4 Ideas of what Santa Clausâ Customer Service could look like..!

This week, it’s begun to look a lot like Christmas, with trees decorated in our offices across the world. Photographs of our decorations have been excitedly shared over email, and I overheard an interesting ‘watercooler moment’ between three colleagues, who were imagining what kind of customer service Santa Claus might provide.

We’ve seen some great stories of customer experience in recent times, from the light-hearted case of a passenger being provided with extra toilet roll after sending a desperate tweet to Virgin Trains to the heart-warming story of United Airlines delaying a connecting flight to allow a passenger to visit his dying mother in hospital.

He’s an incredibly busy man at this time of year, but we think Santa Claus could outdo these examples of customer service. Expanding on the ideas my colleagues discussed, I’ve created the blueprint for a Santa Claus app; giving multichannel solutions that proactively head off problems by detecting customer emotions before acting to control volume and stress. This cost-efficient way of doing business would certainly keep Santa’s expenses in check. Here are four key elements of his proactive app:

Step one: Self-service

Over time, self-service is coming to the fore in customer service. As such, Santa’s app would merely need to be installed and left alone to do all the hard work for the customer without instruction.

One of the worst situations on Christmas day is seeing a child stuck with a present they don’t really want. Santa’s app could detect reactions to presents using heartrate monitors and voice recognition systems, identify unwanted gifts and help the parent organise an exchange with Santa Claus (or a retailer, if he is too busy). Surely most brands would take part to avoid looking like Scrooges.

This self-service approach could extend to all parts of the multichannel journey, for example it could include ordering on a mobile device using Virtual Reality; Santa’s app could offer additional assistance by recommending likely favoured alternatives on a walk through his workshop.

Step two: real-time engagement

Whether via Santa Claus’ app or more conventional means, once you’ve identified an unwanted present, returning items can still be a pain. Finding the receipt, re-boxing the gift, and looking up returns information is a task nobody looks forward to.

Santa’s app would remove that headache, allowing you to return items in real-time. It could resolve any issues before complaints are made on social media, and link all social media accounts seamlessly, eliminating the need to log into every single one separately.

Part of the reason the child in step one would have suitable alternatives in front of them is that real-time engagement meant CRM information was integrated into Santa’s app. This CRM tracks customer journeys in a dynamic way, giving Santa a holistic view. As the CRM logs experiences of all customers, it will make it easy to identify which alternative items most people are satisfied with. Then the next child has a greater chance of being offered better alternatives.

With a replacement item identified, Santa’s reverse-engineered system could suck presents back up the chimney and into the workshop.

Step three: 24/7 service, even over Christmas

It can prove a struggle to get hold of customer service when you need it over Christmas. A skeleton staff can limit response times, but Santa Claus has his proactive app, which means services don’t have to be stripped back, or limited to one medium, such as email.

Automated assistance can prove a lifeline by simulating a real conversation with Santa Claus through artificial intelligence. This means that Santa Claus can provide fast, reliable and efficient next-generation customer service every moment of the day without the need for any agents (or elves) to assist him. Whatever platform the customer wants, and whichever platform they’re using, they can always rely on Santa’s app, without having any lingering doubts that he might be asleep, as he’s always available.

Step four: Intelligent use of data

Although Santa Claus has ironed out any potential customer issues, his job is not quite finished: when it comes to customer care, he’s a perfectionist. While many organisations are only just waking up to the possibilities customer data brings, Santa’s app would use every customer interaction to provide a better experience for his next customer, meaning the app evolves to provide the most efficient solution. Rather than limiting insight from activity to one individual, Santa’s app would share the knowledge across all accounts. This means the next customer is likely to be given the right solution, and the brand will be in a great position to proactively provide satisfying, cost-efficient customer service.

Of course Santa’s app is just a dream, but at the same time we need to dream big in order to provide brilliant customer service. As we head into the New Year, it’s important to take a little sprinkling of that Christmas magic with us.