“Maintain consistency across devices when shopping”
25 to 34-year-old consumer
The 2024 Holiday Survival Guide
Drive AI Outcomes for Happy Holidays with Happier Customers
"It comes but once a year”
Or so the saying goes. For this year’s Holiday Survival Guide, we conducted both consumer and brand research. This helped us to understand where and how much consumers plan to spend in 2024, as well as how retailers are preparing for The Holidays – what challenges they are expecting and how ready they are to deal with them.
For many, seasonal shopping kicks off over the Thanksgiving weekend and last year close to two-thirds of US citizens made a purchase. With spending expected to rise again, the right strategies to keep shoppers loyal are imperative to happy holidays.
Three things you need to know about this year’s consumers…
- 83% of shoppers plan to spend $500 or more on gifts this holiday season.
- 84% of shoppers expect to spend the same (45%) or more (39%) than they did last holiday season.
- 48% will select another retailer if you can’t quickly resolve issues on their channel of choice.
What advice would you give retailers to improve their interactions with you?
“Provide live chat support on product pages for quick questions”
35 to 44-year-old consumer
AI, the holiday gift that keeps on giving
Our research shows that three-fourths (75%) of retailers expect their inbound customer service volumes to increase this holiday season. However, it’s too expensive to solve this challenge by purely hiring more staff.
AI is the key to handling extra holiday volume
Customer Experience (CX) leaders who use AI in their contact center are:
- 3x more likely to be highly confident that they can handle the incoming seasonal volume.
- 6x less likely to handle increased customer service volume only by hiring more staff.
Retailers need to handle the holiday spike without adding costs. Whether the most pressing issue is to increase customer self-service or help agents in real time, deploying AI within the contact center is the most effective way to address this challenge.
How retailers can deploy AI to increase capacity
As brands prepare for the holiday rush, there are two things CX leaders must do:
- Increase customer self-service.
- Increase agent capacity with assisted service.
54% of the retailers who responded to our survey are already using AI solutions to achieve at least one of these outcomes.
Retailers using AI for self and assisted service
- 65%
Are using IVA/chatbot for customers to self-serve
Higher containment rates through self-service mean agents handle fewer customer queries, resulting in increased contact center capacity.
- 58%
Are using automated routing to the relevant agent or bot
Interactions are intelligently directed – based on context – to the right resource at the right time, regardless of channel, helping to elevate CX through lower average handling time.
- 53%
Are using agents working across channels with relevant context provided
Enabling agents to work across multiple channels means a more flexible workforce and fewer resources required to cover an increased number of interactions.
- 46%
Are using real-time agent guidance during interactions
AI-powered coaching helps all agents perform like your best agent. Training time is reduced thanks to in-the-moment guidance, ensuring high service levels are maintained despite the holiday rush.
- 39%
Are creating post-call summaries with generative AI
Using generative AI to eliminate after-call work expands agent capacity, as well as removing the pressure of accurately summarizing complex calls.
Verint Agent Copilot Bots
To increase contact center capacity, you need to augment your workforce with automation. With Verint Channel Automation you can add all – or some – of Verint Agent Copilot Bots to work alongside your agents. Verint Agent Copilot leverages multiple AI-powered bots, all accessible through a single user interface, to increase agent capacity. Whether you’re looking to increase sales, reduce after call work, or shorten the time agents spend looking for information, we’ve got a bot for that.
IVAs are a vital tool for increasing capacity, but for those inbound customer inquiries that really do need the human touch, Verint Copilot Bots enable retailers to reduce call durations by up to 50%.
In a 2,000 agent contact center, doubling your agents’ capacity can translate into about $40M in annual savings.
CX automation will make it a happy holidays
We need a conclusion, and wanting to be efficient, here’s one AI created for us…
Retailers are preparing for a busy and lucrative holiday season, with 94% of consumers planning to shop online and 83% intending to spend $500 or more on gifts. CX matters during this period. And with 48% of customers likely to select another retailer if they can’t quickly resolve their issues, the holidays are key for both seasonal revenue and creating long-lasting customer relationships. AI is proving crucial in managing increased customer service volumes, with 75% of retailers expecting a rise in inbound queries. By deploying AI, retailers can increase capacity and save on staffing costs, making it a valuable investment for the holiday rush.
When inbound volume increases, retailers need to ensure they have solutions in place that increase contact center capacity and elevate the customer experience. Verint delivers faster, stronger AI Business Outcomes, Now™ – click here to chat with us!
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