How to Prepare For Black Friday 2021: 5 Proven Tips

Black Friday can be the most stressful day of the year for many businesses, but it doesn’t have to be. With some careful prepping and minor improvements, your business will be ready to ‘open your doors’ metaphorically or literally for Black Friday shoppers!

Fun Facts about Black Friday: 

• Black Friday in 2020 estimated $14.13 billion dollars in online sales. 
• 2020 was a record breaking year for online shopping with 100 million consumers shopping online. That’s an 8% increase from 2019. 
• $2.9 billion dollars spent on Black Friday were done through mobile phones. 
• Millennials were the biggest Black Friday shopping group in 2019. 
• The average adult spends $400 on Black Friday sales. 

5 Tips to Prepare for Black Friday

Black Friday is no joke! As you know, shoppers in the past have left Thanksgiving meal early just to wait in line at their favorite stores. We have also seen the crazy scenes where people are fighting over a TV or where people are being knocked down in the midst of the chaos. Although I cannot guarantee that none of that will happen, I can ensure that you and your team will have a more successful day of sales by having a Black Friday plan. 

1. Plan Early 📅

The same response applies to ‘Are we planning too early?’ as ‘Is it too early to listen to Christmas music?’. The answer is always NO. It is perfectly acceptable to listen to Christmas music as you put the Halloween decoration away. 

By doing your Black Friday planning over a period of time, you will think of things that you forgot about or that you didn’t account for in the original plan. By planning early, you are giving yourself plenty of time to create a plan, add to it, take away, and correct things as you think of them. 

If you can, take time to sit down with employees or other colleagues in the company who experienced Black Friday in previous years and have thorough planning days. Having meetings with other individuals in the company will help you identify things/issues you forgot about will help reinforce the plan all the more. 

2. Keep Contact Possible at All Times ⏰

It’s one day of sales, and as difficult as it might be, having omni-channel communication available 24/7 that day is crucial. By omni-channel I mean chatbots, automated emails, live agents, etc. This requires preparing your staff for night shifts, as well as planning who will work the night shift. 

Depending on how long your company allows the Black Friday deals to go, whether just Friday or Friday through Cyber Monday, having channels open for contact with customers is important to generate sales. 

Here are a few tips on how to prepare for Black Friday by offering 24/7 contact: 

• Have a designated person or people to just answer the phone, respond to chats, post/respond on company social media platforms 
• Determine what hours work best for each employee (to create shifts) 
• Develop scripts and templates that answer important questions like when the sale is, what the deals are, etc
• Automate what you can (see more below)

3. Automate What You Can 🤖

Not only does automation eliminate the need to manually send emails, text, and voicemails, but it also eliminates the wasted time of your employees. Freeing up employees and still generating communication/sales with the customers is imperative to winning on Black Friday! 

Q: ‘Okay, so how do I implement automation?’

A: By using a power dialer of course! From creating and uploading leads campaigns to automating your emails, voicemail drops and text, a power dialer can do it all. What’s even better is that it’s all neatly organized into one platform, so there’s no need for multiple automation tools. 

4. Brief Your Front-Line Staff ☎️
   

Whether your staff has experienced Black Friday or not, it can be overwhelming each time your staff has to work it. Prepare for Black Friday by informing  your staff about the plan, practicing using the scripts, and discussing situations they might encounter, they will feel more confident about working Black Friday. Having your staff feel confident and prepared will also be evident to the customers and reflect positively on their experience and their view of the company. 

5. Reward Your Employees 🎁
   

Employees are sacrificing a lot to be present and work on Black Friday, so remember to reward your employees. The rewards can be:  

• Discount on the products or services
• Gifts 
• Bonuses
• Extra time off 
• Thank you note
• Express thanks through company forums 
• New office equipment 
• Employee of the month award
• Throw a holiday party

There are many other creative and fun ways to thank your employee, but the important part is that you do something to show your appreciation and recognize their hard work. 

See how you can build a call center culture for effective results!