A guest blog post by our friend Lauren Carlson:
The holiday season may be done, but it’s always good to reflect on what we’ve learned in order to make improvements and resolutions for the new year. First, let’s look back at the holiday season. On my blog over at Software Advice, I suggested some last-minute help desk checklist items for companies to do in order to prep for the increased volume of inquiries. Companies that employed these found that they improved help desk management, making things run even smoother, and boosting performance going into the new year.
Here is the last-minute checklist that helped companies have a much happier holiday:
- Create a holiday FAQ list – If you think about it, you can probably guess the types of questions you will be getting during the holiday season. Customers will have more requests in regard to gifts, shipping and product availability. Creating a FAQ list for your help desk and service center employees will help resolve more issues on the first call.
- Cross-Train Staff – Many companies will hire seasonal employees to help manage the higher volumes of the holiday season. Another suggestion is to cross-train all of your employees to be a support agent. This provides even more service touch points in the organization, improving overall service across the organization.
- Communicate availability – Everyone needs a holiday, even businesses! However, customers are generally under a lot of stress during this time of year and will want answers immediately. They understand that you may not be available 24-7, but it is important that you make is extremely clear when you will/will not be available, and let them know ahead of time. This will reduce confusion and stress for your customers.
- Support your agents – Customers are stressed, but your agents are, too. It is important for companies to develop a plan of agent support, such as rewards, bonuses, in-office “treats” like chair massages or lunch. Keeping your service team relaxed and happy will ensure that they are able to provide the best possible service.
Another great use of the hectic holidays is to see how well your service center and other departments are performing. The holidays may be a crazy time, but they are actually a great occasion for performance monitoring. Why? Because it’s basically your day-to-day business activities on max speed. So you had 72 percent first-call resolution rates in August. Great. What about the day after Christmas?
I suggest five areas to monitor:
- Employee onboarding
- Internal collaboration
- Peak load management
- Emergency response processes
- Customer satisfaction
You can read about each of these in more depth on my blog, but by analyzing these areas and identifying both high and low performing aspects in each, you can go into the new year with improved operations, resulting in improved overall performance.