Customer service during the holidays

The holiday season has always been a big deal for stores, no matter the industry, but obviously to some more than others. Not so long ago, customers used to wait for long times in big lines just to have the chance of acquiring products at lower prices than usual. Those times used to be full of craziness, people fighting, cashiers feeling overwhelmed, and salespeople trying to convince customers they were not going to find better deals.

That craziness has not disappeared, it has just evolved. Instead of having big lines outside of stores, we now have a lot of people loading websites at the same time. This comes with a new set of challenges, websites crashing, products selling too fast, understock issues, which can all lead to customer frustration.

This frustration can make people decide to go for the competition instead, which hurts your sales and ROI. To avoid having frustrated customers during these peak and critical seasons, you must prepare with enough time. Let us share some ways in which you can prepare to tackle this holiday season and come out successful.

Understanding the need of holiday customer service rush

Before we delve into ways your company can prepare for the customer service holiday rush, you must understand how big this season is. The holiday customer service rush is not only a seasonal challenge, it goes beyond that, as it becomes a critical moment for businesses. Those that fail to meet customer expectations will have hard to repair damage. 

Retail sales in the U.S. went up by 3.1% in 2023 (Forbes), this surge in consumer spending translated directly into heavier support demand. Zendesk Research also confirmed that customer support ticket volumes increase as much as 42% during the holidays. The surge is fueled by gift buying and earlier-than-ever shopping windows like Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

But, just like ticket volumes increase, expectations do too, so don’t forget about evaluating what your customers want and need. Today’s customers demand immediate support, 70% want their issues resolved the same day, falling short ends in frustration and abandonment. Personalization plays an equally critical role, as customers spend more with brands that personalize interactions, yet 76% feel frustrated when this expectation is not met. 

In the context of the holiday rush, where every minute counts, if you are not able to provide this, it ends up eroding trust and revenue.

Social media as a service frontline

Social media can play a vital role in customer service during the holidays, as shoppers visit social media profiles to research gift ideas and for companies to solve their issues. According to Sprout Social, 47% of consumers use social media to research holiday gifts, and 89% say content influences their purchases. At the same time, brands see an 18% increase in messages during the holiday season (HubSpot), showing how social media needs to be a fully integrated support channel. If you don’t pay enough attention to it, you risk public visibility of dissatisfaction, something your brand can’t afford during peak season.

Emotional & impulsive buying behavior

Holiday season intensifies customer emotions, as nearly 59% of Americans admit to making impulsive purchases during the holidays, a trend that puts added pressure on businesses. Impulsive purchases usually are associated with second thoughts, changes of mind, urgent requests, or feeling the product won’t be available ever again, so be ready to offer solutions for those customers. 

Most of these purchases carry emotional weight on people, because they usually want to buy something for a loved one, or for themselves. So, when they encounter poor customer support, they can feel the outcome as personal, making it worse for them and your company. Customer service holiday interactions carry stakes far beyond resolving an isolated issue. A misstep  during these emotionally charged seasons could cost long-term loyalty. But if you offer positive experiences, you create powerful competitive advantages: 65% of shoppers say they are more likely to spend with businesses they’ve had positive experiences with.

In short, the holiday season compresses a year’s worth of customer expectations into a few short weeks. The result is a busier and more emotionally charged support environment than any other time of year. Businesses that rise to the occasion by scaling support effectively can’t only meet demand but also build lasting customer relationships. Those that fail risk their legacy being long queues, unresolved tickets, and disappointing interactions, memories that linger well beyond the holidays.

Best Support Practices for the Holiday Rush

Scaling customer support during the holiday customer service rush requires a balance of strategy, technology, and people-first management. Businesses that plan ahead and adopt the right practices can not only survive the surge but also turn it into a growth opportunity.

Empower self-service

Self-service is the frontline of scalable holiday support, your customers don’t want to wait in line or for a call-back when answers can be found instantly. In fact, 67% of customers prefer self-service to traditional support channels (Zendesk). A well-maintained FAQ page, contextual help widgets, and knowledge bases reduce unnecessary tickets and allow customers to solve simple issues on their own.

Some businesses have experienced great impact by implementing self-service, reducing chat volume up to 60%, which frees agents’ time so they can focus on complex cases. 54% of marketers use self-service so their companies are well prepared for customer service holiday rush demand.

Leverage AI & human efforts

Automation is one of the most effective ways of preparing for customer service during the holidays. AI-powered tools can instantly resolve repetitive questions such as order tracking or return policies, which can take a lot of time from agents when receiving several requests like those. 

But you must not leave AI on its own, as it works best when paired with human agents that show empathy. While bots can handle routine queries, humans can then focus on emotionally charged cases. The hybrid approach increases speed without sacrificing quality, as a human will be available at all times. 81% of marketers report AI has positively impacted their holiday customer service

Proactive communication

Uncertainty comes in different forms, during holidays, it can show as shipping worries, return questions, delivery estimates, or product availability. This uncertainty causes stress to your customers, so instead of having them at awe, be proactive, this type of support prevents frustration, reducing uncertainty. 

But be careful, there is a fine line between proactive and upsetting, so instead of spamming customers, update the most common questions and queries you have received. You can automate these updates through email, SMS alerts, or website banners, this transparency will reduce ticket volumes and improve customer satisfaction. 

Staffing up & training early

Ticket spikes can overwhelm even the best-prepared teams if staffing isn’t adjusted. Support leaders should analyze historical data to predict peak days and prepare accordingly. Seasonal hires, contractors, outsourcing support, or cross-trained employees from other departments are often essential.

But, simply adding people isn’t enough, training is critical too. Onboarding materials, knowledge playbooks, and practice scenarios should be ready in advance. Agents must be trained not only on systems but also on empathy. The stakes are higher during the holidays, and customers expect warmth and understanding, not robotic replies.

Centralized collaboration

The holiday customer service rush is an omnichannel challenge. Customers don’t differentiate between phone, email, chat, or sms, they expect consistent service across all channels. Since omnichannel platforms bring all customer interactions into one place, your customers expect every channel to provide the same service quality.

Centralizing your support helps you offer your customers a coherent experience that they will appreciate. This consistency can be achieved through specialized omnichannel tools and workflows that ensure multiple agents can handle the expected level of support without sacrificing quality.

Personalization & empathy

Personalization is one of the most appreciated aspects of great support by your customers, but it often gets sacrificed to offer immediate support instead. You don’t have to sacrifice one to offer the other, they can co-exist as personalization doesn’t slow you down, if you feel it does, then you can automate tasks. 

Small details like using a customer’s name, referencing past purchases, remembering their behavior, or being grateful for their loyalty can make the difference. This is a great way to show empathy for your customers, remembering them that behind your company are humans that make it work. 

Performance tracking

What gets measured gets managed and gets improved too. Real-time dashboards for response times, backlog, and satisfaction scores help leaders stay agile during peak periods. Monitoring customer support metrics allows for quick adjustments, like shifting staff between channels or activating backup resources.

Post-holiday analysis is just as important, staying only with interactions before purchase won’t make it. Review ticket trends, response effectiveness, customer feedback, and post-purchase satisfaction to access insights that make future holiday planning easier and more precise. Make sure your company grows year over year by learning from each season and applying those lessons.

Cross-team collaboration

Customer service doesn’t work in isolation, less so during the holiday rush. Customer support teams must be tightly connected with marketing, operations, logistics, and other business departments. Promotions can create sudden ticket spikes, shipping delays can drive surges in inquiries, and product shortages can trigger escalations, so every department's efforts affect your support team in a way. 

Cross-team communication ensures support agents are not caught off guard. Regular updates from other departments and proactive coordination prevent misaligned responses and keep messaging consistent. When all teams operate in sync, the customer experience feels seamless, despite the chaos behind the scenes.

For example, when marketing launches a major holiday discount campaign, customer service should be briefed on potential demand spikes and armed with scripts, macros, and product details. Collaboration turns potential bottlenecks into coordinated responses.

How to prepare for the holiday customer service rush?

Start planning everything early 

Preparation needs to start months in advance, if not, you will only be improvising and your customers will resent that. Retailers and service providers that wait until late to address holiday planning often find themselves in reactive mode. By creating checklists, updating resources, and forecasting demand ahead of time, companies prevent chaos and gain a competitive edge.

Analyze customers’ needs and expectations

Customer service during the holidays is more than answering tickets, it’s about anticipating what customers want before they ask. Surveys, feedback forms, and social listening tools can help you identify customer priorities such as faster delivery or extended return policies. Helping your customers set realistic service expectations aligned with their needs is critical.

Set goals based on customer needs

Too often, businesses set internal goals like “reduce average handle time” or “close tickets faster,” but these metrics don’t always reflect what matters to customers. Your business needs to evaluate customer feedback in order to identify what they need, so you can measure exactly what they expect.

Companies should establish service goals that directly map to customer needs and expectations like the following:

1. Faster resolutions: Teams should set measurable goals around first-response and full-resolution times. 
2. Personalization benchmarks: Service teams should set goals to include personalization in every response.
3. Channel-specific responsiveness: Different channels have different expectations. Customers may tolerate a slightly longer email reply time but expect near-instant responses on live chat or social media. 
4. Proactive outreach: Goals should also include proactive service efforts, such as sending automated updates about shipping deadlines or delays. 

Analyze your previous strategies

Your previous holiday season efforts are the best indicators of what’s to come. Businesses should analyze prior years’ data to identify:

1. Ticket spikes and peak shopping days
2. Channel usage (email vs. chat vs. social)
3. Most common FAQs and complaints

For example, “Where’s my order?” inquiries often account for a significant share of tickets during holidays. Creating preemptive communication campaigns or FAQ updates around this single issue can save time. Historical data also informs staffing schedules, ensuring teams are ready for the busiest windows like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and post-Christmas returns.

Scale when needed

Even the best-trained core team needs reinforcement every once in a while. Businesses should hire additional agents or cross-train employees from other departments to provide backup. Scheduling flexibility, such as shift swaps or overtime options, ensures there is always available coverage when volumes spike.

Zendesk found that tickets per agent increase by over 17% during peak season, making it essential to scale staffing levels before the rush hits.

Automate time consuming tasks 

Automation can absorb repetitive inquiries and give agents back valuable time. Chatbots automate replies, reducing wait times while freeing human agents to handle complex issues. Companies using AI-powered chatbots have been able to handle ticket increase without impacting CSAT scores.

Automation also extends to internal workflows, such as tagging, escalations, or report generation, ensuring that managers and agents can stay focused on customers rather than manual admin.

Prepare workflows

Documenting workflows in advance is essential for consistency and speed. This includes:

1. Holiday-specific playbooks for common issues (shipping delays, refunds, gift receipts)
2. Response templates for frequent questions
3. Escalation procedures for complex cases or VIP customers

Workflows should be tested through training scenarios before peak season. This allows teams to refine processes, spot inefficiencies, and build confidence.

Have you started scaling your support team?

If you haven’t you will miss a lot of opportunities that will not come back next year. If you haven’t started planning how your customer service during the holidays will look like, then you may stay behind if you keep waiting. 

Your customers won’t wait until you finally decide to work on your holiday rush strategy, they will simply go look for other options if they are not fully satisfied with your company. Go ahead and meet with your team and all the company’s departments to align your efforts and chase down the same goal: a successful holiday season. 

At Horatio, we know the importance of BFCM and holidays, that’s why we offer personalized solutions for different industries. We want to support your business and help you succeed during these critical times. Contact us today and let’s start working together to achieve your goals!