OK, John, here it is all as its own little topic!
The call center in which I work is largely based on the fulfillment industry: rebates and sweepstakes. We experience quite a 'seasonal' ebb and flow of the business. We tend to be very busy in thelate summer/fall and in spring, with some real down time in between. I think this is partly due to the rebate industry timing some of its promotions to other events (back-to-school, Christmas, etc.) I rather like this, as the down time gives us the opportunity to improve procedures, training materials, processes, and all that essential stuff. Then we train like MAD during the peak seasons. I would be very interested in hearing about other call centers and how they handle such ups and downs, if they indeed occur. I would also like to get some training info from anyone...guess that's another topic, huh? Don't touch that dial....training question coming to this station soon!

Hi folks.

I thought I'd 'bump' this topic back to the fore as we're now in the clutches of festive madness, and I thought I'd see how everyone plans for Christmas, what with the following considerations:

Holiday provision: Is your centre flexible with regard to leave/flexibility?
Bonuses: Do you pay a Christmas bonus to your staff? If so, have you had to cut back due to recession?
Business Demand: Is the festive period a quiet, normal or busier time for your call centre?
Seasonal sales push: Does your marketing strategy push for extra business at this time of year? Is it successful?
...and so on.

Lots of questions, and since there's no time like the present (19th December)! If you can think of any more questions, please post them!

John (in festive mood)

I'm not sure if this is normal, but what happens to us each year is that the calls on existing clients slow down a little (down to about 75%). However, we always seem to get LLM (Large Last Minute) projects that appear right around the holidays. This has happened 3 years in a row.

Bonuses: No Bonuses
Holiday Time: Vacation must be requested and approved about a month in advance and most agents can't take more than 4 days off in a row. Most of our IT staff is working straight through (except for company holidays) because of all the new clients we have.

Marianne

A few answers to the questions posted, based on call center in which I have worked, and what a number of our clients do:

Holiday Provision: Depending on the vertical market, the holiday season can be very slow or quite busy. In the travel-related call centers, and for electric utilities, for instance, December is the slowest time of year, which is perfect for extending vacation time. On the retail side, it's the busiest time of year, so vacations are usually allotted in the summer.

Outsource call centers (the good ones), plan various types of business throughout the year to avoid the ups and downs. In all cases, the best call centers know when they'll be busy, and most will ask their agents to bid early in the year for vacation time, based on seniority.

Bonuses: I'm curious to hear what various call centers do on this topic. I personally have never received a Christmas bonus - I've received bonuses around Christmastime, based on performance throughout the year, but not 'just because it's Christmas'. Interestingly, the call centers that perform the best are the ones that provide performance-based bonuses - I get a good chuckle at the call center managers who know they will get a bonus at the end of the year, regardless ofperformance. They tend to keep their heads down during the year, instead of focusing on performance....oops, soap box again.

Business Demand: See above.
Seasonal Sale Push: In our business (call center consulting), December tends to be busy on its own, as clients ring in with those last-minute requests. In our 'spare' time, we've found it's fruitful to 'load the guns' and make sure we're prepared for January.

Brent