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# Peak Season Readiness 🎄 (October 2023)

As the peak shopping season of the year quickly approaches, we understand how important it is for you to continue operating without disruptions. To make sure you receive the best service possible from us during this time, we have made preparations across all departments.

Please read through the information below to understand:

  • [The Peak Season Readiness Checklist](🔗)

  • [How We Will Help You](🔗)

  • [Who You Can Contact](🔗)



## The Peak Season Readiness Checklist

The success of the peak season depends primarily on your preparation. Here are a few things that you can do to ensure Engagement works as smoothly as possible for you:

### 1. Prepare Beforehand

  • Complete the [peak planning form shared by your CSM](🔗) - if you have not received it yet, please contact your CSM who can walk you through the process

  • Learn about best practices on our [Holiday Preparedness live webinars](🔗) - these are led by our expert consultants on September 7th and 14th, recordings will be available [here](🔗)

  • Understand [what is deliverability](🔗) and how to improve it with [our guide](🔗) and [videos](🔗)

  • Go through our [guide on efficient Engagement usage](🔗) to optimize your imports and campaigns for holiday scaling

  • Bear in mind that our [Acceptable Use Policy](🔗) obligates our clients to use Engagement within its prescribed limits, which can be found throughout our [documentation](🔗)

### 2. Plan Your Imports

  • Plan any bulk imports of customer data, product catalogs, etc. ahead of time (e.g., importing on Thursday before Black Friday)

  • Plan bulk imports for quiet periods, when campaigns are not scheduled and clients are not engaging (e.g., between 10 p.m. - 4 a.m.)

  • Use the import function (e.g., CSV) instead of APIs for bulk imports

### 3. Adjust Your Campaign Setup

  • Check your frequency policy to make sure your emails will not get blocked

  • Set your sends 5-10 minutes around the hour (instead of sending at 9 a.m., send at 8:55 or 9:10)

  • Do not change your tracking or code close to peak (we would suggest a two-week code freeze prior to Black Friday)

  • Push audiences for social media to the respective platforms the day or night before

## How We Will Help You

### Support

Our Support team will always be your key partner in managing any technical challenges you might experience. Response times and service will continue to be in accordance with our [SLAs](🔗) during peak season (check what [business hours](🔗) are applicable for you).

In case of downtime on single-tenant instances, your CSM will keep you informed. For multi-tenant instances, you can easily check our [Bloomreach status page](🔗) where you get real-time updates about the operational status and health of the platform. We'll also let your CSM know about any notifications that directly affect your account.

To help Support run smoothly, before reaching out, please:

  • See [the most common issues and their solutions](🔗), such as with [imports](🔗), [emails](🔗) and [web personalization](🔗)

  • Check that your inquiry falls [within the scope of Support](🔗)

  • Learn [how can you communicate with Support efficiently](🔗)

### Engineering

Our Engineering team will be upscaling platform capacity on instances according to the [peak planning form shared by your CSM](🔗). If you have not shared this data with us, we will still monitor and upscale, only with less direct input from your team.

### Deliverability

Learn about best practices on deliverability on our [Holiday Preparedness live webinar](🔗) on September 7th. The recording will be available [here](🔗). You can also learn [what is deliverability](🔗) and how to improve it with [our guide](🔗) and [videos](🔗).

Our deliverability specialists will be available to you for consultations during working hours over two weekends in this peak (November 18th-19th and 25th-26th). In case of urgent questions, please feel free to reach out to:

Stay up to date on the latest technical status of partner ESPs and subscribe to their notifications:

  • Mailgun: <https://status.mailgun.com/>

  • Brevo (formerly Sendinblue): <https://status.brevo.com/>

  • Sinch: <https://status.sinch.com/>

### Client Services

If you need help from the Technical or Business Consultants (and you have an agreement in place or you need to discuss a new service agreement), please let your CSM or AM know by the end of October. All consultants will be focused mostly on helping customers prepare and execute for peak season but will be available to support BAU as well. Please give as much notice on tasks as you can and appreciate that responses will be slower than usual.

## Who You Can Contact

Who to contact depends on the question you have. Your question should fall into one of the two categories:

### 1. For any preparation, strategic advice, or larger questions about specific campaigns, contact your CSM directly

They will be able to advise you or pull in the right consultant to do so. Please remember the Client Services team is available during working hours only

### 2. For any in-app questions, concerns, or technical issues, contact Engagement Support through live chat (if not available, use [[email protected]](🔗))

2.1. Before reaching out to Support, please:

  • See the most common issues and their solutions, such as with [imports](🔗), [emails](🔗) and [web personalization](🔗)

  • Check that your inquiry falls [within the scope of Support](🔗)

  • Learn [how can you communicate with Support efficiently](🔗)

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2.2. Contact Support through live chat (if not available, use [[email protected]](🔗))



2.3. If your issue is urgent or critical, contact Support and also your CSM. Share the ticket number with them and explain the level of urgency

2.4. If a critical issue is not resolved by speaking with Support and your CSM, please escalate by contacting your respective Regional Head of Client Services with your CSM in Cc. These are: