Contact Centers: Readying the Call Center for Next Season

Angela Wolfe, Orvis’ contact center operations manager, shared some of the outdoor sporting goods merchant’s practices in the ensuing months after its peak season:
-outline what worked, what didn’t and what to do about it next season;
-figure out what to do differently to woo temporary employees to come back to you before other distribution centers can grab them next peak season;
-determine out what manual processes can be automated next season;
-get IT people involved in the process when brainstorming about customers’ experiences on the phone, e-mail and chat;
-determine which seasonal workers haven’t cut it in recent years;
-conduct a survey of new hires to see what was missed in company training and what you did right; and
-get executives involved in order-taking phone calls. Let them hear the calls first hand so they have “a little empathy for you” when determining potential call volume.