If you’re shutting up shop for the festive holiday period, we’ve put together this blog to help prepare your website for the Christmas break and ensure your customers aren’t left in the lurch if they’re expecting a prompt reply.
In this day and age, while small business owners have the ability to be online 24/7, it’s crucial to take some time out to rest and recharge your batteries.
Many Aussie businesses shut down during the Christmas and New Year period meaning it’s the perfect (and sometimes, only!) chance they get to recuperate, especially after another pandemic fuelled year.
That’s why it’s a good idea to tick the following tasks off your to-do list before closing your doors for the festive season. This way, clients will know exactly when you’re out of the office and when they can expect to hear from you again.
How To Prepare Your Website for the Christmas Break
- Add a website banner notifying of any holiday closure periods
This is a simple, fast and effective step which communicates your closure period to everyone who visits your website.
A banner sits can sit in almost any place on your website, however, you just want to make sure it’s obvious.
At Brisbane Digital Co, we often choose a bright company colour so that it stands out to your website visitors but is also visible on every page.
PRO TIP: Be specific. Remember to include date and time you’ll be closing for the holidays, and when you’ll be back in the office.
- Update Your Contact Page and Forms
Adding extra messaging about your holiday and closure period on your Contact Page can be really beneficial, as people may head directly to this page on your site or may miss the banner notification entirely.
Depending on the form software used on your website, you can also change the email notification or text that appears after customers contact you to remind them when they can expect to hear back.
- Review Your Paid Ads
If you’re running any paid advertising, ensure that customers who enquire won’t expect an immediate response, otherwise you’ll be wasting your money.
In many cases, customers do expect a fast turnaround on online enquiries and will become dissatisfied if they are waiting a week or more for someone to get back to them.
Check your website landing pages that you use for your paid ads campaign, or even consider turning down your ad spend during the holiday season.
- Lock Your Website
If you know that you won’t need to access the back end of your website over the break, did you know you can lock your site in a bid to prevent any unauthorised logins?
This extra precaution is a great way to protect your data – and your customers’ information – when you’re not going to be active online.
In addition to your website…
There’s a couple of other important places to check or update your Christmas closure period.
- Update Google Business Profile
The beauty with your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business listing) is that you can pre-schedule the dates you’ll be closed in advance.
Login to your Google Business Profile, go to the “Info” tab and update the “Special hours” section.
- Update Social Media Pages/Profiles
If you have an online store, remind customers to get their orders in before you close up.
Regardless of what type of business you run we also find creating and “pinning” a social media graphic to the top of your page with closure dates is super helpful.
- Update Your Email Signature
Having your holiday closure period displayed in your email signature can help forewarn your regular clients that you are taking a break.
Doing this step in advance will help to raise the subject early with them, and may prompt better planning, so you can stay on top of deadlines even with the down time.
- Personally Notify Clients or Add into Enewsletters
We consumers bombarded by thousands of advertising messages, so it’s also worth personally reminding clients about when you’ll be closed when speaking to them on the phone or emailing directly.
Despite completing steps 1 – 7 it’s not unusual for some customers to have ‘missed the memo!’
Updating Your Website Before the Holidays
Being proactive about communicating your Christmas – or any holiday closures throughout the year – is essential to keeping customers happy! The last thing you want to do is annoy them or leave a sour taste in their mouth that you can’t fulfil their request or don’t reply promptly.
Need Help?
No matter whether you are time-poor or not confident how to make these updates yourself, the Brisbane Digital Co team can help. Contact us today.
