What do you need to think about before closing your business for the July 4th holiday? Imagine this being asked in a panicked tone at 4:50pm on July 3rd. Clients ask this question quite frequently when a holiday is approaching, so we wanted to take a moment to review our recommendations on planning for holiday closings. Plan early and knock out these few To-Do items so you have time to focus on things that really matter, such as buying hot dogs for your family, picking up the fireworks, making sure no one invited that annoying cousin – you know, normal 4th of July things.
When closing your business for a day or more, there are a few key To-Do’s that are important from a technological standpoint to ensure that things run smoothly in your absence, and that most importantly, your clients know what’s going on with your business. Here’s a handy checklist to help you prepare for a holiday closing:
- Does your phone system’s auto attendant say you are closed? You don’t always have to say you are closed for this day or that day, but at a minimum it should have some type of after-hours message letting clients know that you are closed. For example, here at ComTech, it does not say we are closed for the holiday, but when you call in from July 4th through July 5th you will hear “Thank you for calling ComTech, we are currently closed…”
- Have your employees turned on their email auto-responders? Do they know how? For example, all of our technicians here at ComTech will receive a generic “we are closed response” from their manager to put up on their Outlook. This ensures that all clients know ComTech is closed for the holiday regardless of who they email.
- Finally, if you have an on-call person for the holiday – has that emergency line been tested? We recognize as much as anyone that July 4th is all about the hot dogs, the family, the fireworks, etc., but that doesn’t mean we should throw all caution to the wind for those few days and not be ready if our clients need us. For this reason, on the 3rd we will run through a quick test to ensure our emergency line for service contract clients is up and working. We make sure the team knows who is on call and knows the response time expectations. If you are in a service business and you have an emergency line, we urge you to test before going on the holiday. There is nothing worse than coming in feeling refreshed from a holiday only to find out one of your clients desperately needed you while you were away and your systems failed.
With that, we will leave you to your 4th of July planning. From the team here at ComTech, we wish you lots of fireworks, time with family and friends, and no work emergencies?
If you have questions on setting up an auto responder, testing the on-call option, or checking your closed message for your phone system, please feel free to reach out, and our technicians will be more than happy to help!
Today’s blog author is Ethan Farlow, Director of Support Services here at ComTech.
