Five lessons from running support agents through Black Friday

Peak season is the hardest test for any support team. Here are five lessons from teams that ran agents through their busiest week of the year.

1. Prepare the knowledge base first

Agents are only as good as the answers they can find. Update shipping, returns, and promotion policies before the rush.

2. Start with the top three questions

Order status, returns, and discount codes make up most peak-season tickets. Automate those first and leave everything else to people.

3. Keep a person on every refund

Volume makes mistakes expensive. Keep refunds and credits behind a one-click approval, even when the queue is long.

4. Watch the edit rate daily

A sudden rise in edited replies usually means a policy changed. Fix the source, not the reply.

5. Celebrate the hard tickets

When agents handle the routine work, your team gets to spend peak season on the conversations that need a person.

tickets in peak week

15,000

resolved by agents

64%

first response

<15 min