How to Thrive Through Seasonal Peaks

Seasonal peaks look different in every contact centre, but the end result is the same – manage them well and your team will thrive, lose control and your SLAs will go out of the window – plus, you’ll burn out your best agents!

So how do you get it right year after year? Our Editor – Megan Jones – spoke to contact centre experts Adrian Hawes, Arlyne Pardo, Brittany Hodak, Clare Santos, and Keith Stapleton to find out.

By Failing to Prepare, You Are Preparing to Fail

It’s true what they say: “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. So, if you’re heading towards a seasonal peak, be mindful that there’s plenty you can do to set your team up for success.

Good resource planning is key here!

Firstly, get a better handle on your agents’ holiday allowance across the year, so you’re not faced with a backlog of annual leave entitlement to distribute – just when you need your agents most!

“I cannot stress enough that underusing holiday causes more problems than overusing it. If agents are left to accrue holiday and suddenly need to use it all at year-end, you’re building up a wave of issues here – particularly when you’re trying to manage seasonal peaks, as well as maintain fairness and consistency.

So, you really need to take a step back and consider what your annual approach will be, so you can better manage your long-term capacity plan.” – Keith Stapleton, Director at Select Planning Ltd and Associate Consultant at The Forum

It’s equally important to stop planning shrinkage on a flat rate across the year, as you need to take seasonal peaks into consideration here too.

See the Opportunity in the Challenges Seasonal Peaks Bring

Beyond this, try to reframe the challenge as an opportunity to grow and try new things.

For example, why not look at where there might be opportunities for automation and self-service solutions, which could be rolled out in advance to help manage customer demand and take some of the pressure off your live agents?

Don’t slam the brakes on any promotional or growth opportunities either!

The pressure of peak season is often what high achievers need to really come into their own and take the next step in their career. So, stop and think who might benefit most from some of the growth opportunities coming up and train them accordingly.

After all, if you don’t offer pathways for your rising stars, you could be doing a huge disservice to the contact centre and the individuals, who may even become apathetic and start looking elsewhere. You really don’t want to lose your best people during crunch time, do you?

Finally, always be open and honest with your team about the peak that’s about to hit, so everyone can mentally prepare for what’s to come and be reassured that you’re all in it together.

For advice on handling seasonal peaks and troughs in contact volumes, read our article: Seasonal WFM – How to Prepare for Peaks and Troughs in Contact Volumes

Create a Checklist So Nothing Gets Missed in the Heat of the Moment

You also need to think about how YOU as a leader will handle the pressure. It can really help to create a checklist of priorities to work through to reassure yourself you’re not missing anything, so you can lead with calm and clarity.

This can be digital or even post-it notes, whatever suits you, but it’s about having an “in the moment” survival strategy to help you keep a calm, clear head – even if it feels like everything is on fire.

Be Kind to Your Team and Support Them Through the Peaks

This mindset extends to how you manage and support your team too.

It’s so important to have realistic expectations of your team during peak periods. If you’re trying to handle increased volumes with the same number of agents, you really can’t expect them to deliver a typical service.

Sometimes you just have to step back and be able to say “this is what good looks like today”, so everyone has clarity that their best is good enough.

And never underestimate the importance of asking “Are you OK?”

“When you’re managing a team of 10–15 agents, it’s hard to connect with everybody, but during peak periods it’s especially important to keep in touch with your people and understand what their needs are.

Online platforms can really help here, even if it’s just a quick typed message to ask “are you OK?” or say “Hey, I know it’s going to be busy today, be kind to yourself and do what you can.” Because just checking in and showing some support can go a long way.” – Clare Santos, Director, Knowledge & Quality, Customer Experience at Aviso

Also regularly reassure your team that this is only temporary and will all be over soon! It can make such a difference to morale if you can all focus on “the light at the end of the tunnel” – especially if you can put a visual countdown in place to mark off the days.

“It can really help your agents to put a visual countdown in place to show progress – just like the Domino’s pizza delivery tracker – to remind everyone that there is an end in sight and that we’re not going to have to hustle this hard forever.

You don’t want your agents feeling lost in an endless grind and calling it quits.” – Brittany Hodak, Keynote Speaker & Author of Creating Superfans

And when it’s all over, don’t just forget about it! Make sure you give your team time to recover physically and mentally – before normality resumes.

If you want to discover some tried and tested ideas to help your agents start the day well, read our article: Hit the Ground Running! How to Help Your Agents Be Shift Ready

Make Plans for How to Do Even Better Next Year

Then, it’s time to think forward! Set aside time to reflect on what you’ve learnt and how you can do even better next year.

Even review your training plan! Did you know, in an ideal world, you should be preparing for seasonal peaks in the same way athletes train and prepare for competitions – all year round? So, think about what you can build into your training sessions to help prepare and even cross-skill your agents for the next peak.

Also make time to document what’s gone well and what hasn’t!

“A huge challenge in resource planning is that lots of information is retained in very few people’s heads and isn’t written down. This can be particularly problematic if people move on to different departments or new external opportunities before the next seasonal peak rolls around.

So, when the peak is over, invest some time in building up a knowledge bank for future reference while it’s still fresh in everyone’s minds. After all, Christmas rolls around every year and should never be a surprise!” – Adrian Hawes, Award Winning, Transformational Resource Planning & Contact Centre Professional

And if it hasn’t gone well recently? Quite frankly, you need to try again better next year!

How Do You Make Sure Your Team Thrives During Seasonal Peaks?

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

• Adrian Hawes, Award Winning, Transformational Resource Planning & Contact Centre Professional
• Arlyne Pardo, Workforce Senior Manager at DASH BPO
• Brittany Hodak, Keynote Speaker & Author of Creating Superfans
• Clare Santos, Director, Knowledge & Quality, Customer Experience at Aviso
• Keith Stapleton, Director at Select Planning Ltd and Associate Consultant at The Forum

For more advice and information on managing the contact centre during busy periods, read these articles next:

• Using Scheduling Playbooks to Manage Spikes in Service Demand
• Top Tips for Dealing With Volatility
• Master Seasonal Service Levels – Just Like This!

Author: Megan Jones
Reviewed by: Xander Freeman