[JOIN IN] Hang Out with Hot Chocolate: Managing Customer Service During the Holidays ☕

Hey everyone! Welcome to our coffee chat: Managing Customer Service During the Holidays. 

First question for today is here below. To answer a question, tag the answer with the corresponding number. For example, if you are answering this question Q1, start your answer with A1 and use the quote the option
 

Q1 How far ahead should customer service teams and leads begin planning for the holiday rush?

A1:  I am guessing here….but 1 month ahead?

A1: Depends if you anticipate the need to hire additional staff.

As the ONLY Agent/Admin running Freshdesk, how do I spot my own gaps?  LOL. I guess I need to do some more Academy training….

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A1 : @akshara.sruthi  I totally agree with you on these two points weeks or some days before the holidays are needed to plan ahead and the point of spotting gaps in the current  format of support as during planning you reflect on the current way of working.

I can say that for my team the planning is done few days before the holidays. Thanks

A4: Written documents are life saving! Last year we had nothing on workflows or project maps. Now we are ready to deal with any enormous change. The only thing we have to do is updating the documents I think that Fresh provides very useful tools on the help desk. Dashboard announcement, solutions, forums, etc made difference!

A3

Setting expectations, in advance, about what a season will bring may help prepare the team and even prevent “burn-out”. To me, the customer service role should be fun as you get to solve challenges (problems) and help others.

 

I prepare my teams with what to expect and provide role-play and training on how to handle difficult situations. When they successfully manage difficult tickets, they should feel recharged and successful. Hence, one way to avoid burn-out.

 

We discuss the types of situations and the people reach out for help and discuss what is happening in the customer’s world. Do they need help now? Do they have pressure on them to get a job done quickly but our software is slowing them down? And try to create empathy for the customers.

 

In preparation, we acknowledge that some customers are friendly, others grateful and others challenging. By providing role play and tools for each situations and helping the service team turn a challenging customer into a fan, is a great goal to set and support. And can revitalize the team.

 

We can’t be everything to everyone HOWEVER we can respond with understanding, honesty and compassion.

When tools for working with challenging customers are provided, the results can be energizing and rewarding on its own. Thus, revitalizing the representative and fending off burn-out. They can get charged and excited to help the next person.

 

At times, our team will laugh at customer situations and customer frustrations. When that happens, I feel we fell short. Instead, when challenging customer stories are shared, it would be nice to work as a team on ideas of how we could improve on that customer’s experience with us. I feel that when I speak to a representative and even when they can’t help, if they listened and shared that they understood, I still felt it was a good experience. And I am energized!

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Last question for today! This one is @manns favorite question.  

Q6.  How can teams/individuals best take advantage of a holiday “lull” - the proverbial calm before the storm. (Tag, @manns when you answer this particular question, he’s looking forward to your responses)

if you are answering this question Q6, start your answer with A6 and use the quote the option