By Synthetix

For the love of Rudolph, Christmas now starts in March, not July? The recent weather would have had many of us think it could be Christmas if we didn’t know better.

Heavy snow not only had some commuters spending hours in their vehicles, and train, flight and bus cancellations resulted in an unprecedented surge in commuter enquiries, alongside burst water pipes, flooding and sink holes appearing. Thousands of people where left in distress, unable to commute, some without water and basic facilities.

With further weather warnings being issued by the Met Office, the increased demand on customer service departments is set to continue. And when contact centre staff are unable to commute to work, some businesses will struggle to operate efficiently.

24/7 support is within reach to those eager to achieve operational efficiency by utilising digital channels such as Virtual Agents, web chat or web self-service, especially during unexpected circumstances.

Digital channels allow businesses to maintain high levels of service during peak and off-peak times. Web self-service options and Virtual Agents don’t get snowed in. And kudos to those using web chat via agents working from home – an often-overlooked advantage of chat over voice.

These free guides offer practical advice from improving agent productivity, NPS or CSAT scores, to delivering consistent customer experiences across multiple channels:

Multi-channel Online Customer Service for Dummies
Web chat – 5 killer reasons why you are doing it wrong
Virtual agents – to bot or not?