Completely unplugging from work over the holiday season simply isn’t an option for many entrepreneurs in today’s ultra-connected world. “Our business is always tethered to us, despite our best intentions,” says Mike Hennessy, CEO and founder of Harbor Crest Wealth Advisors in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

 

So Hennessy does the next-best thing. He leverages a suite of technology to ensure his clients can reach him—easily and securely—wherever he happens to be. “I typically travel with my work laptop and mobile phone,” he says. While those two technologies help him get work done when necessary, his business phone system also plays a big role in managing clients while he’s away.

 

Here’s how an advanced business phone system can help ensure your clients, customers or other callers are well-served when you’re taking a much-needed break:

 

Get as much access as you want

 

Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or have employees, an advanced business phone system’s features can help you manage customer engagement as you wish while you’re away. For example, if you want your customers directed to another employee in your place, you can use call forwarding to automatically send all calls to that employee’s line. Likewise, if you want to answer calls yourself, you can forward calls to your mobile phone line.   for example, allows for call forwarding from multiple phone lines to a single number.

 

If you want to check your voicemails, say, every few hours while you’re out of the office, you can have them forwarded to you via email—so you can easily access them on any laptop or smartphone.

 

You can also change your phone greeting—letting callers know your holiday schedule or when you’re away—from your computer or smartphone.
 

Use an automated “receptionist”

 

If you’re a sole proprietor—or the only client-facing employee in your firm—consider how your phone system can serve as a receptionist and provide callers with the information they need, Hennessy says.

 

An auto attendant like what Spectrum Business Voice offers, for example, allows you to create a customized menu of options based on when calls come in. For example, calls coming in after business hours could receive a greeting that lets people know when you’ll be back in the office. If the line is busy during business hours, callers could get a different greeting and options to reach another extension or to leave a message.

 

Moreover, you can set up the menus so that callers can skip over menus they don’t want or need to hear and get transferred directly to the line or person they are looking for..

 

Don’t forget social media

 

While your phone system is vital to managing customers while you’re away, research shows that many customers today use social media to report customer service issues. And they still expect an immediate response to any issues. So it’s also important to stay on top of all your social media platforms, even when you’re out of the office. (Consider appointing someone to monitor social media if you’d rather not.)

 

Slisha Kankariya, co-founder of With Clarity, an online, direct-to-consumer engagement ring company, uses the Kustomer app to manage her social media communications. “Syncing the app with Facebook, Messenger, texts and other communication methods have been the best way to ensure that we don’t miss a single communication,” she says.

 

It also syncs data and information across different platforms to ensure that the company communicates consistently with customers even if different people are handling customer requests.
 

Yes, you can still enjoy the holidays

 

With all of the technology available to keep you connected, it’s more important than ever to take a break from work, especially when you’re supposed to be on holiday. Hennessy suggests setting up a schedule to carve out some time to handle work issues while you’re on vacation—and then sticking to it.

 

Spectrum Business Voice offers many features that make it easy to manage your phone calls and voicemails while you’re out of the office—whether you’re on break or working remotely. Call 855-299-9353 to find out more about how Spectrum Business Voice can help your business.

 

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