I’ve been lucky that we have closed down for the final week of the yr for the final eight years that I’ve been at Buffer. We kicked off this on the finish of 2016 and have saved up yearly since then.
Closing down for the final week of the yr is a chance to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, besides throughout the entire firm. I really like telling individuals about this follow at Buffer as a result of they’ve so many questions on how we proceed to function whereas closing down for per week.
As we work with many small companies and creators who can generally wrestle with working over the vacations, it feels particularly vital to share how we’re going about this.
So on this put up, I’ll cowl what it means to shut down for per week as a enterprise whose clients are all the time utilizing it, why we do it, and particularly how our largest groups handle this time without work whereas nonetheless caring for our product and our clients.
Let’s dive in!
What does it imply to shut down for per week?
On the finish of yearly, we shut down for the yr’s closing week. The precise definition of “closed down” varies from firm to firm – some companies will utterly shut down operations whereas others will solely shut specific sections of their enterprise.
This provides everybody on the firm some additional time to relaxation, and it creates an atmosphere the place nobody is nervous about lacking out on initiatives or updates whereas they’re offline as a result of we’re all offline. We’ve accomplished this kind of factor earlier than, closing down for an additional lengthy weekend in the summertime, and it’s all the time been refreshing for our group.
Once I say that we’re closed, that implies that a lot of the firm is off (I’ll elaborate within the subsequent part), we aren’t releasing new options or altering our product in any respect, we aren’t publishing new weblog posts, and it’s deliberately a time of relaxation.
In our enterprise, creating instruments for small companies and creators constructing a model on-line, this time of yr can also be reliably gradual. So not like another industries which will decide up over the vacations, we are able to lean into relaxation by closing the corporate throughout a naturally slower interval.
What does this appear to be in follow?
For many groups at Buffer, closing for the vacations means a full disconnect. Our two largest groups, Engineering and Buyer Advocacy should create techniques the place we are able to nonetheless serve our clients and guarantee Buffer is operational whereas additionally making area for added relaxation. So right here’s how Engineering and Advocacy deal with the week off.
How our Advocacy group handles per week closed
Our Advocacy group is a gaggle of absolute professionals who’re taking good care of our clients. This yr, they’ve helped clear up over 50,000 buyer assist requests and despatched over 105,000 replies with a median first response time of simply 4 hours, 38 minutes (enterprise hours).
Through the years that we’ve got been closing, they’ve discovered the fitting stability to make sure we are able to nonetheless assist clients whereas additionally giving our Advocates that additional relaxation.
To begin, we take steps to make this era seen to our clients. They put up a transparent message stating that we’re shut down for the vacations in all the principle channels the place we talk with clients. These embrace a banner for people who find themselves in Buffer, an auto-reply to buyer assist electronic mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and several other different locations.
This yr, the message reads:
The Buffer group is observing a company-wide vacation shutdown from 25 December to 1 January.
Whereas our response occasions might be a bit slower than ordinary, a devoted crew of Buyer Advocates are working as shortly as potential to answer buyer messages. Completely satisfied Holidays ✨
Every Advocate is working one full day or two half days. We stagger our protection throughout the shut down interval to make sure we’ve got the optimum variety of individuals on-line on the times we anticipate to be busiest.
This yr we’ve got individuals on-line on Dec 24, we’ve got a couple of hours of protection on Dec 25, and we’ve got individuals on-line on Jan 1. We ask all Advocates to work full weeks (5 days) within the two weeks following the vacation interval to make sure we kick off the brand new yr with the inbox in nice form and clients being helped as shortly as potential.
The group has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when individuals are on-line with prioritize their work and get again to clients, and tips for emergencies. (We have now these tips in place on a regular basis, however it’s all the time good to evaluate forward of the vacations.)
How our Engineering group handles per week closed
Much like Advocacy, for our engineers, we have to have some protection of engineers who’re on name in case one thing occurs.
For Engineering, their break seems totally different as a result of they’re on name, which means they’re accessible if one thing breaks, relatively than totally on-line throughout this time. That implies that the load of being on name might be unfold amongst fewer individuals as a result of the chance of them needing to be on-line is decrease.
The best way that the on-call schedule works is that there are a number of specialised or senior members of the group who’re instantly positioned in the entire on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the remainder of the engineering group to be on-call all through the week.
We reached out on social media to see what questions individuals had about closing down for per week, and we received a couple of good questions. Right here’s our response:
Do shoppers discover this irritating or ever complain?
We haven’t heard main complaints or frustration about this previously, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next yr. We ensure that to be very clear that we’re taking this time without work throughout our communication channels. We nonetheless have our Advocacy group spending a while on-line and might reply to something pressing.
Did this affect your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a gradual time for us to be closed. So it’s the fitting time to take a break with none main affect. As well as, for the reason that Advocacy group remains to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering group is on name, we are able to nonetheless leap on any points that pop up, and our clients nonetheless have assist.
I’d like to find out about the advantages your organization has seen and the way it positively impacts workers!
The largest profit we’ve seen from closing down for the vacations is that our group is extra rested and refreshed. It’s a novel alternative for everybody at Buffer to take a break, relatively than it occurring in spots all year long. It means the power ranges within the first few weeks of the yr are all the time actually excessive for us.
Taking this week off for all of us directly additionally provides us a higher alternative to chill out as a result of nobody wants to consider initiatives which can be shifting ahead with out them or lacking out on group communication. In any case, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a group, which interprets into being nice for our product and our clients.
Do you are taking breaks from work or what you are promoting, and in that case, what’s your method? We’d love to listen to from you on Bluesky or Discord.