The holiday season is fast approaching, which means one thing for retailers – fine-tuning plans for Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2023 (BFCM). This event is a crucial opportunity to boost profits, and many businesses work all year on their strategy, tech stack, and merchandise mix to make or break their entire year.
How We Prepare to Support a Wildly Successful BFCM for Our Customers 🛍
Searchspring understands the significance of Black Friday / Cyber Monday for e-commerce businesses and we, too, have been preparing diligently all year (and have learned from every BFCM since our founding in 2007) to ensure a smooth and successful BFCM 2023 for our customers. From adding new features and functionality throughout the year to fine-tuning our operations, Searchspring employees have been putting in the rigor to support our customers in delivering the ultimate shopping experience this holiday season.
What Are We Trying to Achieve?
“The goal is simple – a smooth BFCM. However, achieving this requires meticulous planning and preparation,” says Jiajian Yang, Director of Engineering at Searchspring. So, what exactly has Searchspring been doing to make this BFCM wildly successful for our customers?
BFCM 2023 Futurespective
Beyond our standard service and support excellence, Searchspring’s BFCM preparation needed to start with a “Futurespective” – a forward-looking simulation of a retrospective. This exercise allowed our teams to brainstorm and discuss anticipated challenges and achievements before they occur and develop action plans to solve these issues where necessary.
All Systems Go!
- You are only as strong as your foundation:
This is why Searchspring continuously innovates and invests in our infrastructure and systems. We’ve been scaling our systems to accommodate the increased traffic and demand that typically comes with BFCM and we’ve invested in enhanced observability tools to monitor system performance and troubleshoot issues proactively. And now that the scaling work is complete, We’ve implemented a code freeze to prevent any last-minute changes that could disrupt operations during BFCM. - Training and Re-Training:
Just like athletes, practice makes perfect. To ensure our team is fully prepared, we’ve re-conducted training sessions on commonly seen problems and how-to’s. We have one simple matrix to help our frontline support staff determine the severity and priority for further escalation, this helps them to get to the level of escalation as soon as possible. We also reviewed our internal escalation procedures, making sure we can handle any issues swiftly. - Proactive Customer Communications:
When every second matters, clear and straightforward communication is crucial. Throughout the year, Searchspring proactively shared timelines with customers to ensure that all work was completed in a timely manner. These dates included code freezes, new customer implementation deadlines, project deadlines, and change request deadlines. - Ready If You Need Us:
Sometimes, the best plans fail, and should that happen, we have a comprehensive on-call schedule, incorporating members from all teams, to promptly address any potential issues that may arise and provide continuous support during this crucial period. This strategic measure ensures our responsiveness and timely action should the unforeseen need arise. “We’ve raised awareness about BFCM preparations within our organization and ensured that Engineering and Product teams are on-call,” says Tina Towers, Director of Support at Searchspring.
Ready to #WinBlackFriday?
At Searchspring, we’re committed to ensuring our customers have the best BFCM ever by delivering the ultimate shopper experience. We’re excited about the upcoming holiday season and look forward to serving our customers during this time. Stay tuned for more updates as we navigate through this exciting journey!
» Talk to our Black Friday ecommerce experts to ensure your site is ready for the busy holiday season!
