you can’t work on their project because you’re leaving on vacation or you rush to get their work to them.
you and you can also find them on Hubspot and Linkedin. AVOID DASHING TO THE DEADLINE We’ve all tried to fit in a last-minute project. Before vacation, before the holidays, before the end of the year—and I can’t think of a time that a last-minute project has been completed without at least 1 – 2 hiccups. Aim to start wrapping up and handing over projects and large tasks at the same time as you’ve sent out your vacation notification. This leaves you time to avoid rushing your custom- er’s choices or having to hire out work that you don’t have time to handle before you leave for vacation. WHAT’S NEXT? Once you’ve set up and executed a customer experience around your vacation, there’s nothing left for you to do but set that out of office email and sail off into the sunset!
Taking time away from work to relax and reflect on your business and your life as a whole is a part of building your brand, in the same way as preparing your customers for you to be out of touch is. They are experiences that elevate your brand from the competition. If you write a generic email, your customer won’t find it to be a memorable experience. If you haven’t prepared them for your departure at all, it might even be a negative experience for them. Neither of these is what you really want for your brand. If you want to amplify your message, create something custom that speaks to your audience and reflects who you—and the business you rep- resent—are in a personal way. Need some ideas for your out of office, let me know I would be happy to share some ideas with
Neither is a great option, and both leave you feeling quite anxious for your business.
time-consuming tasks (i.e. writing blog posts) and focus on scheduling a few of the less time inten- sive marketing tasks. Some consistency is better than none. And done is better than perfect. Keeping up with your posts as much as possible will go a long way to main- taining that client trust. CONTACT YOUR ACTIVE CLIENT LIST TWO WEEKS OUT There’s nothing worse than getting an email right before vacation from a client who didn’t know you were going to be away on vacation the next morning. You end up caught between telling them
Once you have your vacation details set, add a reminder to email your active client list at least two weeks out from when you’re going to be leaving. This eliminates worry over last minute projects and the possibility of an active client receiving your out of office notice when you’ve already headed out into the sunset. Setting expectations make for a great customer experience, which in turn helps with your client retention. SET UP YOUR OUT OF OFFICE Your Out of Office email is the branding opportunity you never knew you had. When you think of branding opportunities, you usually think of the logo or getting signage on the side of a building. Or even what you post about on social media. We don’t usually think about small things like writing an out-of-office reminder as an opportuni- ty for brand growth.
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JUNE 2019 • SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE I I I
SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS MAGAZINE • JUNE 2019 I I I 2019
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