Think about this: over three-quarters of Americans have shopped online. And realistically, we can anticipate more during the holiday season. So, here’s a question for you—do you want to turn the holiday rush into an opportunity to shine?
Imagine a help desk that’s not only ready to handle increased volume but one that actually thrives under increased workloads. Well, you can stop envisioning it and rather turn it into reality. How? We’re sharing 10 proven tips below to prepare your customer service team and meet holiday challenges head-on.
Why you should spiff up your help desk management before the holidays
During the holidays, customers are on a mission—to get the best deals! Often, this comes with limited patience as they expect fast, accurate, and friendly customer support. So, one delayed response can cost you a sale.
It turns out, a 2021 holiday shopping season survey found that 34% plan to spend more during the holiday season. Simply put, customer inquiries require lightning-fast responses from you. Now, it goes without saying that customer inquiries increase during the holiday season. While you can scale your customer service team as needed, there are additional ways to help your customers—and giving your help desk a tune-up is one of them.
10 proven ways to boost your help desk management before the holidays
Every holiday, the pressure on CS teams—especially those working on the help desk—is real. Selecting the best help desk software is crucial for managing customer support during peak seasons. Here are 10 strategies on how to level up your help desk system before the rush hits.
1. Leverage data to predict demand peaks
Data is your help desk team’s best friend. Leverage it to predict demand peaks and manage service requests and support requests efficiently. Start by reviewing past holiday seasons to identify patterns in customer inquiries—when does the demand peak, or what kinds of issues come up most frequently? These insights will let you prepare both staffing and resources.
Here’s a sample scenario. Looking at last year’s data, the following patterns were identified:
- Ticket volumes doubled every Monday after the Black Friday weekend
- Most customer issues were about order tracking and delivery dates
- The busiest hours were between 10 AM and 2 PM, especially after marketing emails went out
- New product launches during holidays created spikes in technical support questions
Based on these patterns, you can then proceed to schedule more agents for Cyber Monday shifts and create pre-made response templates for common questions.
2. Optimize staffing for flexibility and speed
Holiday seasons call for extra hands and a flexible workforce, and a well-structured support team can make all the difference. Some effective ways to ensure you’re covered are cross-training your team to handle multiple types of inquiries and setting up a backup team ready to log in if ticket volume suddenly spikes.
It can also mean:
- Optimizing schedules to match traffic—ensuring more agents are available during peak times.
- Considering rotating shifts to cover extended hours without burning out your team.
- Hiring a part-time holiday virtual assistant.
3. Implement an omnichannel strategy for seamless support
Do your customers reach out more during peak season? Then a smart way how to manage a service desk is to do channel direction. That’s a customer service workflow for guiding your customers to the best channel to resolve their inquiries.
Just ensure that your omnichannel strategy lets you unify all these communication channels—email, chat, social media, and phone—regardless of where they originate. Nearly 80% prefer omnichannel strategies because they make communication seamless.
Example of smart channel directional guidance:
- For order tracking, direct them to a self-service portal
- For technical issues, let your customers opt for a live chat
- For returns, send them to emails so they can photo-upload proof/s
Connected support channels mean a customer can start an inquiry on social media and continue via email without repeating themselves. All the context is in one place—a win for both your customers and your help desk team.
4. Use automation to handle repetitive inquiries
One of the best ways to improve your help desk management (not only for the holiday season) is to implement a ticketing system and customer service automation to handle service requests and repetitive inquiries. Keep your team focused on complex issues rather than repetitive ones.
- Use automated responses to handle FAQs or commonly asked questions.
- Use chatbots to answer basic/common questions. Did you know that only 2% find these bots unhelpful?
- Auto-categorize tickets based on keywords
However, automation should never replace customer service entirely. The key here is balance—use automation to handle routine questions but make it easy for customers to reach a human agent if they need more personalized support.
5. Enable a self-service portal to lighten the load
A significant reduction in your ticket volume? Aside from leveraging technology and using only help desk management software, empower your customers to help themselves with desk software. 45% saw an increase in CSAT following self-service adoption. An accessible, well-organized knowledge base or self-service portal can make a huge difference in holiday response times.
When customers can resolve simple issues independently, the overall volume of help desk tickets is reduced, and faster resolution times. Talk about more time for complex issues. Self-service options also give customers greater independence—a positive for both their satisfaction and your team’s efficiency.
6. Conduct a pre-holiday training session
Holiday preparations are also about building confidence and alignment within your team. Organize a pre-holiday training session to cover help desk ticket management for your customer service reps. Include in your staff training key areas like seasonal policies, promotions, and best practices for handling high-stress situations.
Take this opportunity to sharpen core customer service skills and conduct refreshers on how to handle potentially difficult conversations. A well-prepared team is a confident team. And the confidence shows in customer interactions.
7. Set up clear escalation paths for complex issues
Some inquiries require a specialized type of customer service. To ensure managed help desk services and complex support tickets don’t hold up your team, establish clear escalation paths. So, define which types of issues should be prioritized and assign dedicated agents or teams (even managers) to handle these cases.
Clear escalation paths give frontline agents the power to quickly hand off cases they can’t resolve. And that’s practical because you reduce resolution times and give customers faster access to the expertise they need. This system ensures that while common issues are handled quickly, complex ones are given the attention they require.
8. Monitor and adjust key performance metrics for customer satisfaction
Real-time adjustments and planning require data. During the holiday rush, monitor your help desk’s key performance metrics, such as response and resolution time, ticket volume, and customer satisfaction scores so you maintain service quality, even as demand fluctuates. Choosing the right desk solution is crucial for efficiently managing these metrics and enhancing employee productivity.
Tracking metrics helps you catch bottlenecks fast and adjust strategies accordingly. Here’s an instance:
- If response times start rising, you can redistribute workloads or bring in additional agents.
- Or adjust routing rules.
- If CSAT drops, you can make immediate process adjustments
9. Prioritize proactive outreach for anticipated issues
The most efficient way to reduce customer inquiries is to utilize help desk software to address issues before they arise. Therefore, visit your common problems from past holidays. Typically, they result from delays in shipping, shortages of products, or policy changes. Then, communicate solutions ahead of time.
Consider proactively sharing updates on:
- order tracking and shipping timelines
- return policies
- social media to address known holiday-specific questions
Make sure you’re sending targeted notifications and updating your site live (yes, 73% prefer to use a company’s website). Proactive outreach not only lightens your team’s load but also builds transparency with customers—who will appreciate the upfront communication.
10. Conduct a stress test of your help desk systems
Before peak season begins, stress-test your help desk tools and support teams to ensure they can handle increased volume without a hitch. A help desk management is to run simulations to mimic high demand, testing response times, ticket-routing efficiency, and system stability under heavy loads.
This testing will help identify any weak points in your infrastructure and allow time for adjustments. No matter what you do, from scaling up servers to fine-tuning ticket routing workflows to automating responses, a stress test gives you the peace of mind that your tools will survive the holiday rush.
Prepare your help desk for the holidays
Summing everything up, selecting the right help desk software and preparing your help desk for the holiday season is your ticket to a more efficient customer support experience. And proactively implementing the help desk management strategies listed, is keeping your customers happy (and protecting your team from burnout).
So, it’s a no-brainer that you must start planning now—and eventually, make this holiday season a win. If you’re looking for expert assistance in optimizing your setup, outsource to LTVplus. Don’t hesitate to reach out. Book a call and let’s explore how we can help you.
