How to prepare the customer service team for seasonal sales?

[shukla7789]

What is sales seasonality?
How does it impact the service process?
What are the ways to prepare your customer service team for seasonal sales?
Predict and plan accordingly
Make temporary hires
Offer a performance bonus
Make arrangements for scheduled vacations
Promote special training for this time
Use appropriate tools
Over time, it is natural that you want to achieve a certain line database in your company's income, and marketing and after-sales efforts serve to achieve this goal. However, it is not necessary to worry only about month-to-month performance, but also about what is achieved each year as a whole. This is what is called sales seasonality.

Despite being something inherent to practically every type of company, there are still many managers who do not take this factor into account when planning their service processes . As a result, they end up having to deal with several unforeseen events in their demand and may miss several sales opportunities, even during peak periods.

To help you better understand this issue and deal with it correctly, we will explain in more detail what seasonality is, its main impacts and how you can prepare your customer service team to deal with it. Stay tuned!

Download the e-book Checkmate now: to sell more, customer service can be your big move.
What is sales seasonality?
As the name suggests, something is seasonal when it depends on a specific time of year. In other words, seasonal sales are those that only occur during a specific time of year. The most famous example is certainly Christmas, when most retail stores receive hundreds of extra people looking for gifts.

On the other hand, seasonality can also be something shorter, such as when an establishment receives more customers at a certain time of the month. Understanding these variations is the first step to making the most of your sales opportunities.

How does it impact the service process?
Having an influx of customers from time to time may seem like a great thing, but only if your customer service team is prepared for the event. Otherwise, seasonal sales can quickly overwhelm your staff.

Imagine that you have a team of 10 agents, all well-trained, who can handle all the calls without much difficulty. However, in a given month, the number of contacts per day triples, leaving this team with no time to deal with each one of them. Amidst the waiting and confusion, you will certainly lose several potential customers.

Similarly, seasonality can lead to a slow period, leaving most of your agents without much work to do during the day. Naturally, this means that your team’s productive time is wasted.

What are the ways to prepare your customer service team for seasonal sales?
Regardless of the causes of these variations, it is important to understand the seasonality in demand for certain products and services and prepare your customer service team accordingly.

To help you with this, we have separated the main tips here to make your work easier. Check it out!

Predict and plan accordingly
Planning is key to maintaining good performance during a period of seasonal highs or lows. One of its main features is that you can predict these changes in demand, knowing when they are likely to occur and with what intensity, which allows you to plan for them.

Understanding the seasonality periods in your company is the first step to using them to your advantage. And, of course, to creating a strategy that makes the most of your customer service team during these periods.

Make temporary hires
During peak sales demand periods, your team may find themselves with more contacts than they can handle. And if you’ve forecasted correctly, then you’ll know how much surplus you can expect in new leads .