7 Tips to Make Black Friday Run Smoothly in Your Contact Center
Over the years, we have come up with some tips that help make high-traffic days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday go as smoothly as possible. This week, we will talk about the 7 Tips to Make Black Friday run smoothly.
- No IT Updates This week
You do not need to be testing out any new technology. You do not want any new issues to arise from an IT standpoint that you might have to deal with on one of the busiest call center days of the year. Stick with the tech you have, upgrade and update next week if you need to. If you absolutely need to update something, make sure you are staffed accordingly to help with any issues that may come up – because they will come up.
2. Look at Your Shrinkage %
Be overstaffed. It is always better to be overprepared than underprepared. It is always better to have too many hands on deck than not enough, at least for these couple of days. The percentage and the number of customers that will call you will be significantly higher this week. Make sure that the experience is as awesome as it can possibly be! Now is not a time to penny pinch. Getting through the day with all your fingers and toes is the most important thing! Your customers will have a miserable experience if you are not taking care of your agents. Do not take away breaks.
3. Have a Motivation for Your Associates
Have some sort of game, incentive, or motivation going on during the week or at least during the day on Friday and Monday. Keep your agents sane and happy during this stressful week! Make work enjoyable for them! Do not be cheap, and take care of your front line.
4. Taking Care of Large Queues
Make sure you have the right amount of ports available. How many calls are you allowed to queue at one time? Raise your ports for the month if your queues are excessive so you do not cut any calls off.
5. Virtual Call-Backs
Put in place virtual call-backs. On most platforms it is free. They are easy to use and can be a useful tool when you have large queues.
6. Using Mon-Wed to Educate Your Associates
Use Monday through Wednesday to train your reps as much as you possibly can. You do not want to get into the fire of a Black Friday realizing you forgot to cover a certain topic, knowing it would be a big issue. Prepare management by preparing your agents as well as you can. Your weaknesses will become much more apparent under stress.
7. Document, Document, Document
Document the day. Any day that is different, you should document. Get in early, write down every problem, every issue, but also write down every achievement. Make notes of what you need to fix for next year and what you want to carry over. You will forget if you do not document it. This will make your future heavy call-volume days a little easier and a little less stressful.
Good luck this year. I hope you all have an awesome week and a successful Black Friday, and I hope these Black Friday tips help relieve some of your stresses and make you better prepared.
