The Santa problem: How to turn customer demand spikes into opportunities

High-stakes demand surges, or the Santa Problem, occur when customer demand spikes sharply in a short window, much like Santa delivering gifts worldwide in one night. These surges can be seasonal (e.g., holiday shopping), event-driven, or unexpected, and they put enormous strain on business operations.

In this context, volumes are increasing, and customers expect everything to be delivered on time, especially in the era of automation and artificial intelligence (AI). For many brands, this “Santa problem” feels like survival mode. With the right business process optimisation, these spikes will not be a liability. If navigated correctly and managed with the correct approach and strategy, demand spikes can be turned into long-term revenue streams.

Plan for high-demand customer care during the holidays

Demand spikes expose weak links first in customer care. The brands that can handle the spike are those that treat peak season as a year-round program, not a last-minute scramble. This involves building flexible capacity plans across cross-training teams and arranging for overflow support. Brands must also set and monitor service thresholds, such as response times, resolution service level agreements, and net performance scores, as well as customer satisfaction targets.

At the same time, automated customer journeys should be simplified to resolve basic queries, enabling human agents to focus on more complex cases. It’s worthwhile to remember that when customers don’t get answers quickly, they don’t just abandon a cart; they leave the brand. Planning for high demand in customer care can transform support from a cost of doing business into a loyalty engine.

Also read: Managing surge recruiting during the holiday season without disrupting core operations

Launch campaigns early to attract attention and shape demand

Instead of planning around the peak, brands should use it to meet the demand. Launching campaigns early before the calendar or the weather screams “holiday” lets brands: 

1. Spread demand over a longer period instead of letting it accumulate in a single week.
2. Use pre-orders, waitlists, and early-bird offers as a live demand-sensing tool.
3. Test offers, messages, and channels while there’s still time to adjust inventory, staffing, and routing.

A well-orchestrated campaign turns the peak from a reactive rush into a proactive growth plan. With this, you decide which demand you want, when you want it, and through which channels. An omnichannel preparedness meets customers on their time, dime, and device.

This involves mapping key touchpoints across discovery, purchase, and post-purchase stages, and then designing a consistent experience across them. The channels should be planned in a way that customers can start and continue across channels without having to repeat themselves.

During a customer care spike, this coherence becomes critical. If one channel breaks, customers quickly try another. For instance, if there is a long IVR queue, customers can try the website instead. Enterprises that plan holistically keep the experience intact even when individual channels are under pressure.

Leverage AI to anticipate, adapt, and act

AI turns the Santa problem from guesswork into an exercise in controlled agility with the right business process optimisation partner.

1. Anticipate: AI-driven forecasting can combine historical peaks with real-time signals from search, social, and pre-orders to predict which products, locations, and channels will be under strain. Inventory and workforce plans can then be tuned to “hotspots” instead of being spread thin everywhere.
2. Adapt: During the spike, live dashboards and anomaly alerts help leaders see where queues are rising, where stock is thinning, and where customers are dropping off. Additionally, dynamic routing and capacity allocation (e.g., shifting volume between sites, languages, or digital and voice channels) prevent small issues from escalating into systemic failures.
3. Act: AI chatbots and self-service flows deflect simple interactions at scale, protecting human agents for complex, emotionally sensitive cases. In operations, automation and “digital workers” handle repetitive back-office tasks, from order validation to refunds, thereby increasing throughput without requiring linear growth in headcount.

Also read: Is using AI for customer service a smart choice?

How TP ANZ can turn the Santa problem into superior customer experiences

As a business process optimisation partner, TP ANZ works with brands that treat peak as a strategic growth moment, not a seasonal headache. Its role is to help them design and run a peak-ready, always-on model built around:

1. Hybrid, scalable CX operations, combining domain-skilled agents, flex and gig capacity, and AI-first self-service, so service levels hold even at surge volumes.
2. Omnichannel orchestration, integrating voice, chat, messaging, social, and in-app support into a single, measurable journey.
3. Data-driven control towers offer real-time visibility into demand, service performance, and customer sentiment, with clear playbooks in place when thresholds are breached.

Also read: A synopsis of TP’s Global Insights survey: Understanding evolving customer expectations

We can also layer in a low-cost outbound sales program that activates right after peak. By following up with new and high-intent customers with tailored cross-sell/upsell journeys, brands can convert seasonal, high-demand customer care and journeys into high net new sales and sustain momentum well into 2026.

Conclusion

The Santa problem will never go away. Customers will continue to bundle their purchases, expectations will rise, and unforeseen spikes will persist, testing even the best-run enterprises. What can change is how organisations respond, with automated customer journeys and human empathy.

With thoughtful planning for high-demand customer care, early campaigns that shape demand, true omnichannel readiness, and AI-driven anticipation and action, supported by partners like TP ANZ, demand spikes become more than a risk to manage.

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