Best practices to prepare for a busy season

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<p id="docs-hc-snippet" style="display: none;">This article contains some best practices to help you improve your customers’ experience during the busy season. For example, Zendesk Support volume for retailers increases by about 42% during the holiday season, or you may have a medical supplies or health care business with increased activity during a special situation like an epidemic. It’s important for your team to have the tools they need to handle the extra workload.</p>
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<p class="p">This
article contains some best practices to help you improve your customers’ experience during the
busy season. For example, Zendesk Support volume for retailers increases by about 42% during
the holiday season, or you may have a medical supplies or health care business with increased
activity during a special situation like an epidemic. It’s important for your team to
have the tools they need to handle the extra workload. </p>
<p class="p">This article contains the following sections:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_cxf_ztn_wcb__ul_uv2_g5n_wcb">
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_l1z_tvt_w2b">Have the right resources in place</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_i1t_ggz_tfb">Organize your FAQs and update your knowledge base</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ryd_gmz_tfb">Leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve agent efficiency</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_dqk_qmz_tfb">Use a messaging Web Widget and AI agents to convert more visitors</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_byn_gnz_tfb">Integrate apps to further improve the customer experience</a></li>
<li class="li"><a class="xref" href="#topic_ptt_wnz_tfb">Keep up with the latest</a></li>
</ul>
<div class="note tip">
<span class="tiptitle">Tip:</span> An on-demand webinar is also available on this topic. Click <a class="xref" href="https://www.zendesk.com/support/webinar/retail-holiday-experience/" target="_blank">here</a> to sign up. </div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title2" class="topic nested1" id="topic_l1z_tvt_w2b">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title2">Have the right resources in place</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">Recognize that customer satisfaction is the foundation of your business. Busy
seasons are important times for both you and your customers. They expect businesses to be
available when they are shopping or seeking help, and they expect you to be responsive
quickly when they’re in a rush. Make sure your agent resources are hired and trained before
the busy season starts.</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_l1z_tvt_w2b__ul_igv_qfz_tfb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Consider Zendesk subscription plans that allow you to add <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408834640666-Viewing-plan-subscriptions-for-temporary-agents" target="_blank">temporary agent accounts</a> to help with the seasonal
workload.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Take advantage of Zendesk <a class="xref" href="https://academy.zendesk.com/" target="_blank">training resources</a> which are available to get your
staff up and running. </li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Create agent-facing help center articles with internal-only <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408824005914-Setting-view-permissions-on-articles-with-user-segments" target="_blank">permissions</a> so your agents can quickly access your
corporate policies and procedures. </li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title3" class="topic nested1" id="topic_i1t_ggz_tfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title3">Organize your FAQs and update your knowledge base</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">The majority of customers (60%) prefer self-service to speaking with a customer support
agent, so it’s important to understand the types of requests that come in during the rush
and identify if there are any gaps in your content. </p>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title4" class="topic nested2" id="topic_fz5_kgz_tfb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title4">Find out what customers are asking</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408839341082" target="_blank">use reports</a> to help you understand what customers are asking.
You can also build a report that surfaces frequently asked questions during the busy
season. Once you identify some of those common issues (or common themes) that occur during
the rush, you can drill down into each ticket to learn more about the context.</p>
<p class="p">This example slices the number of tickets by issue type and uses a date filter to show
only results from November to January. "Issue type" is a custom field that can contain any
information you want. It's often known as the "About" field. In the results, you'll see
that the "International shipping" issue type was by some measure the biggest issue over
the past week.</p>
<p class="p"><img alt="Example Explore report showing peak season" class="image" id="topic_fz5_kgz_tfb__image_lmr_b3m_hkb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/peak_season_explore.png" width="850"></p>
<p class="p">For more information on how you can use custom fields, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409155792026" target="_blank">The 'About' field</a>.</p>
<p class="p">For more reporting ideas, check out the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4409149172890" target="_blank">Zendesk Explore recipes reference</a>.</p>
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</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title5" class="topic nested2" id="topic_smt_x3z_tfb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title5">Use Knowledge in the context panel to update your articles</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Based on your Insight findings, you can use Knowledge in the context panel to surface and
update your articles with the best, up-to-date answers. The Knowledge section allows
agents to preview help center content and suggest feedback on articles directly from the
agent interface. </p>
<p class="p">See <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/5581313653530" target="_blank">Using help center content in your tickets without leaving
Agent Workspace</a>.</p>
<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_smt_x3z_tfb__image_ftz_bxc_4gc" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/GenSearch-SearchResult.png" width="350"></p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title6" class="topic nested2" id="topic_cx4_flz_tfb">
<h3 class="title topictitle3" id="ariaid-title6">Create rush-themed FAQs</h3>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">It’s also beneficial to create a rush-themed FAQ page which can link out to all
your recently updated articles, so customers can easily find what they are looking for as
they browse your site. Here are a few tips:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_cx4_flz_tfb__ul_skt_hlz_tfb">
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Frame each of your articles in a question context and have them cover only a
single problem. This structure makes information easier to find.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">Make the subject line as descriptive as possible and make sure the article
subject line matches the article content.</li>
<li class="li" dir="ltr">If you are an Enterprise customer, you can create a rush-themed <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408828878106" target="_blank">help center template</a> for articles or for a special section or
category. You can use the rush-themed template for special articles while their regular
content keeps the usual, non-rush template.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title7" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ryd_gmz_tfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title7">Leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to improve agent efficiency </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p" dir="ltr">You can leverage AI to decrease time to resolution, boost agent productivity, and
take your knowledge base to the next level. Zendesk offers a set of tools in the Suite, free
of charge, as well as a robust set of tools in the Copilot add-on, available for
purchase.</p>
<p class="p" dir="ltr">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/10018448457498#topic_brj_xfb_nhc" target="_blank">Empowering your team with AI-powered tools</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title8" class="topic nested1" id="topic_dqk_qmz_tfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title8">Use a messaging Web Widget and AI agents to convert more visitors</h2>
<div class="body">
<div class="p" dir="ltr">You can use the messaging Web Widget with an AI agent to help visitors purchase
items on your website and ultimately increase your sales or help them with questions they
might have. For example:<ul class="ul" id="topic_dqk_qmz_tfb__ul_dg5_x5d_1jc">
<li class="li">Configure a messaging channel.</li>
<li class="li">Add Web Widget for messaging to your website or mobile app.</li>
<li class="li">Automate your messaging channel with an AI agent. </li>
</ul>
</div>
<p class="p">For more information, see <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408827701530" target="_blank">Getting started with messaging</a>.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title9" class="topic nested1" id="topic_byn_gnz_tfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title9">Integrate apps to further improve the customer experience</h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Review the <a class="xref" href="https://www.zendesk.com/apps/" target="_blank">Zendesk Marketplace</a> for the latest offerings. Zendesk apps can make your agents
more productive and increase customer satisfaction. The Marketplace contains apps for
productivity, time tracking, e-commerce, and social media. For example:</p>
<ul class="ul" id="topic_byn_gnz_tfb__ul_inb_lnz_tfb">
<li class="li">Zendesk recommends integrating with a popular retail applications such as Shopify,
Magento, or Big Commerce. These integrations enable you to surface information about your
customers from directly within Zendesk. They can provide you with visibility into
customer profiles and display order information.<p class="p"><img class="image" id="topic_byn_gnz_tfb__image_kd4_nnz_tfb" src="https://zen-marketing-documentation.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/en/peak_season_shopify.png" width="600"></p>
</li>
<li class="li">Use a gift app to provide a personal touch with your customers and make your customer
service stand out. You can send physical gifts to customers with just a few clicks. This can help
increase customer loyalty, retention, and customer satisfaction ratings, and help smooth
over issues for customers who have rush season frustrations.</li>
<li class="li">Consider <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829182234" target="_blank">additional popular apps</a> to increase the efficiency
of your agents and improve customer satisfaction.</li>
</ul>
</div>
</div>
<div aria-labelledby="ariaid-title10" class="topic nested1" id="topic_ptt_wnz_tfb">
<h2 class="title topictitle2" id="ariaid-title10">Keep up with the latest </h2>
<div class="body">
<p class="p">Zendesk continues to add new features to improve the agent workflow. Follow the <a class="xref" href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/4405298833818" target="_blank">Announcements</a> section and leverage the <a class="xref" href="https://community.zendesk.com/" target="_blank">Zendesk
Community</a> for the latest information.</p>
</div>
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