Not all that long ago, Black Friday was the preserve of major US retailers. Held the day after US Thanksgiving (which always falls on the fourth Thursday of November), it signals the start of the Christmas shopping season.
The midnight queues of this now global phenomenon have largely been replaced by e-commerce, but Black Friday remains a logistical feat for retailers.
In 2023, South African retailers brought in more than R4.5 billion on the day despite the significant economic headwinds facing consumers. With inflation easing, fuel prices falling, and an interest rate cut for the first time, retailers will likely feel a little more confident this year.
As much as Black Friday is a boon for retailers, it also comes with significant challenges-from buying enough stock (often months beforehand) to ensure there’s server capacity for the increased traffic on retailer’s websites and apps. Perhaps the biggest challenge, however, comes from dealing with the massive influx of customer queries on the day and its immediate aftermath.
Issues of scalability
Traditionally, organizations have scaled up their contact centers for busy shopping periods such as Black Friday and the end-of-year holidays. But doing so can take months.
First, you have to train existing and additional staff to deal with the kinds of queries they’ll get during periods like Black Friday. At the same time, you have to ensure you’ve got enough floor space in your contact Centre for the additional employees. That’s to say nothing of the additional equipment costs and keeping agent morale up, particularly as temporary workers near the end of their time with the organization.
Even when a business knows when and how to do all of that, it can still be an incredibly costly exercise. As such, anything that makes it easier for businesses to deal with Black Friday queries while also simplifying the process of scaling up and down, should be welcomed.
Embracing technological advantages
Here technology has a big role to play, with virtual agents being particularly helpful. Powered by increasingly advanced forms of artificial intelligence (AI), these virtual agents can answer most queries. Because they have the knowledge required to answer those queries baked into their systems, they can actually answer many queries more accurately than their human counterparts
For the vast majority of customers, that’s more than enough. They just want an answer to their query, not a conversation. And if a business can provide those answers without having to pass the cost of additional human agents onto its customers, so much the better.
That’s not to say that human agents don’t have value; they do. But when a human agent is required, would you rather have someone who’s rushed off their feet dealing with the query or someone who has time to deal with it comprehensively and compassionately? Virtual agents, utilized properly, allow for less of the former and more of the latter.
The other significant benefit of virtual agents is that they can be instantly scaled up and down. That means no additional training, rental, and equipment costs and no lag if the contact center needs to scale up and down outside of periods like Black Friday.
Grab the opportunity
With numerous positive economic markers, Black Friday 2024 could be a milestone one for South African businesses. But if those businesses are to take full advantage of the day while also dealing with the influx of customer support queries, it cannot be a case of business as usual. It’s in their best interests to evolve and make full use of the technologies available to them, including customer support automation solutions such as virtual agents.
By Ryan Falkenberg, CEO, CLEVVA
