Processes

Tactics to Manage QA Well During Seasonal Peaks

Calendar, clock, hand with pen, and checklist in a creative collage style

Published On: 20th Oct 2026 08:00

When contact centres hit their busiest periods, Quality Assurance (QA) activity is often one of the first things to be cancelled. The problem is that busy periods are often when QA matters most – revealing where knowledge gaps exist, where customer journeys create friction, and more!

That’s why QA disappearing precisely the moment operations are being stress-tested costs leaders one of their most valuable sources of insight. So how can contact centres keep QA firmly on the agenda when resources are stretched? We asked our quality experts to find out.

1. Lean Into the Power of “In the Moment” Feedback

Rethink what coaching looks like during busy periods. Not every developmental conversation requires a formal meeting room. Brief, in-the-moment feedback can be incredibly effective.

For example, when an agent goes into after-call work (ACW), just pat them on the back and say, “Hey, that’s exactly what we’ve been talking about. That’s a great example of…. Good job! Keep it up!”.

Or if they need a quick course correction, this could be a “Hey, that was a missed opportunity for an upsell there…”.

And don’t underestimate the impact of doing this frequently across the week. Even though they’re small, these micro-interactions can still reinforce expectations and demonstrate support – without needing to pull people off the phones.

2. Use a Risk-Based Approach to Prioritize Interactions That Still Need Regular Quality Checking – Even When You’re Really Busy

Another useful tactic comes from first acknowledging that it’s not realistic to give everything and everyone equal attention in the height of a seasonal peak. So rather than attempt to maintain the same QA coverage across every team, direct whatever resource you have available to the areas that matter most.

This means identifying where the greatest operational, regulatory, or customer risks sit and focusing quality efforts there – pivoting towards those higher-risk interactions while temporarily reducing checks elsewhere.

Of course, over time, attention can shift back again, but this approach allows operations to remain responsive without abandoning quality altogether.

Paul Cuglietta, Head of Contact, Claims & Operations at Simplyhealth — Paul Cuglietta

“When we’ve got a lot of demand coming in in a particular area and we’ve only got a finite amount of resource to do quality assurance checks, we would typically apply a risk-based approach – prioritizing quality checking on our high-risk processes or our high-risk people (e.g. new starters) and scaling back our efforts in other areas until contact volumes are back under control.” – Paul Cuglietta, Customer Services Director at Simplyhealth

3. Condense Your Coaching Sessions – Don’t Cancel Them!

While QA evaluations typically continue behind the scenes in some capacity, the bigger challenge often lies in ensuring that feedback actually reaches the frontline. After all, insight only creates value when it changes behaviour.

To make sure coaching never disappears completely, it’s best to adapt your approach. This could be as simple as scheduling your weekly sessions as fortnightly sessions or shortening the length of each session. Success comes from adjusting expectations while preserving consistency.

Clare Santos, Director, Knowledge & Quality, Customer Experience at Aviso — Clare Santos

“As a leader, your primary role is to grow and develop your people. Even when peak season feels crazy and you’re jumping onto the phones to help with high demand, this doesn’t stop being important.

It’s about being realistic about how to still fit it in, so perhaps instead of your team having a coaching session once a week it becomes a session every two weeks. It’s about keeping momentum – not achieving perfection!”– Clare Santos, Director, Knowledge & Quality, Customer Experience at Aviso

Again, it can also help to be more selective about where your time is being invested. One approach is to distinguish between your high performers who may require less frequent intervention, and new recruits who may benefit more from regular support.

For advice to improve your coaching and turn everyday conversations into powerful performance drivers, read our article: 7 Coaching Strategies Every Call Centre Needs

4. Build Flexibility Into Your Schedules Before Peak Season Hits

You can also take steps to start protecting QA long before your peak season hits by negotiating for additional staffing flexibility with your workforce planning teams.

Why? Having the equivalent of just one extra person available at any given time can create enough capacity to accommodate coaching and development conversations – without constant stress and negotiation.

Adam Boelke, Founder of the Alignment Advantage Group — Adam Boelke

“Be brave enough to ask your workforce planning team to include a flex of an extra person into their schedules, as that one extra person will always give you that little bit of flexibility to be able to take somebody off the phones and give them the support they need – without having to constantly battle for the time or worry about impacting service levels.” – Adam Boelke, Founder of the Alignment Advantage Group

And if this isn’t possible, don’t give up on coaching full stop. Instead, be sure to always have a backup plan, so if a coaching session is denied at the usual time of 4pm on a Thursday, work with your planning team to find a more suitable time in the near future.

After all, the objective should not be rigid adherence to calendars – rather ensuring conversations still take place.

5. Explore Where Technology Can Help Ease the Pressure

It’s also well worth investing time in better understanding where technology can help:

Analyse Interactions at Scale

One of the biggest limitations of traditional QA is sample size – as even high-performing quality teams can only review a fraction of customer interactions.

This is an area where technology capable of analysing interactions at scale can really help – especially when things get busy!

Leaders Identify Performance Trends

Automated QA and coaching tools can help leaders identify performance trends, track commitments, and celebrate improvement.

Rather than manually pulling together reports from multiple sources, they can access a holistic view of performance all in one place, which saves time as well as improving consistency across the contact centre.

Agents Take Ownership of Their Development

These same tools can also create greater transparency, so agents can understand their own performance more clearly, see opportunities for improvement, and take ownership of their development.

All helping to ease the demand for face-to-face time with QA professionals – particularly during seasonal peaks.

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Don’t Give Up on QA Just When Everyone Needs It Most

Busy periods often tempt leaders to put quality on hold, but this is precisely the wrong time to stop! After all, quality assurance is not separate from operational performance – it supports it.

So yes, take proactive steps to adapt your approach and make the best use of the time you have – but never put QA on hold “until things calm down” because when your team are under the greatest pressure, the quality of customer conversations matters more than ever!

How Do You Manage QA During Seasonal Peaks?

Click here to join our Readers Panel to share your experiences and feature in future Call Centre Helper articles.

With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts for this article:

Adam Boelke, Founder of the Alignment Advantage Group
Clare Santos, Director, Knowledge & Quality, Customer Experience at Aviso
Paul Cuglietta, Customer Services Director at Simplyhealth

If you are looking for more top advice to help manage your contact centre during busy periods, read these articles next:

Author
Megan Jones

Megan Jones, Editor, Call Centre Helper

Megan interviews inspiring people across the contact centre industry to capture these amazing voices and turn them into best practice articles – covering all elements of what it takes to deliver truly outstanding employee and customer experiences.

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