It’s only a matter of weeks before Christmas is here again.

And you know what that means?

Holidays!

Now, your office might only be closed on public holidays…

Or your office might be closed for a week or two during this period.

In fact, when I owned my rent roll, I used to close my office for 2 weeks, and that was my designated time off!

So whether you’re just getting a couple of public holidays, or you’re getting a couple of weeks off work, I want to share a couple of tips for preparing for your office to close during this period.

Tip 1 – Organise your tradespeople.

Check which tradies will be available over the holiday period, and make sure they know exactly what constitutes an “urgent repair” in your state.  Have a conversation with them about what to expect with emergency repairs and how to handle them if they get a phone call from your tenants.

Tip 2 – Let your clients know when you’ll be closed.

Put a notice up in your window, send an email to your database, include a note in your email signature.  Just make sure they all know exactly when you’ll be closed and what to do in the event of an emergency.

If you need a template flyer for your window or a template email for your tenants, click here to download a free Christmas notice template.

Tip 3 – Use your email auto-responder.

Now, obviously, you’re going to be using this auto-responder during the holiday period.  But you can also start turning it on after hours and on the weekends between now and the holidays, just to start to educate your clients on what to expect when you’re not at your desk.

If you need some fun ideas for email auto-responders, I found these great auto-responder templates here.  I’d suggest you incorporate parts of those templates with the Christmas email template here and customise them to sound like you (and your brand).

Tip 4 – Change your voicemail.

Just like the email auto-responders, this is a great time to start using your voicemail differently, to train your clients what to expect when you’re not officially at work.  You might even like to try a script like this:

 Hey there! You’ve reached ______ (your name) from ________ (agency name), but I’m away from my phone right now.  If you’ve called outside our regular business hours, don’t stress!  Leave me a message and I’ll get back to you when I’m back in the office next.

But just in case you’re calling about an urgent repair, and you’ve called outside regular business hours, I can help you get that repair organised right away!

Just head to the special urgent repairs section of our website, by going to __________ (website) “forward slash” urgent repairs and you’ll be able to get help right away with your urgent repair.

Otherwise, I’ll call you back when I’m in the office again next!

Then, once you head off on your Christmas holidays, you might want to modify the message a little more, like this:

Hey there! You’ve reached ______ (your name) from ________ (agency name), but I’m currently away having a little Christmas break!  I won’t have this phone with me until I’m back at my desk on ___________ (date), so rather than leaving a voicemail message, here are a few options:

If you’re calling about an urgent repair at your rental property just head to our special urgent repairs section of our website, by going to __________ (website) “forward slash” urgent repairs and you’ll be able to get help right away with your urgent repair.

If you’re calling about your rent payments, shoot an email message to _____________ (list email contact for the person who is managing receipting during this time).

And if you’ve called about something else, shoot me a text message to this number and I’ll get in touch with you on ______________ (date of return)

I hope you have a great Christmas period and I can’t wait to catch up with you when I’m back in the office again!

Of course, if you want to check your voicemail during this time, just modify the voice message to explain how often you’ll be checking, so callers know when (and how) they’re going to hear back from you.

You deserve this break coming up, regardless of how short or long it is.

So, be sure to download our Christmas closure templates and start preparing for your holiday period, so it runs smoothly and seamlessly.

And if you haven’t read my last blog The Fastest Way to Grow a Rent Roll be sure to check that out next