End of year digital declutter — Part Three

We’re so close, you can almost smell the Christmas ham… and for those of you whose offices are closing today until the New Year, welcome to your holidays! 🎇

Over the last two weeks, we’ve looked at tips to clean up your digital footprint before open signs flip to closed and out-of-office emails flow freely. In Part One, we did a round-up of digital subscriptions to make sure those recurring monthly apps were earning their keep. In Part Two, abandoned and orphaned files found permanent homes in the magical art of the desktop sweep.

Today, here’s some final thoughts on how to make sure you’re digitally healthy and ready for a well-earned break.

Prep your automated messages for the holidays

If you’re going to be unreachable over the holiday period, it’s important that your clients and partners are aware of it. It’s all too easy to forget to set up that auto-response with your office return date, so take two minutes to make sure you’re communicating clearly and with clarity, even when you’re taking that inbox break.

Here’s a guide for setting this up in Gmail and here’s the process for our Outlook friends.

However, your out-of-office isn’t the only automated message to consider. If you’ve got a chatbot on your team that handles any of your incoming customer service or enquiries, it’s wise to ensure your chatbot scripts are updated for the holiday season.

For example, if your chatbot’s set to let an incoming enquiry know your team will reach out within 1–2 business days, updating this to take into account your holiday timing is a great way to remain fresh, specific and trustworthy over what can be a disruptive season. Share the holiday cheer with your chatbot who can pass it on to your customers on your behalf — everybody wins.

Check your Zaps and automations

Our automation systems don’t require the holiday breathers we do — it’s one of the reasons they’re always up for employee of the year.

If you use Zapier across your workflows, take a moment to review the Zaps you’ve got set up for deployment. Is everything running smoothly? No incoming sales leads are falling through the cracks? Are your eCommerce processes able to carry on without you? The holiday period is one of those areas where thoughtful automations truly shine, enabling work (and sales) to carry on without your direct involvement. If you’re concerned about revenue grinding to a halt over the next couple of weeks, take a moment to review Zapier’s suggestions on how to make the most of the sales potential of the holiday season. Scroll down for Christmas/New Year’s campaign advice.

Wishing you a restful, joy-filled holiday season, and time to refresh before the New Year is upon us.

Enjoy!

PS — Whenever you’re ready, there are some extra steps you can take to make your business an automated powerhouse:

1. Join the Automation Hackers community

It’s our Facebook community for business owners who want to automate — Click Here.

2. Get your free Automation Checkup

In a free call, I can show you what you can [and should] be automating in your business — Book Here.

3. Work with me and my team privately

Using my Automation Deep Dive method, we’ll create an Automation Blueprint unique to your company. Just send me a message with the words ‘Deep Dive’ and some details about your business, with what you’d like to focus on, and we can take it from there!