I’ve been lucky that we have closed down for the final week of the 12 months 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 12 months is a chance to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, besides throughout the entire firm. I really like telling folks about this observe 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 necessary to share how we’re going about this.
So on this submit, I’ll cowl what it means to shut down for per week as a enterprise whose prospects are at all times 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 prospects.
Let’s dive in!
What does it imply to shut down for per week?
On the finish of yearly, we shut down for the 12 months’s remaining week. The precise definition of “closed down” varies from firm to firm – some companies will fully shut down operations whereas others will solely shut explicit sections of their enterprise.
This provides everybody on the firm some further time to relaxation, and it creates an surroundings the place nobody is frightened about lacking out on tasks or updates whereas they’re offline as a result of we’re all offline. We’ve achieved this form of factor earlier than, closing down for an additional lengthy weekend in the summertime, and it’s at all times 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 12 months can also be reliably gradual. So in contrast to another industries that 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 like in observe?
For many groups at Buffer, closing for the vacations means a full disconnect. Our two largest groups, Engineering and Buyer Advocacy must create techniques the place we are able to nonetheless serve our prospects and guarantee Buffer is operational whereas additionally making house for added relaxation. So right here’s how Engineering and Advocacy sort out the week off.
How our Advocacy group handles per week closed
Our Advocacy group is a bunch of absolute execs who’re taking good care of our prospects. This 12 months, they’ve helped resolve over 50,000 buyer help requests and despatched over 105,000 replies with a mean first response time of simply 4 hours, 38 minutes (enterprise hours).
Through the years that now we have been closing, they’ve discovered the proper steadiness to make sure we are able to nonetheless assist prospects whereas additionally giving our Advocates that further relaxation.
To begin, we take steps to make this era seen to our prospects. They submit a transparent message stating that we’re shut down for the vacations in all the primary channels the place we talk with prospects. These embody a banner for people who find themselves in Buffer, an auto-reply to buyer help e mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and a number of other different locations.
This 12 months, the message reads:
The Buffer group is observing a company-wide vacation shutdown from December 24 to January 1. Whereas our response instances shall be slightly slower than standard, a devoted crew of Buyer Advocates are working as rapidly as doable to reply to buyer messages. Comfortable Holidays! ✨
Every Advocate is working one full day or two half days. We stagger our protection throughout the close-down interval to make sure now we have the optimum variety of folks on-line on the times we count on to be busiest.
This 12 months, now we have folks on-line on Dec 24, now we have a couple of hours of protection on Dec 25, and now we have folks 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 12 months with the inbox in nice form and prospects being helped as rapidly as doable.
The group has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when persons are on-line with find out how to prioritize their work and get again to prospects, and pointers for emergencies. (We now have these pointers in place on a regular basis, nevertheless it’s at all times good to overview 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, that means they’re out there if one thing breaks, quite than totally on-line throughout this time. That implies that the load of being on name could be unfold amongst fewer folks 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 folks had about closing down for per week, and we bought a couple of good questions. Right here’s our response:
Do purchasers discover this irritating or ever complain?
We haven’t heard main complaints or frustration about this up to now, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next 12 months. We ensure 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 may reply to something pressing.
Did this impression your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a gradual time for us to be closed. So it’s the proper time to take a break with none main impression. As well as, for the reason that Advocacy group continues to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering group is on name, we are able to nonetheless soar on any points that pop up, and our prospects nonetheless have help.
I’d like to find out about the advantages your organization has seen and the way it positively impacts staff!
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, quite than it taking place in spots all year long. It means the vitality ranges within the first few weeks of the 12 months are at all times actually excessive for us.
Taking this week off for all of us without delay additionally provides us a higher alternative to loosen up as a result of nobody wants to consider tasks which can be shifting ahead with out them or lacking out on group communication. In spite of everything, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a group, which interprets into being nice for our product and our prospects.
Do you’re taking breaks from work or your corporation, and if that’s the case, what’s your strategy? We’d love to listen to from you on Bluesky or Discord.
