I’ve been lucky that we have closed down for the final week of the yr for the final seven years that I’ve been at Buffer. We kicked off this on the finish of 2016 and have stored 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 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 every week.
As we work with many small companies and creators who can generally battle with working over the vacations, it feels particularly necessary to share how we’re going about this.
So on this put up, I’ll cowl what it means to shut down for every week as a enterprise whose prospects are at all times utilizing it, why we do it, and particularly how our largest groups handle this day without work whereas nonetheless caring for our product and our prospects.
Let’s dive in!
What does it imply to shut down for every week?
On the finish of yearly, we shut down for the yr’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 specific sections of their enterprise.
This provides everybody on the firm some further 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 performed this kind of factor earlier than, closing down for an additional lengthy weekend in the summertime, and it’s at all times been refreshing for our crew.
Once I say that we’re closed, that signifies that many 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 that will choose 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 need to create methods the place we are able to nonetheless serve our prospects and guarantee Buffer is operational whereas additionally making area for extra relaxation. So right here’s how Engineering and Advocacy sort out the week off.
How our Advocacy crew handles every week closed
Our Advocacy crew is a gaggle of absolute execs who’re taking good care of our prospects. This yr, they’ve helped remedy over 60,000 buyer assist requests with a median first response time of simply three hours.
Through the years that we’ve been closing, they’ve discovered the suitable 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 put up a transparent message stating that we’re shut down for the vacations in all the primary channels the place we talk with prospects. These embrace a banner for people who find themselves in Buffer, an auto-reply to buyer assist e mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and several other different locations.
This yr, the message reads:
The Buffer crew is observing an organization shut down between December 24 and January 1.
We’re nonetheless responding to buyer assist emails and messages however will take longer than common to answer. We’ll get again to you as rapidly as we are able to. Joyful Holidays!
For Advocates, we ask that every particular person on the crew works one full day or two half days in that interval. We’ve got 21 individuals on the Advocacy crew, and we’ll have two or extra individuals on-line most days. We don’t at all times have individuals on December twenty fourth or twenty fifth, or January 1st, and we’re okay with that.
The crew has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when persons are on-line with how you can prioritize their work and get again to prospects, and pointers for emergencies. (We’ve got these pointers in place on a regular basis, but it surely’s at all times good to evaluate forward of the vacations.)
How our Engineering crew handles every 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 completely different as a result of they’re on name, that means they’re out there if one thing breaks, fairly than absolutely on-line throughout this time. That signifies that the load of being on name may be unfold amongst fewer individuals as a result of the chance of them needing to be on-line is decrease.
The way in which that the on-call schedule works is that there are a number of specialised or senior members of the crew who’re instantly positioned in all the on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the remainder of the engineering crew to be on-call all through the week.
Along with having people on name, we additionally do a code freeze earlier than the top of the yr. This merely means we cease transport new code and making adjustments to Buffer. The purpose of that is to extend our confidence that issues will go easily for the engineers on-call and our Advocacy crew.
A number of questions from our group about closing down for every week
We reached out on social media to see what questions individuals had about closing down for every week, and we received just a few 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 previously, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next yr. We be sure that to be very clear that we’re taking this day without work throughout our communication channels. We nonetheless have our Advocacy crew spending a while on-line and might reply to something pressing.
Did this influence your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a gradual time for us to be closed. So it’s the suitable time to take a break with none main influence. As well as, for the reason that Advocacy crew continues to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering crew is on name, we are able to nonetheless bounce on any points that pop up, and our prospects 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 crew is extra rested and refreshed. It’s a singular alternative for everybody at Buffer to take a break, fairly than it taking place in spots all year long. It means the power ranges within the first few weeks of the yr are at all times actually excessive for us. Taking this week off for all of us directly additionally provides us a larger alternative to chill out as a result of nobody wants to consider initiatives which can be transferring ahead with out them or lacking out on crew communication. In spite of everything, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a crew, which interprets into being nice for our product and our prospects.
Do you are taking breaks from work or your small business, and in that case, what’s your method? We’d love to listen to from you on Twitter or Discord.
