{"id":62532,"date":"2026-11-10T08:00:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T16:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/?p=62532"},"modified":"2026-11-09T16:14:31","modified_gmt":"2026-11-10T00:14:31","slug":"how-to-plan-for-holiday-contact-center-volume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/how-to-plan-for-holiday-contact-center-volume\/","title":{"rendered":"How to plan for holiday contact center volume"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each holiday season, contact centers face a familiar challenge: customers call and text more often to check on orders and ask about return policies or shipping deadlines. As a result, contact centers end up scrambling to adjust schedules by hand while callers wait on hold.<\/p>\n

Both customers and agents feel the strain. Shoppers are growing less patient, with 57% of consumers<\/a> unwilling to wait more than 10 minutes for service. Meanwhile, agents handling the extra contacts work longer stretches at high occupancy, raising their risk of burnout during the busiest weeks of the year.<\/p>\n

The good news is that contact center leaders can predict much of the holiday rush. Teams that prepare early can pinpoint their busiest days and staff accordingly.<\/p>\n

To help, we\u2019re sharing a three-part series on holiday readiness, starting with the steps to build the right plan before peak season.<\/p>\n

<\/a>When should a contact center start planning for the holidays?<\/h2>\n

Contact center leaders should start holiday planning several weeks before customers begin reaching out more often. Workforce management (WFM) analysts need that lead time to build an accurate forecast and turn it into real schedules agents can review and bid on. Agents need it too, so they can learn about new products and promotions before fielding holiday questions.<\/p>\n

If peak season is only a few weeks away, there\u2019s still time. Even a short planning window enables teams to review last year\u2019s data and lock in coverage for key shopping and shipping dates. The work completed now determines whether the holiday crunch is spent managing the plan or rebuilding it from scratch.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Step 1: How do I use last year\u2019s data to forecast holiday volume?<\/h2>\n

Start by pulling last year\u2019s actual contact volume for the holiday period. If you have several years of data, use it. Comparing multiple seasons helps WFM analysts separate one-off surges from patterns they can expect to repeat, like the days after Black Friday or the week before the last shipping deadline.<\/p>\n

Before building the forecast, flag unusual events, such as a system outage or a severe winter storm, and remove them from the dataset so they don\u2019t skew the baseline. The more seasons of clean data an analyst can draw from, the more accurate the holiday forecast will be.<\/p>\n

Once the data is clean, an AI-powered WFM solution can be leveraged to generate forecasts in minutes, freeing up time to review projections and adjust for what\u2019s changed since last year.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Step 2: How do I adjust a holiday forecast for what\u2019s changed since last year?<\/h2>\n

Last year\u2019s data gives analysts a starting point, but most contact centers look different from one holiday season to the next. If you\u2019ve launched a new product line, expect customers to ask about setup and compatibility. If you\u2019ve added a support channel like a new messaging app, some customers who called last year may use that instead.<\/p>\n

Customers also respond to policy updates. If you\u2019ve extended your return window or moved a shipping cutoff, they may reach out at different times than they did last year.<\/p>\n

Before finalizing the forecast, analysts should check in with marketing. Customers can reach out shortly after a holiday promotion or email campaign, so analysts who know those dates in advance can build them into the plan.<\/p>\n

Some promotions are harder to predict than others. When analysts aren\u2019t sure how customers will respond, they can run what-if scenarios in their WFM solution, comparing a promotion that performs as expected with one that performs well above plan, and then immediately deploy the forecast that makes the most sense.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Step 3: Should you forecast by channel and interval or just by day?<\/h2>\n

Simple daily totals give analysts a useful starting point, but they leave out two key staffing details: when customers reach out and which channels they use.<\/p>\n

Customers rarely spread their inquiries evenly across the day. Many call during lunch breaks or right after work, so a team staffed for the daily average can still fall behind for an hour or two at a time. Breaking the forecast into 15- or 30-minute intervals shows analysts exactly when to schedule more agents.<\/p>\n

Analysts should also forecast by channel. Look back at last year\u2019s data to see which channels customers used most and when. Customers checking on an order might prefer chat or SMS, while customers with a billing problem might pick up the phone. If customers sent more chat requests in the week before the last shipping deadline, plan for the same pattern this year.<\/p>\n

With a forecast broken down by channel and interval, analysts can schedule chat-trained agents for the hours when customers use chat most and add phone coverage where calls are expected to cluster.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Step 4: What\u2019s the best way to schedule agents during the holidays?<\/h2>\n

Once analysts know when and where customers will reach out, they can start building schedules. During the holidays, agent preferences and status are an important consideration. Many agents want time off to travel or spend with family, and rigid schedules risk losing goodwill (and sometimes agents) during the most demanding stretch of the year.<\/p>\n

With shift bidding and time-off bidding, both temporary and experienced agents get a say in when they work. A WFM analyst will open up the available shifts and holiday days off, and agents choose based on their own priorities. Some contact centers let tenured agents or top performers bid first, rewarding their most experienced and hardest-working people.<\/p>\n

Handling bids and requests by hand takes up a lot of time. When agents submit requests through a self-service portal or mobile app in their WFM solution, rules can be set in advance, such as minimum staffing levels for each interval, that automatically approve requests when they are met.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Step 5: How do I get agents up to speed before peak season?<\/h2>\n

Agents can\u2019t answer questions about a promotion they\u2019ve never heard of. Before the holidays, train agents on new product launches and planned promotions. Walk through any policy changes as well, like an extended return window, so agents can explain them confidently from the first call.<\/p>\n

Short, focused sessions tend to work better than a single long training day. Agents retain more when they cover a few topics at a time and practice with real examples from last season.<\/p>\n

Temporary and seasonal agents need extra attention. They\u2019re learning your products and systems at the same time, often with only a short time to prepare. Pairing them with experienced agents for their first few shifts gives them someone to turn to when a customer asks something their training didn\u2019t cover.<\/p>\n

Make sure the knowledge base reflects these updates too, since agents will rely on it throughout the season.<\/p>\n

<\/a>What comes next after your holiday contact center plan is in place<\/h2>\n

With a forecast built on clean data and a schedule your agents played a role in shaping, your contact center has a plan it can rely on through the holidays.<\/p>\n

Even with the right agents scheduled, teams can fall behind when many customers ask the same order status question in a single afternoon. In the next edition of our series, we\u2019ll look at how to set up AI agents to handle those repetitive requests and build escalation rules that get customers to a human agent when they need one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each holiday season, contact centers face a familiar challenge: customers call and text more often to check on orders and ask about return policies or shipping deadlines. As a result, contact centers end up scrambling to adjust schedules by hand while callers wait on hold. Both customers and agents feel the strain. Shoppers are growing …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1145,"featured_media":62543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-customer-experience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow to plan for holiday contact center volume | RingCentral Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Each holiday season, contact centers face a familiar challenge: customers call and text more often to check on orders and ask about return policies or\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/us\/en\/blog\/how-to-plan-for-holiday-contact-center-volume\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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Prior to joining RingCentral in 2021, he held UCaaS and CCaaS Product Marketing roles at Broadvoice and Mavenir. Additionally, he has extensive telecom experience with Nortel Networks, Ericsson, and GENBAND (now Ribbon Communications), serving in various roles in Technical Documentation, Program Management, and New Product Introduction.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/andy-watson-2a40a011"],"url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/andy-watson\/"}]}},"rc_img_url":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Image-Overlay-Filter.jpg","rcblog_by_author":"<a href=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/andy-watson\/amp\" data-dl-events-click=\"true\" data-dl-element=\"link\"><span class=\"image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ff71aa8cbe776f98972ac611517c4f6a0c2bde0a97ea2685717ee13fd2dc6838?s=96&d=mm&r=g\" alt=\"\" width=\"30\" height=\"30\" layout=\"fixed\"><\/img><\/span><span class=\"by-author-name\">Andy Watson<\/span><\/a>","rc_author_full_name":"Andy Watson","rc_author_avatar":"\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Andy-Watson-1-1.jpg","rc_author_link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/author\/andy-watson\/amp","rc_post_categories":"<a href=\"\/us\/en\/blog\/category\/trending\/customer-experience\/amp\">Customer & employee experience<\/a>","amp_link":"\/us\/en\/blog\/how-to-plan-for-holiday-contact-center-volume\/amp","excerpt_title":"How to plan for holiday contact center volume","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1145"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newrcblog.wpengine.com\/us\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}