4 Major Call Center Flops That Could Happen Over the Holidays

The holiday season’s a highly exciting time for customers. As early as the second half of the year, discounts, special promos, and other irresistible offers begin to swim before your eyes.

Among the festive decorations and huge sales, this is the busiest time of the year for business managers, marketers, and salespeople who may find themselves drowning in massive piles of work. Right at this moment, for sure there are businessmen fervently hoping to walk away unscathed and victorious once the influx of shoppers subsides.

The bad news is that this isn’t at all easy. Brand managers are relying on their call center team to handle the connect-to-customers-and-make-them-happy part.

After all, this is what the holidays are all about. It’s not just about businesses boosting their performance and sales but, more importantly, putting a smile on customers’ faces along the way.

The holidays often signify spikes in sales activity and customer interaction, both of which can offer a huge challenge if you are unprepared. During this time, your customer service manager should be well-planned and executed.

If you’re not careful, several disasters could tear apart your holiday sale strategy, including the following:

1. Uh-Oh. Where Are Your Employees?

   

   Before you go on an employee firing spree because most of your staff is missing, try to understand that it’s normal for employees to feel less motivated during the holidays. They each have a personal to-do list including shopping, setting up decorations, cooking, and attending parties. But this doesn’t mean that you can let your business rot during the holiday season.

   Creating absence policies and enforcing these fairly can minimize absences in the call center. Also, offer incentives and bonuses to heighten productivity, but don’t forget to offer flexible schedules as well.

2. Is Your Tech Team Ready?

   

   The biggest buzzword in this year’s holiday sale season is ecommerce. More customers are opting to shop online because it’s convenient and fast.

   But having enough people isn’t the only factor in handling the increased volume during the holidays. An updated set of tech tools can give your customers the best online experience and help your contact agents respond better to their demands.

   But beware: the surging web traffic can also cause your servers to collapse, especially if you fail to make the necessary preparations before the holidays start taking over. And once they do break down, just imagine how big your loss would be.

   If your servers break down, imagine how big of a loss you would have. To prevent this, you need an IT support team to monitor web activity and optimize your site’s infrastructure helping everyone have a smooth experience.

3. Why are Callers Suddenly Oh-So Frustrated?

   

   Customers are going through a lot during this season. They’re rushing to get their hands on the best deals, finish up on their shopping list, decorate their homes, and do other sets of responsibilities outside of the holidays. Of course, they feel pressured and they can easily get frustrated if you and your agents fail to meet their expectations.

   The best you can do is be committed to delivering excellent customer with with smooth transactions and continuous assistance.

4. Everybody’s Just Confused.

   

   With the number of tasks every employee, manager, and customer must do before the year ends, the world seems more chaotic than usual. Don’t let this confuse you and your employees.

   Holidays are always a bit chaotic, so you need to make sure to keep everything organized by making detailed plans and lists, sticking to your schedule, and checking that everything is in its right place.

The holidays are an enjoyable time of the year. Make the most out of this season by boosting your call center strategy and revamping your marketing plan. If you’re looking for a trustworthy helping hand to see you through the holiday season and other business disruptions, Open Access BPO is here to provide you with agile voice and non-voice solutions.

Get in touch with us today!