Business continuity tips for the holiday season

As the song goes, ‘It’s the most wonderful time of the year’. It’s finally the time of feasting, relaxing, and making time for family. You and your staff have worked hard all year, and deserve to kick back, and get into the holiday spirit. The end of the year is also the busiest for businesses, with customers spending left and right. Therefore, it is necessary that you have a business continuity strategy that keeps your clients happy while you enjoy your hard earned time off.

Plan ahead

Work out your staffing and scheduling weeks in advance. Find out who will be off on what days and how much of your workforce you need to keep operations working. Don’t let the holidays keep you from getting new customers and sales leads. Strategise routing schemes for your 1300 or 1800 number between you and your staff so that there is always someone to answer business calls. Everyone deserves some time off during the holidays, and you wouldn’t want to disrupt anyone’s plans because of poor planning.

Communicate

If you are planning to halt operations over the holidays, make sure that your customers are made aware of this, weeks prior. Put the announcement on your website, and email signature. Better yet, you can utilise your business intro service to announce the dates you will be closed every time someone calls your business. Isn’t that convenient?

Just as you make sure that your customers are informed, find out when your suppliers are going on holiday too. Check your inventory and make sure that every aspect of your supply chain runs smoothly even when you’re not around.

Get help

The end of the year also signals the high demand for seasonal workers. Outsourcing some of your functions, such as having someone else handle your calls, helps avoid the troubles that come with being understaffed during this busy season. However, training someone in a hurry may pose customer service risks on your part.

A better way to ease some of your load is to use a live answering service with professionally trained operators based in Australia to take your calls. Not only are you sure that calls are answered the same way every time, you can also rest assured that messages are forwarded to you immediately via email and SMS, so you can respond to urgent ones immediately.

Relax

Nothing gives your mind time to work better than taking a break, and the end of the year is one of the best times to do just that. With the help of the right telecommunications tools at hand, you can take your well-earned time off without worrying about things falling apart at work. To plan your business continuity strategy for the holidays, talk to our Business Consultants at 1300 255 835 or visit us at ALLTEL.