Prepared for the peak season?

If you do the bulk of your business in the fourth quarter, your peak season volume is bearing down on you right now. The good news is that there is still time to at least soften the blows. It doesn't have to be a chaotic mess.

The best-run operations spend all year planning and preparing for peak season. But for now we'll focus on short-term, low-tech strategies and tactics that can be implemented before it hits the fan in a few weeks.

For starters, you need to anticipate every risk and over-compensate for it. Do everything you can to stack the deck in your favor. That means staffing, training, expanding hours, getting extra equipment — everything.

The first task is to conduct a quick review of each operating area. Anything that's even slightly sticky now will most likely become a major bottleneck in higher volume.

By anticipating what areas are going to be hit the hardest, you can make an extra effort to avoid that pain. The most common problem areas include phone order entry and e-mail management in the contact center, and packing and replenishment in the warehouse.

When it comes to staffing up, don't just add labor: The best results usually come from closely studying the process to determine how it can be modified or supplemented to streamline the work. In peak periods, this often means dividing the workload into specialized tasks.

What tasks can you improve by finding opportunities to do specific pieces separately or differently? For example, in the warehouse, create dedicated packing stations for small orders, and separate easy single-line orders into separate, larger batches. Find those areas with sufficient opportunity to apply a different, specialized approach.

Don't bring in all of your season staff at the same time. A large group of untrained staff arriving just as volume goes through the roof typically leads to a rash of errors and excessive demands on managers and team leaders for questions and corrections You want seasonal staff to be functional — not just present — when the pressure ramps up.

To accomplish this, bring in staff on a staggered, progressive schedule. Make the investment to start bringing in the first waves early — maybe even in the next few weeks. This way they will not only be more productive, but often will be able to help answer questions for the next groups.

In the contact center

Get your new seasonal hires viable in a shorter period by limiting the specific tasks they will be performing (for instance, order calls, catalog requests, order status). Then develop a downsized training program that is specific to those tasks. Several clients have shortened their “on-boarding” process from two weeks to three days with this approach.

You can supplement this limited training by assigning several floating “super-agents.” These floaters are typically experienced reps who are assigned to do nothing other than roam the floor of the call center ready to help new staff as questions come up.

Results are best when several floaters rotate the task for a few hours at a time. Provide some sort of flag system for new agents to call the floater, such as raising hands or holding up little flags or placards.

If you do not already have a partnership with a third-party service to provide after-hours and overflow call coverage, you should. Yes, there are challenges, but the coverage is worth it.

Several companies have negotiated optional extra coverage into their contracts: When actual call volumes exceed the projections provided to the third party, the client has the ability to “purchase” additional reps for the day at a flat fee. Since most vendors preschedule staff to an account or pool based on projections, this arrangement works for everybody.

You need to focus on utilization, or the percentage of time an agent is on a call. Many clients have enough reps in the seats, but they lose calls and productivity because those reps are spending too much time doing things other than taking calls, such as e-mail, faxes or visiting the water cooler.

This is common in peak season as fatigue sets in from the relentless call volume. You need to keep reps on the phone during their scheduled phone coverage. Utilization in well-managed centers during peak season is typically in the range of 65% up to an extreme of 80% in large, busy centers. Here's how to keep utilization where it needs to be during peak season:

Make sure you measure and communicate utilization to agents. Divide and conquer tasks during peak season. While a one-agent strategy often works well during slower times of the year, it frequently leads to poor service levels during peak.

Minimize the noncall tasks assigned to agents during the periods they are scheduled to be on the phone. Have other dedicated groups doing the noncall work, and periodically give agents a breather by rotating them off the phone for noncall work.

Manage e-mail: E-mail requires the same organization skills and production management as any other function. It usually takes longer to answer an e-mail than a phone call, and customers expect a fast response — often four hours, and no more than 24.

At a minimum, make sure you have an automatic response system in place, with a realistic timeline for response., so that every e-mail gets an immediate acknowledgement. Suggest that customers call if they need a more immediate response, and suggest good times to call.

In the warehouse

Packing is typically the most labor-intensive part of the process, and the most likely to backlog. Devise ways to take pressure off conventional packing.

Here are a few suggestions to keep things moving:

Speed stations: Dedicate several packing stations to handle nothing but small, simple orders. They are equipped with only bags or one or two small box sizes. These stations can be staffed with your least experienced people because there are few complications.

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