A Smart Home Brand’s Ultimate Guide to Surviving Holiday Support Demand

It’s no secret that smart home brands are susceptible to seasonal demand. This is especially prevalent around the holidays: Between Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the holiday season, the last quarter of the year means a massive increase in sales in a relatively short period of time, leading to an increase in holiday support demand.

The last quarter of the year is a busy one for smart home brands. Annual sales of smart devices are increasing by tens of millions every year, as does Black Friday spending. In 2022, online shoppers spent a record US$ 9.12 billion on Black Friday, an increase of 2.3% over 2021. This surpasses the previous Black Friday sales record of US$ 9.03 billion set in 2020. Since 2017, smart speaker manufacturers have seen anywhere from 39% to 48% of their entire annual sales happen entirely within the last three months of the year.

While spikes in sales are good for business, they can be problematic for support teams. An increase in sales means a proportional jump in holiday support demand as customers start trying to set up the millions upon millions of devices purchased between October and December. The majority of the issues customers have with smart devices aren’t actually caused by any device defects: they’re caused by setup and connectivity issues within the customer’s home network. With annual sales numbers increasing by tens of millions every year, how can support teams keep up?

RouteThis explores the following in their latest eBook:

• Why seasonal sales spikes directly impact support teams
• What unanticipated costs your team could face
• How to handle the holiday season without overwhelming support agents