{"id":919387,"date":"2018-12-19T15:06:26","date_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blueocean.ca\/?p=3619"},"modified":"2018-12-19T15:08:39","modified_gmt":"2018-12-19T23:08:39","slug":"deck-the-halls-2018-coping-with-peak-season-holiday-spikes-in-the-contact-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/deck-the-halls-2018-coping-with-peak-season-holiday-spikes-in-the-contact-center\/","title":{"rendered":"Deck the Halls 2018: Coping with Peak Season Holiday Spikes in the Contact Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, we reported that Americans would spend a forecasted $600 billion during the 2014 holiday season. In 2018, that number has skyrocketed to a massive $1.1 trillion, according to data from Deloitte<\/a><\/span>, which is more than a quarter of annual retail sales.<\/p>\n

Of course, greater retail sales inevitably lead to higher call volume in the contact center. The best outsourcing partners go to the ends of the earth to prepare for these massive peak season holiday spikes and will not only need to address a sustained customer experience but also team morale, agent stress, and absenteeism.<\/p>\n

Here are some key tactics for coping with holiday spikes in the contact center.<\/p>\n

Constant and Effective Communication<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re offering unique holiday products, services, or sales, communication is key \u2013 and it should flow through every corner of your organization. Your contact center should be collaborating closely with your marketing, sales, and distribution teams, with real-time communication so your team can adjust accordingly. That may mean adding more muscle to your frontlines as they respond to problems originating in the warehouse, or perhaps doing on-demand training to help agents cope with holiday-specific issues. Any other changes \u2013 such as adjusted priorities or extended hours of operation \u2013 should likewise be communicated early and thoroughly.<\/p>\n

Setting Realistic Expectations<\/h2>\n

The holidays can be stressful \u2013 and not just because of the retail madness, traveling frenzy, and family feuds. Life for your frontline agents will inevitably get stressful unless you\u2019re frank and honest with them about how hard the seasonal spike will be. At Blue Ocean, we learned this one the hard way when we downplayed a forecasted spike for a large client, assuring concerned agents that they shouldn\u2019t worry. Subsequently, they were unprepared for how tough it would be, and absenteeism went way up. The following year, we were honest, preparing the team appropriately. We helped them pull through, so absenteeism went down and we hit our grade of service despite the hardest six weeks of the year.<\/p>\n

Anticipate Necessary Tweaks<\/h2>\n

How will the holiday spike impact your SLA and KPIs? It may be that a reduced incident rate will be more important than a reduced average length of a phone call, so adjust your metrics as necessary. Likewise, tweaks to your outbound process might be helpful, with regular customers needing reminders or preparation regarding standing orders, delivering timing, and more.<\/p>\n

Get Creative and Reward Team Achievements<\/h2>\n

Giving your teams a creative mission to embrace may help combat a low morale. For instance, crafting themes for your spikes like \u201cHoliday Hell 2018\u201d or \u201cOperation Save Christmas\u201d can help rally your troops and create a culture of resilience. Furthermore, extra perks and little bonuses can do wonders in boosting enthusiasm this time of year. We live by the motto, \u201cWhen something seriously sucks, put a t-shirt on it.\u201d A few years, during the relentless Polar Vortex, we made t-shirts for our team saying \u201cWinter Suffer Fest 2014. Bring it.\u201d It empowered agents to see themselves as tough and capable, even on Code Red days when volume spiked higher than expected. And, of course, keeping your team fed with treats, holiday-themed meals, and pizza will always help keep morale high. Finally, gamification and creative incentive programs can motivate your agents when holiday demand reaches its peak. Keep them excited about the work they\u2019re doing, and their positive attitude will reflect directly on your customer experience.<\/p>\n

Ready for your peak season holiday spikes? We\u2019d love to hear from you. Send us a note or give us a call<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, we reported that Americans would spend a forecasted $600 billion during the 2014 holiday season. In 2018, that number has skyrocketed to a massive $1.1 trillion, according to data from Deloitte, which is more than a quarter of annual …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10400,"featured_media":898051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[128,88,92],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}