Customer Service Support: How to Prepare for the Christmas Rush
As we enter October, we are closer to the Christmas Countdown than you might realise. Although approaching the festive season is always exciting, with less than 90 days to go now is the time to start preparing for the inevitable Christmas rush.
Is outsourcing customer service support the best way to deal with the busy period that comes with the fourth quarter of the year?
Christmas Rush Chaos
As we approach the Christmas period, most organisations will experience a sharp increase in demand, which can be challenging to stay on top of.
For retail businesses, there will be an extreme uptake of calls and orders as a result of numerous upcoming events, like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and of course, Christmas. This is in addition to increased enquiries about products and complex queries about delivery and returns policies.
For many, the festive period is the season of giving, which means a spike in calls and messages is just around the corner for charities and not-for-profits. During the fourth quarter, many of these organisations will be increasingly contacted about donation processing, Christmas appeals, fundraising campaigns and queries from supporters. This could be over your phone lines, through live chats, contact through social media and more; this can put pressure on internal teams as they try to keep up with the extra contact across multiple platforms.
For housing associations, colder weather means residents require additional support for winter-related issues like burst pipes and heating issues. Associations are also likely to see more out-of-hours and emergency calls and contact from residents, not just in the lead up to Christmas but over the winter period as a whole.
Additionally, as your teams may take some time off to enjoy the Christmas break, reliable cover for customer service management becomes even more important. No matter the type of organisation, the extra demands of the last few months of the year can be a real challenge to keep up with.
How Third-Party Customer Service Support Can Help
If this sounds overwhelming, don’t worry; there is a simple solution to help your organisation during this busy period.
Calling upon third-party customer service support is one of the easiest and most effective ways to deal with the large uptake in calls, live chat messages, WhatsApps, emails and social media responses your organisation can expect to see.
Getting additional support from a specialist call centre can help you manage those extra contacts, allowing your organisation to keep things running smoothly without the added stress of flooded contact channels.
But what are the benefits of having customer service support during the Christmas rush?
Decreased Holiday Costs
The holiday season can be an expensive period for organisations, from increased heating costs to seasonal staff, holiday events and more. Outsourcing your calls can help manage these additional costs while allowing you to focus on running your organisation.
By calling on customer service support from an organisation like Mango, you can keep up with seasonal demand while avoiding the costly (and lengthy) recruitment and training process for seasonal customer service staff.
24/7/365 Support
Outsourcing your customer service to a dedicated call centre is one of the most effective ways to deal with the round-the-clock increase in traffic your organisation is expecting.
If your organisation needs round-the-clock customer service support, outsourcing to a third-party may be the best way to handle this during the Christmas period. Some contact centres, like Mango, offer a 24/7 customer support service, all year round. This ensures that your callers can have any of their queries answered and orders filled out, no matter the time of day or date, even on Christmas Day.
Expert Customer Service
Working with an experienced third party, you’ll gain access to a team of trained experts in customer engagement and support. This ensures you’ll receive a customer service approach tailored to your organisation’s needs.
Support from an expert call centre means your callers are guaranteed to have their calls met with patience, empathy and a helpful attitude. At Mango, a dedicated customer service team means each of your callers will have their needs met, no matter what they may be.
Taking Care of Internal Teams
Outside of relegating extra contact traffic to a third-party support service, there are other easy and efficient ways to help your organisation manage increased demand and workload during the Christmas period.
The fourth quarter rush, combined with the colder weather and less sunlight, creates conditions for burn out among your internal team. One of the best ways to work though the busy winter months as smoothly as possible is easy; keeping your team motivated. Winter can be a difficult time for anyone, so hosting events and providing incentives can be a great way to keep your team feeling motivated and eager to work, regardless of cold weather and heavier workloads.
Additionally, to get ahead of the upcoming busy period, now might be the best time to provide extra seasonal training for your internal teams. The heavier workload could create some stress for your team if they’re not comfortable with working at such a fast pace. Taking the time now, before the rush starts, to help your team feel more prepared is a simple and effective way to help your organisation work though the Christmas rush.
How Mango Can Help
With nearly twenty years of experience of customer service support and specialist call handling, across a host of sectors, Mango provides the additional capacity, expertise and flexibility businesses need during their busiest periods.
From telephone and email to live chat and social media, our experienced teams can manage customer enquiries across multiple channels, helping to reduce pressure on internal teams and avoid the cost and complexity of recruiting and training additional temporary team members.
If you’re looking for round-the-clock customer service support for the busy months ahead, Talk To Mango today to find out how to get started with us so we can help you plan and get ahead of the increased Christmas demand.
Don’t forget you can also find us on our social media platforms!
Table of Contents
• How Third-Party Customer Service Support Can Help
21.10.26
