12.23.2015
One Last Inspection Before Turning Out the Lights and Going Home for the Holidays
The emails are sent. The doors are locked up. The drawers are counted and the deposit is ready to be made to the bank's nightly dropoff spot. Now, all that's left for you and your weary co-workers to do before going on Holiday break is to turn out the lights.
Well, actually, not to be an Ebenezer (or even try to turn that into a theme - too late - for our readers. Our apologies), but going on holiday break will disrupt the normal routine. Even for an extra day, the store, office, or whatever is the nature of your location, needs to be treated more like it is shutting down than it is simply locking the doors for a few hours longer.
"Seriously? WHHHHY?"
1) Safety First
It wouldn't be the first time in the history of business that something got missed by the night crew and the next open day the day crew comes to open the store to find it has burned down, been flooded, or broken into. For the signs, it could be a short in the wire, or a melt from overheating. I know, terrible things to think about when all you want to do is have visions of sugar plums dancing in your head. But we would rather you put off those thoughts another few minutes than to have them interrupted by calls from the local police, "We hate to bother you, but are you the manager of the..."
No one wants that call.
2) Save on the Electric
If you're closed for a day, you can save up to 3% on your electric bill by keeping the sign shut off If you close for two days, up to 6%. If you're an agency who closes down the last week of the year, that's up to 25% on the electric bill.
It does pay to go through the signage timers and software programs to make sure they stay off if you're truly not open nor are going to be open for the holidays.
Don't give that last, desperate shopper false hope.
The worst stories we hear are from customers who are beyond upset that they saw the light on at a store on Christmas eve that has potentially the last gift in stock of a toy a child wants. The customer parks the cars, goes to the front door to open it to find it has been locked. The lights are on, but nobody's around.
If ever you were going to expect a bad Yelp! or Google My Business review, it would be during these times. Have your professional-online-critic pacifier digital coupons ready to hand out.
Making sure everything will be good to go when you come back
Give your opening staff the Holiday Present of making it easy for them to open the location when your business opens back up. Have the signs updated. Have the timers preset. Let them know in advance via notes or emails if they're going to run into any issues. The last thing they need while they're trying to get over food hangovers is an unexpected headache.
