8 Ways to Prepare your Phone System for the Holidays
Your phone system is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep clients informed on holiday business hours and seasonal promotions. We’ve developed this checklist, along with some net2phone Canada Academy articles, so that you know exactly what to modify to keep clients engaged while simultaneously spreading some holiday cheer to your callers!
According to my advent calendar, the holidays are approaching quickly! As the malls get crowded, your daily calorie count sky-rockets, and you’re still struggling to come up with gift ideas for aunt Carol, it's likely that the last thing on your mind is what to do to prepare your office phone system for the holidays.
Your phone system is one of the easiest and most effective ways to keep clients informed on holiday business hours and seasonal promotions. We’ve developed this checklist, along with some net2phone Canada Academy articles, so that you know exactly what to modify to keep clients engaged while simultaneously spreading some holiday cheer to your callers!
Check Last Year’s Call Logs
Don’t know how many calls to expect over the holidays? Explore your call data from the previous year and pay attention to these important metrics:
- Busiest call times
- Average hold time
- Number of incoming calls per day
While demand will fluctuate based on multiple factors including year-over-year growth and what seasonal promotions your business is offering, you’ll be able to gauge what your business can expect this holiday season.
Update Your Business Hours
Whether you’re extending business hours to accommodate clients or temporarily reducing hours for vacationing staff members, you’ll want to know what level of service you’re going to offer in advance of the holidays. SONAR allows you to program alternate time-based call routing paths that kick in on the specified date to match Holiday office schedules.
Determine Answering Rules for O-O-O Staff
Within the SONAR Portal, you can create various answering rules that will determine how calls are directed and forwarded at different times. Perhaps you want incoming calls to go straight to voicemail for out-of-office employees? Or forwarded to a coworker's extension? Consider each employee that will be taking time off over the Holiday and choose which answering rule will best suit the needs of the clients calling into their extension. To learn about all of the answering rule options available to you and for step-by-step instructions on how to update your answering rules, visit this net2phone Canada Academy article.
Travelling but need to keep in touch? Download our Mobile App
If you’re the kind of worker who needs to keep in touch while on vacation, you can forward calls to your extension to your mobile device through our app, available on iOS and Android. You can also read our net2phone Canada Academy article, giving you steps to quickly set up the SONAR Mobile App.
Want to download the SONAR Mobile App? Head over to our mobile app page to get the correct version for your smartphone or tablet.
Record Holiday-Specific Greetings and Auto Attendants
“Buddy the Elf, what’s your favourite colour?” may not be the most effective greeting but adding a little Holiday cheer to your voicemail and auto attendant messages will surprise callers and add a human touch to your brand. This also serves as a prime opportunity to announce:
- Modified business hours
- When callers can expect a response
- What number to dial in case of emergency
If you're stuck on creating a script for your teams to follow, we've got you covered! Check out our ideas for scripting your special out-of-office voicemail greeting.
Promote Holiday Deals in Your Greeting
There’s no better time to pitch your promotions than with a captive, on-hold audience.
Add Extensions for Seasonal Hires
Does your business need to hire more elves… I mean, employees, to keep up with seasonal demand? When your organization relies on VoIP software it's easy to scale up and down. Simply contact your dedicated Customer Success Manager to add new extensions to your phone system.
Update On-Hold Music
To paraphrase Buddy the Elf, the best way to spread Christmas cheer is playing festive on-hold music for all to hear. Let your callers know that you’re hyper-engaged by playing season-appropriate on-hold music. If available, play songs that can connect with your value proposition, or that follow the theme of your current promotions!
Did you know that requesting a demo with a net2phone Canada Product Expert guarantees you a spot on Santa’s Nice List? Get a free 1-on-1 session with a real, live human this holiday season.
Happy Call-idays from all of us at net2phone Canada!
