Decide the rota, then test that calls actually arrive on the right handset, and set the voicemail message to say something useful for the days nobody is on.

The rota is the easy part

Agreeing who is nominally covering which days takes ten minutes and usually happens.

Making the calls arrive on that person's phone is a technical arrangement that nobody owns.

So the common outcome is a rota that exists and a line that rings in an empty office, with everybody assuming it was handled.

The useful work this week is the plumbing rather than the schedule.

Find out how calls currently arrive

Since most people do not know, including in businesses where it works fine day to day.

Is the published number a physical line, a mobile, or a virtual number forwarded somewhere.

Who can change where it forwards to, and can they do it from home on a Saturday.

What happens when it is not answered, and where does that voicemail land.

Does the number on the website match the number on the listing and the invoices, since several businesses have more than one in circulation.

Half an hour establishing this now is worth more than any amount of rota discussion.

What to arrange

The third is what separates an arrangement from an intention. Somebody has to ring the published number and confirm it reaches the right handset, for each day of the rota, before anybody goes home.

The voicemail is doing the work

On the days nobody is covering, which is most of them.

Change the message to say the actual dates you are closed, when you return, and what to do meanwhile.

Give an email address for anything that can wait and a specific route for anything that cannot, if one exists.

Say plainly whether messages are being checked, because a caller who leaves one expecting a call back and hears nothing for ten days is worse off than one told to email.

Record it in your own voice rather than leaving the default, and record it before the twenty-third rather than on it.

And change it back in January, which is the step that gets forgotten and which leaves businesses telling callers in February that they are closed until the third.

A worked example

A business of five agreed a rota covering four of the ten days.

Nobody had changed the diversion, so the line rang in the office throughout and nine calls went to a voicemail whose message said they would return your call shortly.

Two of those were customers with a delivery problem who then went elsewhere.

The following year they tested the diversion for each rota day in advance, recorded a message with the real dates and an email address, and put the diversion change in the calendar for whoever was on.

They took eleven calls across the period, of which two were work.

The rota had been identical both years and only the plumbing had changed.

Give the person on duty what they need

Since answering is only useful if they can do something.

Access to the order or booking system, or at least to somebody who has it.

The dispatch dates, the closing dates, and the answers to the five questions that will actually be asked.

Authority to resolve small things without checking, which is the difference between a call handled and a call logged.

A number for whoever they escalate to, that will be answered.

And a place to write down what happened, so the person on the next day knows.

Say it on the website too

Because a customer who sees the dates does not ring at all.

Put the closing dates where somebody looking for the phone number will see them, which is the contact page and the header rather than a news post.

Update the hours on the business listing, which is the source most people check and the one most often missed.

Say when you return, precisely, since closed until the new year is vaguer than it sounds.

That reduces the call volume more than any arrangement about answering it.

Decide what genuinely counts as urgent

So the person on duty is not judging it at nine on a Sunday.

Name the two or three situations that justify contacting somebody outside the rota: a safety issue, a failure affecting something in use, a delivery that has gone wrong.

Everything else waits, and saying so plainly protects whoever is covering from feeling they should have escalated.

Give the escalation number only for those situations, and to the people covering rather than publishing it.

An emergency number on the website is a commitment for the whole period rather than for the genuine cases.

Write down what came in

Since the calls over a closed period are unusually informative.

Ask whoever covers to note each one in a line: what they wanted, whether it was urgent, and whether it became anything.

A period with eleven calls and two pieces of work tells you what next year's arrangement should be, and a period with two calls tells you something different.

The pattern also shows which questions people ring about when the site is the only thing available, which is a direct list of what the site should answer.

Read it in January while deciding whether to cover at all next year.

The counter-case

Many small businesses can simply close.

A clear message, accurate dates, and a genuine return date is entirely acceptable and better than a rota nobody wants.

Cover also has a cost that lands on people who have earned the break, and a thin arrangement is worse than an honest closure.

And for a business whose customers do not have urgent needs, none of this is proportionate.

Test the diversion, record a useful voicemail, publish the dates, and change the message back in January.

Before you close

  1. Establish how calls currently arrive.
  2. Set the diversion for each rota day.
  3. Ring the number and confirm it works.
  4. Record a voicemail with real dates.
  5. Publish the dates on the site and listing.
  6. Brief whoever is on, with authority.
  7. Diarise changing it back.

Step three is the whole difference between a rota and an arrangement, and it takes a minute per destination.

Preparing somebody to actually handle the calls is covered in training somebody to cover the phone.

Frequently asked questions

What usually goes wrong?

The rota exists and the diversion does not. Calls ring in an empty office while everybody assumes it was handled, because the plumbing has no owner.

What should I establish first?

How calls currently arrive: whether the number is a line, a mobile, or forwarded, who can change it from anywhere, and where unanswered calls land.

What makes it a real arrangement?

Ringing the published number and confirming it reaches the right handset, for each day of the rota, before anybody goes home.

What should the voicemail say?

The actual dates you are closed, when you return, what to do meanwhile, and plainly whether messages are being checked. Recorded in your own voice, before the twenty-third.

What does the person on duty need?

Access to the booking system or somebody who has it, the dispatch and closing dates, authority to resolve small things, and a number for escalation that will be answered.

How do I reduce the calls?

Publish the dates where somebody looking for the phone number will see them, and update the business listing hours, which is what most people check.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Rota agreed for the break?

Ring your own number and check it reaches the right person for each day. That is the part that fails.

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