The holiday season is upon us in full force and there seems to be no break for the business world. I previously worked in the hospitality industry and we had to work every holiday (of course employees would rotate, but it still seemed ridiculous). Having employees work every day is unnecessary. In order to give your collegues, employees, staff, etc. a day or more off, even when your business is going full-throttle every day, you need to do a few things to prepare:
Develop a plan. This seems so obvious but you need to create a plan to keep your employees ahead of schedule. You need to have a specific plan of what you’re going to do before you go on your holiday break, what you’re going to do during the break (if anything) and what you’re going to do the week you get back and after. Set priorities.
Keep Your Customers in the Loop. Let your customers know that you will be out of the office ahead of time. Don’t just set up your automated “out of the office” email and voicemail (although helpful, they can be frustrating for the person trying to contact you). Send out an email ahead of time and let them know you will be out of the office during certain days and or certain times. Also set up an out of the office voicemail for potential customers (and an email) so if a potential new client contacts you, they’ll know when to expect someone to contact them back. It wouldn’t even hurt to put something on the home page of your website just to be safe!
Doing these two simple things will help keep your customer service strong throughout the holidays.
What are you going to do to prepare your company for the holiday season?
For four more tips from help desk software review site Software Advice on making your holiday helpdesk shine, click HERE!