27 November 2017 – Customer queries to retailers and logistics partners increased by over 47% in Black Friday week (Monday – Friday 24 November, vs same week in 2016), according to customer communication platform Gnatta.
Gnatta, which manages customer interactions for retailers including ASOS, AO and Missguided, saw a record number of customers contacting retailers to handle everything from stock inquiries to fashion advice.
Increasing numbers of these interactions happened across webchat (38%), a shift from last year when social media accounted for nearly 50% of all queries and webchat for 26%. Social media accounted for 37% of queries this year. This points to a shift towards faster resolution, as customers increasingly expect to receive an immediate response.
Initial estimates indicate that this year’s Black Friday was set to beat all records, with IMRG predicting that sales would be up 9% on 2016.
Gnatta’s figures indicate that final sales tallies will be even higher as customer interactions have increased by 47% over last year.
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Jack Barmby, founder and CEO of Gnatta said: “The way customers communicate with retailers is changing. People expect an instant response on any channel. They want a retailer to know about previous conversations they’ve had, and to be able to connect the dots across channels. A good retailer will be able to deliver that. Great customer experience differentiates a brand. If you’re going to sell more products, you need to be able to handle more customer queries, too.
“Retailers need to be ready to deal with customers seamlessly across multiple channels – phone, social media, messenger, webchat, email, the lot. ”