-of-office message using Salesforce SMS automation when someone calls or texts the assigned person or account manager.
In case you don't capture responses and escalate cases when the customer urgently needs you and if agents don't know what interactions took place previously, you can pretty much forget about CSAT.
When teams are away and unavailable, decision trees can help you capture data and improve CSAT when unavailable.
You can configure a nested conversation and a questionnaire to trigger when someone texts using a reserved keyword.
This way, you can carry on conversations to a certain extent on autopilot and collect details to qualify inquiries and leads. This will help you have all the necessary information in your hand when your team is available the next time and tries to connect with them.
Some Interesting Outcomes reported by users who set up autoresponders and out-of-office messages
Based on the client’s interviews, some results were reported by users who used autoresponders and out-of-office text.
Customer acquisition increases by up to 36.8% because of immediate engagement and customers wait knowing the reason for no response.
Overall sales increased by 42.4% due to more leads and better customer relationships.
Thanks for your help!Thanks for your help creating an auto-reply for weekends "out of office.
MIKE BRANDSMA
Verified Review, Excerpted from AppExchange
Wrapping Up
As most employees use their leaves at the year-end, they are not available to receive calls.
Autoresponders and automated out-of-office messages allow you to interact with your audience when you’re unavailable and keep them aware of the reasons for no response.
A lot of times, it’s not the issue a customer is facing but the inconvenience of having to go through customer support, the number of attempts to reach out to your team, and the lack of prompt response that increases customer anxiety and kills CSAT.
It is more frustrating for callers when they take time out of their busy schedules, and it takes months to speak to a representative.
By setting up automated messages, you can reduce their anxiety and make them feel heard.
This is how you can keep CSAT high, avoid communication lag, and stay connected during the holiday season by setting up out-of-office texts.
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