Motivate Your Support to Outlast the Holidays

Bells will jingle, snowflakes mingle, as the holiday spirit nears. ‘Tis the season to be jolly!

Yet it is not only the season of jolly stress-free vibes (and high sales). As anyone in support will tell you — December is a time of particularly high workflow. It might seem that customers are only in a mood for leisure, yet around Christmas time average phone calls per agent grow up to 100-110% above the norm. Experienced agents not only know how to do their job well but also how to keep their balance on that crazy year-end wave of consumer behavior.

Here are our 5 support-inspired tips on how to manage holiday stress:

Prepare

Don’t be like our public community services: “Oh no, it’s snowing outside, we weren’t prepared!” – while it’s already December 20th on the calendar. Winter comes around and it’s the same story all over again. Bring up your statistics and make a projection on the amount of work that will ensue. If there is anything that can be done or prepared for in advance — it should be done.

Be Honest

Understand that delays will happen, and simply get on board with that reality. Explain it to the agents — and to the customers. Update your info, make an email campaign. Don’t make them have to face unpleasant surprises that contrast with the joyful season. People will most likely understand where you’re coming from if you tell them in advance – but on the other hand, they will end up easily frustrated if you avoid mentioning such facts.

Feel

It’s clear that it’s up to you to be working on the holidays, and up to the customers to bother support instead of celebrating, and that might make you feel kinda annoyed. However, you will be much better off emotionally if you still make the effort to empathize with your customers, wish them something nice and warm-hearted, and try your best to meet their expectations.

Inspire

Why not make the workplace a bit cozier? Light some candles, bring tangerines, set up some quiet background music. When your support team is feeling good — they will most certainly make your customers feel better, too. Just don’t overcommit =) Setting some overtime bonuses will also help a lot — it could either be in the form of bonuses or additional paid days off.

Coordinate

Of course, some of the people will prefer to take their days off. This means that some others will have to go the extra mile. Cooperate and coordinate – there’s always a way of managing things to try a bit less hard and do a tiny bit more. Make sure that the separate parts of the team have effective and reliable ways of communication, and think of some smart reassignments. Make definite priority lists for the multi-tasked teammates. Arrange shift rotations for different holidays: those having a shift on Christmas, for example, should have a guaranteed day off on New Year’s etc.

Of course, there is yet another way of solving it all — that is by hiring professional outsourced support, and having them take care of all these things instead. This way you can be sure that you have the capacity to make all of your customers happy. If time is money, you can spend some money too — and earn even more by doing so.

Nobody can promise that covering these points will exclude the possibility of any problem — but your people and your customers will definitely have more room to breathe.

Cheers and Happy Holidays!

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