# The BFCM support checklist, week by week.

A dated checklist for Shopify support teams, from early November to the January return wave. Copy it, give each line an owner, and tick it off.

Get policies, procedures and staffing settled by mid-November, test everything the week before Black Friday on November 27, and run sale week from a short daily routine. After Cyber Monday on November 30, plan for December delivery questions and a January return wave.

Source: https://aide.app/guides/bfcm-support-checklist · Updated 2026-11-04 · By Ziyad Basheer

| | |
|---|---|
| Thanksgiving | Thursday, November 26. Mark it as a holiday in business hours. |
| Black Friday | Friday, November 27, 2026. |
| Cyber Monday | Monday, November 30, 2026. |
| USPS Priority Mail | Send by December 18 for delivery before Christmas, lower 48 states. |
| Return wave | Late December until your holiday return deadline in January. |
| Every line | One named owner, plus a refund approver for each sale day. |

Use this as a working list: copy it into your team's tracker and give every line one owner. The reasoning behind each step is in the [Black Friday customer service playbook](https://aide.app/guides/black-friday-customer-service).

## By November 13: policies and answers

- Write the sale rules: which codes apply, whether they stack, what is final sale, and whether a late shopper gets the sale price. The [missed the sale price](https://aide.app/templates/missed-the-sale-price) template needs this answer.
- Set your order-by dates per shipping service, using the [holiday shipping cutoffs guide](https://aide.app/guides/holiday-shipping-cutoffs).
- Decide your holiday return window and gift rules, using the [holiday return policy guide](https://aide.app/guides/holiday-return-policy).
- Write sale-week processing time down in one sentence.
- Put each of the above in a knowledge article. Every chat and email answer should come from these.

## By November 20: setup and testing

- Create a procedure for each spike question, each with a When to use: discount codes, order changes, delivery dates, gift requests.
- Run Check trigger on every new procedure and read the near misses it lists.
- Test each one with a replay of a past conversation before you set it live.
- Add always-on rules as Instructions, such as "Never promise a delivery date."
- Choose each topic's AI level. Keep refunds and anything new on Drafts.
- Mark Thanksgiving and closed days as holidays in business hours, and check your outside-hours message.
- Check your plan's included AI replies against last year's sale volume, and note when usage alerts will fire.

## November 26 to 30: sale week

Run the same short routine each morning and evening:

- Approve or reject the order actions and refunds waiting for the team.
- Read the handoff reasons since the last check. A repeated reason usually means a missing article.
- Fix the article, not the reply, when Aide or a teammate gets an answer wrong.
- Swap the banner and chat answers the moment a code, offer or cutoff changes.
- Keep a person on the sale-email hours and the evening after.

## December 1 to 24: delivery questions

- Move procedures from sale questions to delivery questions, using [will it arrive by Christmas](https://aide.app/templates/will-it-arrive-by-christmas) and the [where is my order](https://aide.app/templates/where-is-my-order) template.
- Watch for stalled tracking and carrier exceptions, using the [WISMO peak season guide](https://aide.app/guides/wismo-peak-season).
- Update the site banner the morning after each cutoff passes.
- Make sure [gift receipt](https://aide.app/templates/gift-receipt-request) and [ship as a gift](https://aide.app/templates/send-an-order-as-a-gift) requests reach whoever packs orders.

## December 26 to January: the return wave

- Turn on returns in Aide if you haven't, and check your Shopify return rules match the holiday window.
- Use [extended holiday returns](https://aide.app/templates/extended-holiday-returns) and [gift return](https://aide.app/templates/gift-return) for the common questions.
- Plan for requests after the deadline with [return outside the window](https://aide.app/templates/return-outside-the-window).

## After the window closes: review

- Set the return window and policy pages back to standard the day after the deadline.
- Switch off the holiday procedures, so they stop matching.
- Read the season's handoff reasons and weekly knowledge gaps, and write next year's articles from them.
- Keep this checklist, with your notes, for next November.

## Good to know

- USPS dates are from its 2026 holiday shipping page. Check UPS and FedEx separately.
- Returns in Aide stay off until you turn them on.
- Aide works in text channels. It does not handle voice or phone today.

## Frequently asked questions

### When should I start preparing customer service for Black Friday?

Early November at the latest. Policies and answers take a week to write, and procedures need a week of testing on real conversations before sale traffic arrives on November 27.

### What should a BFCM support checklist include?

Written sale, shipping and return policies, knowledge articles for each, procedures for the spike questions, coverage hours and a refund approver, holiday business hours, a daily sale-week routine, and a plan for December delivery questions and January returns.

### What should support do the day after Cyber Monday?

Read the handoff reasons and unanswered questions from the weekend, fix the knowledge articles behind them, and switch the sale procedures to their December versions, such as delivery-by-Christmas questions.

### How do I check my AI agent is ready for Black Friday?

Run Check trigger on each procedure against recent conversations, replay a few past ones through the procedure's Test, and keep new topics on Drafts until a week of drafts reads right.

## Related
- [Black Friday customer service](https://aide.app/guides/black-friday-customer-service)
- [Holiday shipping cutoffs](https://aide.app/guides/holiday-shipping-cutoffs)
- [Where is my order in peak season](https://aide.app/guides/wismo-peak-season)

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