Six Ways You Can Use the Holiday Season to Your Advantage

As we head into the core holiday season and ever more out of offices responses fall into your inbox, there is no disputing we are right in the middle of the summer lull. 

While it may be the time of year that many people look forward to, it can be seen as a nightmare for business owners and team leaders.

Summer is one of the busiest times of the year for team members taking annual leave. Arranging cover and having key members of staff off work can create problems and cause you a logistical nightmare. Maybe even your clients are away on holiday and you find that business is slow.

For whatever reason you may dread this time of year.

Chris Lowe from business and customer experience experts insight6, has put together six ways that you can use the core holiday season effectively in order to be as productive as possible during August:

1. See this as an opportunity for a refresh

Use this quieter time to give the business a refresh of its own. When people are away it is a good time to think about what is working well and what could be improved.

If it is a quiet time of year for you business-wise it is also a good opportunity to retrain and refresh both your own and your staffs’ knowledge and ability. Training is not just for when you start work it should be an ongoing process. Your team members should be constantly learning and improving so providing extra training will help them to achieve this.

Training is an excellent motivation for staff and can be a great way to get the team having fun and bonding with each other.

2. Find gems

With key members of the team out this can provide an opportunity for your team members to make decisions they usually wouldn’t be making. This is a fantastic way to find the gems in your team and find out who has the ability to make these important decisions, who can deal best with the pressure and ultimately who has the potential to step up – observe how they handle the extra responsibility, some people will probably surprise you.

3. Research new ideas

Make some time for new ideas now. Investing the time to take your team forward by offering new services and improving the services you currently offer can go a long way. Start by thinking about what your customers would want to see change, is there anything you could be doing differently? 

4. Take a break yourself

Going away or just taking some days off work is the best way to relax your mind. This will help you think up new ideas and reflect on the business as a whole. You will go back to work with a completely new mindset if you allow yourself a bit of time to switch off helping you to be much more productive once you get back.

5. It will soon be over

Whatever you choose to do don’t waste your time. Look back on August and know that you have been productive.

6. Don’t ignore the customer

Not everyone is on holiday. Don’t ignore the customers using your business in the quieter summer months, ensure that you are still showing fantastic attention. If summer is a busy time business wise, then get extra cover in. 

Remember, great customer service is key to success so how about paying them a little more attention than usual, get to know them better.

Expert Opinion contributed by Chris Lowe, insight6