A crisis can strike at any time – even on holidays. Are you ready?

We all stay up for the next holiday: free time, family activities, sleeping, etc. However, just because the calendar recognizes that it is a holiday does not mean that your website or customers are really being attentive to this fact (especially those that in e-commerce).

What if your website crashes or a customer has a significant issue with your product and needs help?

Holidays mean different working hours for firms and different schedules for departing employees. If a problem arises during this time, resolving it by contacting the right people to resolve the issue can be a nightmare – and if you have a physical storefront, it could be difficult to realize access to it if the person with the keys is on an island having fun with somewhere longer holidays.

Before you and your team can enjoy some well-deserved time off, it is vital to implement a crisis management plan so that your organization is ready to handle any issue that arises. This doesn’t suggest you should force employees to work during holidays or smash work-life balance. However, your team needs to be prepared in case of an emergency.

Step 1: Get contact information and schedules

As each major holiday approaches, you should create an ICE contact list (in case of emergency) that everybody on your team can access. Ask your employees to share the best approach to contact them and what their schedules appear to be. It is also necessary to have alternative contacts.

For example, if your website developer goes camping off-grid and doesn’t have a cell signal during the holiday break and two days after, you should have an alternate contact that the team can contact in the event your website goes down.

Step 2: Change your on-call schedule

Senior management have to be available in crisis situations. Each holiday, designate a team member in management to be the point of contact if a problem arises. The rotation ensures that everybody can enjoy their holidays all 12 months round. Let managers know that they need to supply their contact information and the best approach to contact them, so everyone knows who and easy methods to contact them.

Step 3: Implement a plan

Once everyone has submitted their schedules and an on-call manager has been established, it is necessary to supply the team with a plan. This will look different for each company and industry, but a temporary outline of the plan might appear to be this:

1. The designated person must register with the company. This might appear to be checking the customer support line or checking the CRM to make sure customer orders are being accepted.
2. If something goes improper, the person on duty will have to make your mind up easy methods to deal with it. Maybe they can fix it quickly if it’s something small. You can prepare a decision tree for your team that shows what is considered a small problem and what is considered a larger problem that will likely be addressed by another person higher up the food chain. If the problem is more severe, the designated person on duty can use the emergency contact list to request assistance.
3. Then the problem needs to be reported somewhere central. This will help your team avoid similar issues in the future and ensure proper procedures are followed.
4. We hope that once the appropriate people are contacted and documented, the issue will likely be resolved. However, if not, you should definitely prepare something you can send to customers to allow them to know that the issue can’t be resolved until after the holidays.

It’s a good idea to brainstorm about things that might go improper to provide your team examples of what to do. For example, what should your team do if they notice customer orders being rejected by the CRM? What happens if your social media account is blocked resulting from an issue with a post? Ask your team to supply suggestions on what could go improper so they are as prepared as possible.

Step 4: Remember that everybody is human

It is also price remembering that everybody is human and needs rest. This signifies that it is acceptable to easily inform customers that your team is out of the office and can’t be contacted. Just be transparent with your customers and they will likely be understanding. Wherever your customers can find you, post a notice that no one is there, but after the holidays their comments will likely be addressed immediately. This should appear to be web banners, out of office email notifications, social media posts, etc.

Remember to provide your team some grace. If you resolve to have someone on duty, allow them to know that if a huge problem arises and they do all the pieces they can but still can’t solve it, that is okay! As long as they follow all the procedures established in advance, you know they did their best.

No matter how much you plan, brainstorm, or just worry, you can’t predict every emergency. The neatest thing you can do is make a plan, train your team, and at the end of the day recognize that you all deserve a vacation. Your team should feel supported, whether or not they’re on call or taking full advantage of their time off for the holidays, and a crisis management plan can help them feel secure.