The holiday season is a critical time for any business, especially when it comes to managing customer support effectively. While our article on preparing your Zendesk for the holiday season provides 12 essential steps, there’s one more crucial step that businesses often overlook—reviewing all actions after the season ends and implementing improvements for next time.
Why a Post-Holiday Review Matters
Once the rush has passed and the dust has settled, it's the perfect time to analyse how your Zendesk setup performed. Did your team meet customer expectations? Were there any bottlenecks in your workflow? Taking stock of what worked well and identifying areas for improvement can set you up for even greater success in the next peak season.
This article will cover the following topics:
- Ticket Volume vs. Agent Capacity
- Automation & AI Performance
- Channel Efficiency
- Customer Feedback
- Agent Feedback
Key Areas to Evaluate
📊 Ticket Volume vs. Agent Capacity:
Review how well your team handled the increased ticket volume.- Response Times: How quickly were tickets addressed, especially during peak hours? Were there specific timeframes where response times dropped significantly?
- Backlogs: Did the number of unresolved tickets spike? Were tickets being left unresolved for extended periods?
- Agent Utilisation: Were agents overloaded with tickets, or were there idle periods where tickets could have been more evenly distributed?
- Ticket Prioritisation: Did urgent or high-priority tickets get resolved quickly, or did less critical inquiries delay the process?
- Missed SLAs: Were service-level agreements (SLAs) consistently met, or did a significant number of tickets fail to meet their designated response or resolution times?
Shift Coverage: Did certain shifts see a larger influx of tickets? Was there adequate agent coverage for these busy periods, or did gaps in coverage result in increased wait times?
Other aspects to look for:
- Peak vs. off-peak performance: Was there a notable difference in response efficiency during peak versus off-peak hours?
- Specialised ticket routing: Were tickets routed efficiently to agents with the relevant expertise, or did misrouted tickets increase resolution time? If your utilising omni channel or skills based routing, was it working efficiently during this period?
🤖 Automation & AI Performance
Were your Zendesk automations and bots effectively deflecting routine queries? Did AI-powered tools help reduce ticket volume or were there gaps in their performance?- Ticket Deflection Rate: How many inquiries were successfully resolved by your bot(s) without human intervention? Did this reduce overall ticket volume?
- Bot Accuracy: Did bots provide correct and helpful answers, or did they cause confusion, leading to escalated tickets?
- Automation Failures: Were there any instances where automated workflows broke down or led to incorrect actions, such as assigning tickets to the wrong department, sending inaccurate responses or API calls failing within a bot workflow?
- Bot Interaction Quality: Was the tone and language used by the bot appropriate, friendly, and on-brand? Did it contribute to a positive customer experience?
Customer Abandonment: Did customers abandon chat interactions with bots? If so, at what point were they exiting the conversation, and why
Other aspects to look for:
- Automation triggers: Were the triggers that initiate automations appropriate, or were they firing too frequently (or not enough)?
🎛️ Channel Efficiency
Evaluate which communication channels (email, live chat, social media) were the most effective. Did some channels receive more traffic than expected? Should you have offered support on other platforms?- Channel Volume Distribution: Which channels (e.g., email, chat, phone, social media) saw the highest volume of traffic? Did the distribution match your expectations?
- Channel Overload: Were any channels particularly overwhelmed? Did you receive a disproportionate number of tickets through one platform, potentially leading to slower response times?
- Omnichannel Integration: Were customers able to seamlessly switch between channels (e.g., from chat to phone) without having to repeat themselves or face delays?
- Customer Preferences: Did customers gravitate toward certain channels for specific types of queries? For instance, were urgent issues more frequently raised via phone or chat?
Mobile Responsiveness: If customers were contacting you through mobile channels (chat, social media), was the user experience smooth and responsive?
Other aspects to look for:
- Hidden inefficiencies: Were there inefficiencies in your least-used channels that you may not have initially noticed? For example, were there fewer tickets in one channel, but the time to resolution was disproportionately long?
- Channel downtime: Did any channels experience unexpected downtime or technical issues, leaving customers without access to support?
☯️ Customer Feedback
Analysing customer satisfaction scores, reviews, and direct feedback can provide insight into how your support resonated with customers. Was the experience seamless, or did customers face any friction?- CSAT Trends: Did customer satisfaction (CSAT) improve or decline during the holiday period? Were there specific timeframes where feedback was more negative, suggesting service issues?
- CSAT Trends Across Channels: Were there notable differences in CSAT scores based on the channel customers used to contact you—such as email, webform, or messaging? For instance, did customers report higher satisfaction with messaging but lower satisfaction with webforms or email?
- Feedback Themes: Were there recurring themes in customer comments, such as long wait times, poor communication, or issues with specific products or services?
- Resolution Satisfaction: Were customers generally satisfied with the resolution of their tickets, or were there common complaints about how their issues were handled?
- Speed of Resolution: Did customers consistently highlight slow response times as a major concern, or were there other service-related issues like poor communication or miscommunication?
Proactive vs. Reactive Support: Did customers appreciate any proactive support measures (e.g., updates on shipping delays), or did they only reach out reactively after problems arose?
Other aspects to look for:
- Social sentiment: Was there feedback about your service on public forums or social media that differs from feedback received through formal surveys?
- Long-term customer satisfaction: Did returning customers express higher or lower satisfaction levels compared to new customers?
💬 Agent Feedback
Your frontline agents have invaluable insight. Gather their feedback on what processes helped them the most and where they encountered difficulties. This will help identify any internal improvements needed.- Workload: Did agents report feeling overworked or under-utilised? Was there a noticeable difference in how shifts were managed during peak hours compared to off-peak times?
- Tool Usability: Did agents feel that the tools at their disposal—such as macros, messaging shortcuts, or AI assistance — were helpful, or were they cumbersome to use under pressure?
- Knowledge Gaps: Were there areas where agents felt they lacked the necessary information or training to resolve issues quickly? Did they have access to a knowledge base that provided the support they needed?
- Escalation Protocols: Did agents report any confusion or delays in escalating tickets to higher support tiers or other departments? Were the escalation paths clear and efficient?
- Team Collaboration: Was there effective collaboration among team members, or did siloed communication impact the quality and speed of support?
Feedback on Automations: Did agents feel automations were helping reduce their workload, or did they encounter errors that required manual intervention?
Other aspects to look for:
- Morale and motivation: Did the high ticket volume or increased demands negatively affect agent morale? Were there specific issues that impacted their motivation during the holiday rush?
- Adequacy of communication: Did agents feel well-informed about changes in workflows, processes, or customer issues during the holiday season?
Implementing Improvements
Once you have identified areas of improvement, create a plan to implement changes before the next holiday rush. Start by:
- Optimising workflows to reduce bottlenecks.
- Training staff on any new features or processes that could enhance efficiency.
- Updating automations and workflows to address gaps in performance.
A Continuous Cycle of Improvement
The holiday season might come and go, but your customer service processes should be constantly evolving. By reviewing and refining your Zendesk setup post-holiday season, you can turn customer service challenges into opportunities for growth, ensuring that your team is better prepared for every busy season ahead.