The ‘peak season’: a date not to be missed!
"Black Friday, the festive season, Valentine's Day, sales... The year for e-tailers is punctuated by “peak seasons”. These annual periods generate a massive influx of orders and an increase in the volume of incoming contacts. These peaks can be due to one-off promotional offers or to recurring periods. To make sure you don't miss out, there are a number of steps you need to take before and after this period...
The first essential stage is forecasting volumes. Based on the history of existing data, this forecast makes it possible to define achievable and measurable quantitative and qualitative targets. The customer service manager analyses previous years to understand the reasons for customer interactions and determine the contact rate per order. Once the volumes have been validated, the organisation and sizing can begin.
Sizing determines the optimum number of customer advisers and support staff needed to respond effectively to requests. This includes analysing call volumes, response times and desired service levels (Key Performance Indicators). Parameters such as opening hours, handling markets and languages, average handling time, and ongoing training time are taken into account to build the team capable of handling the expected volumes of contacts.
Next comes recruitment. The aim is to complete the existing team. Emphasis is placed on the soft skills of future ambassadors, such as an interest in the world of the brand and e-commerce, good interpersonal skills, good stress management, a flair for sales and a great ability to adapt. Technical skills may be secondary to interpersonal and emotional skills.
After recruitment comes the training stage, which includes the active participation of an existing brand ambassador to help new colleagues develop their skills. Immersion in the world of the brand is essential, either through a brand trainer or in-store immersions. Once trained, new recruits benefit from a mentoring system to reassure them, with the manager playing a crucial role in maintaining the team's motivation and commitment.
During the peak season, the team leader has to adapt his day-to-day work to support the teams and achieve their objectives. The manager coaches, supports and controls the treatment processes, creating challenges to motivate the teams and improve results.
Care is central, involving attention to customers as well as customer relations teams. Passing on know-how, immersion in the world of the brand, mentoring and reassuring and engaging management all help to ensure that skills are rapidly developed. It guarantees a quality experience despite the increase in contact volumes.
A successful peak season is also measured by candidates' desire to work with the brand again, because it is crucial to look ahead to future peaks in activity. Building loyalty among employees, even external ones, is key to these peak periods, which can be prepared for months in advance and are truly unifying moments.
So, are you ready for a successful peak season? ;)