Step 1: Record last peak's baseline, eight weeks out
Pull from the helpdesk the last peak's numbers per category: ticket volume by week, first-line resolution where it can be computed, first response time including overnight, escalation volume, and the temporary staffing cost. Put them in the baseline sheet with the dates. This is the comparison the Customer Support Digital FTE's Performance tab will be read against after the season, and it is the input to the budget in step four. If the FTE is already running, add its own last-cycle numbers per category from the Performance tab.
A peak measured against a quiet month proves nothing. Measured against last peak, it proves what changed.
Step 2: Bring the knowledge base current, weeks seven to six
The FTE answers only what the knowledge base answers, with a citation, so the base is the first line's ceiling. Review the order-status, shipping, returns, and seasonal-policy articles with the team; confirm cut-off dates, carrier changes, holiday hours, and returns windows for the season. Read the FTE's proposed articles from the last cycle's gaps and approve the ones that matter for peak categories. Add the seasonal facts to the Brand Brain with provenance. Every article that is wrong at peak becomes a wrong cited reply at volume, so this step is where most of the planning effort goes.
The knowledge base maintenance piece in the library describes the gap-to-article loop the FTE runs.
Step 3: Write the escalate list with seasonal receivers, week five
Open the remit in Setup and the Escalation Grid. For each trigger, name the seasonal receiver, their hours, and their deputy, because the person who owns refunds in a quiet month may be on the floor in the peak. Add seasonal triggers: missed-delivery-date complaints, gift-order problems, anything with a deadline. Confirm the out-of-hours receiver for distress and safety triggers. Confirm the four-part summary standard with the receivers, so that escalations at volume arrive as context rather than as reassigned tickets. Record the grid's date.
An empty receiver cell in week five is an incident in the peak.
- Every trigger: seasonal receiver, hours, deputy
- Seasonal triggers added
- Summary standard confirmed with receivers
Step 4: Set the budgets from expected volume, week four
From last peak's volume and the FTE's usage per ticket in its last cycle, estimate the role's tokens for the season and set the per-role budget in Setup with room. Check the organization wallet's block covers every role's peak estimate and change the plan if not, as an admin, to apply next cycle. The hard stop at zero bounds any surprise, but a role paused mid-peak is a queue nobody answers, so the budget is set to avoid the stop rather than to rely on it. Note the spend line in the morning brief as the daily check through the season.
The CFO persona piece describes how the block and the per-role budgets relate.
Step 5: Settle one category, weeks four to two
If the FTE is new, run the thirty-day first-line support playbook on the highest-volume peak category, order-status, gated, with the team approving cited replies and reading send-back reasons weekly. If the FTE is running, confirm that category's record is clean and its send-backs are about tone. The goal is one category with a clean record before the volume arrives, so that the Promotion Standard can be applied in step six with evidence rather than hope. Do not add a second category in this window.
One settled category through a peak is worth more than three unsettled ones.
Step 6: Decide the one promotion, week two, and then hold
At the pre-peak review in Performance, apply the Promotion Standard to the settled category. If all five conditions hold, promote it to auto-send within bounds: only tickets matched to an order, only carrier-reported statuses, only the approved templates. If any condition fails, leave it gated; the team approves cited replies in seconds and the first line still holds. Then freeze: no promotions, no remit changes beyond receivers, no new categories, and no plan changes during the peak. A step-back during a surge is the most expensive kind, and the freeze prevents it.
Money never earns autonomy, peak or not. Refunds and disputes escalate every time.
Step 7: Run the peak from the brief, and read the reasons after
Through the season, the support lead reads the morning brief daily: waiting count, escalations by reason, spend against budget. Receivers handle escalations from summaries. Gap escalations become proposed articles approved the same day where the peak categories need them. After the season, sort the escalation and send-back reasons; they are next year's knowledge base, remit, and receiver fixes, and the post-peak review in Performance reads first-line resolution per category against last peak's baseline from step one.
The metric explainer on first-line resolution explains why the peak is the only honest measurement window.
What does done look like?
Before the peak: a baseline sheet with last peak's numbers, a current knowledge base with seasonal facts in the Brand Brain, an escalate list with named seasonal receivers and deputies, per-role budgets set with room, one category settled with a clean record, and one promotion decided under the Promotion Standard or deliberately deferred. During: the brief read daily, escalations arriving as summaries, nothing promoted or changed. After: first-line resolution per category against last peak, escalation quality, gaps closed, and a sorted list of reasons for next year, written in the review note.
The e-commerce industry piece describes the same season from the store's side.