Author: Franz Malten Buemann

I’ve been fortunate that we’ve closed down for the last week of the year for the last seven years that I’ve been at Buffer. We kicked off this at the end of 2016 and have kept up every year since then.Closing down for the last week of the year is an opportunity to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, except across the whole company. I love telling people about this practice at Buffer because they have so many questions about how we continue to operate while closing down for a week.As we work with many small businesses and creators who can sometimes struggle with working over the holidays, it feels especially important to share how we’re going about this.So in this post, I’ll cover what it means to close down for a week as a business whose customers are always using it, why we do it, and specifically how our largest teams manage this time off while still caring for our product and our customers.Let’s dive in!What does it mean to close down for a week?At the end of every year, we close down for the year’s final week. The exact definition of “closed down” varies from company to company – some businesses will completely shut down operations while others will only close particular sections of their business.This gives everyone at the company some extra time to rest, and it creates an environment where no one is worried about missing out on projects or updates while they’re offline because we’re all offline. We’ve done this sort of thing before, closing down for an extra long weekend in the summer, and it’s always been refreshing for our team.When I say that we’re closed, that means that most of the company is off (I’ll elaborate in the next section), we aren’t releasing new features or changing our product at all, we aren’t publishing new blog posts, and it is intentionally a time of rest.In our business, creating tools for small businesses and creators building a brand online, this time of year is also reliably slow. So unlike some other industries that may pick up over the holidays, we can lean into rest by closing the company during a naturally slower period.What does this look like in practice?For most teams at Buffer, closing for the holidays means a full disconnect. Our two largest teams, Engineering and Customer Advocacy have to create systems where we can still serve our customers and ensure Buffer is operational while also making space for additional rest. So here’s how Engineering and Advocacy tackle the week off.How our Advocacy team handles a week closed Our Advocacy team is a group of absolute pros who are taking care of our customers. This year, they’ve helped solve over 60,000 customer support requests with an average first response time of just three hours.Over the years that we have been closing, they have figured out the right balance to ensure we can still help customers while also giving our Advocates that extra rest.To start, we take steps to make this period visible to our customers. They post a clear message stating that we’re shut down for the holidays in all the main channels where we communicate with customers. Those include a banner for people who are in Buffer, an auto-reply to customer support email, a pinned tweet on our account, and several other places.This year, the message reads:The Buffer team is observing a company shut down between December 24 and January 1.We are still responding to customer support emails and messages but will take longer than usual to reply. We’ll get back to you as quickly as we can. Happy Holidays!For Advocates, we ask that each person on the team works one full day or two half days in that period. We have 21 people on the Advocacy team, and we’ll have two or more people online most days. We don’t always have people on December 24th or 25th, or January 1st, and we’re okay with that.The team has in place a clear schedule, expectations when people are online with how to prioritize their work and get back to customers, and guidelines for emergencies. (We have those guidelines in place all the time, but it’s always good to review ahead of the holidays.)How our Engineering team handles a week closedSimilar to Advocacy, for our engineers, we need to have some coverage of engineers who are on call in case something happens.For Engineering, their break looks different because they are on call, meaning they are available if something breaks, rather than fully online during this time. That means that the load of being on call can be spread among fewer people because the likelihood of them needing to be online is lower.The way that the on-call schedule works is that there are several specialized or senior members of the team who are immediately placed in all of the on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the rest of the engineering team to be on-call throughout the week.In addition to having folks on call, we also do a code freeze before the end of the year. This simply means we stop shipping new code and making changes to Buffer. The goal of this is to increase our confidence that things will go smoothly for the engineers on-call and our Advocacy team.A few questions from our community about closing down for a weekWe reached out on social media to see what questions people had about closing down for a week, and we got a few good questions. Here’s our response: Do clients find this frustrating or ever complain?We haven’t heard major complaints or frustration about this in the past, and if ever things have not gone as planned, we’ve adjusted our plan for the following year. We make sure to be very transparent that we’re taking this time off across our communication channels. We still have our Advocacy team spending some time online and can reply to anything urgent.Did this impact your bottom line at all?No, we intentionally choose a slow time for us to be closed. So it’s the right time to take a break without any major impact. In addition, since the Advocacy team is still monitoring for urgent customer requests and the Engineering team is on call, we can still jump on any issues that pop up, and our customers still have support.I’d love to know about the benefits your company has seen and how it positively impacts employees!The biggest benefit we’ve seen from closing down for the holidays is that our team is more rested and refreshed. It’s a unique opportunity for everyone at Buffer to take a break, rather than it happening in spots throughout the year. It means the energy levels in the first few weeks of the year are always really high for us. Taking this week off for all of us at once also gives us a greater opportunity to relax because no one needs to think about projects that are moving forward without them or missing out on team communication. After all, we’re all offline. This is great for us as a team, which translates into being great for our product and our customers.Do you take breaks from work or your business, and if so, what’s your approach? We’d love to hear from you on Twitter or Discord.

 

 

2022 has taught us to expect the unexpected. The most shocking events of 2022 for me were – as they probably were for everyone – the Ukraine conflict, the energy crisis, the growing pessimism among businesses and consumers and, finally, the emerging recession that completely changed the dynamics of eCommerce post-pandemic recovery. This is a new wave of mounting issues, something RetailX dubs the ‘negative multiplier effect’.  

There’s no way to truly predict what twists and turns lie ahead in 2023. This implies being flexible and ready to change action mid-course: essentially, being lean yet impactful. Luckily at SALESmanago, we have promoted and supported such a business model for years now – and it’s a model that is tailor-made for the years ahead. 

Here are my thoughts on the four main trends I expect we will see in 2023 and beyond.  

 

1. More brands will deploy Lean Marketing strategies in eCommerce 

 

As traditional customer relationships and marketing concepts are being increasingly challenged, it will become necessary to transgress them in 2023. Lean Marketing is at the centre of this. In short, lean marketing is an analysis of what the recipient truly cares about and optimises the entire communication process; eliminating activities that are a waste of time and money and do not bring value to the target customer. 

Marketing no doubt faces a perfect storm as business heads into recession. But instead of being side-lined, teams need to prove they can get even closer to customers and encourage loyalty that will help their brand get well positioned for better times. 

Customer Intimacy also plays a key part here. According to Epsilon, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalised experiences. But, the current approach based on the combination of first and third-party data is not enough to deliver this. Thankfully, the extensive use of zero-party data enables us to hyper personalise our communication and build true Customer Intimacy. This, in turn, leads to a strong bond between the brand and every customer.

 

2. Brands and its customers will turn to activism and try to align on values 

 

ESG is not just a business goal and badge of honour. Its whole purpose revolves around genuine ethics, morals and action that seek to make changes for the greater good. Every brand is a sustainability brand. 

We will see brand activism taking the fight to inequality, with initiatives such as adapting pricing schemes and product accessibility. It’s an ethos of uniting people versus the polarisation offered by politics. The War in Ukraine showed the great power of brands in tackling global problems – what would happen if war in Ukraine was the climate (or a multitude of other issues for that matter)?

Consumers will see straight through performative gestures. Brands will have to take genuine action and comment on issues they are actually invested in. We’re operating in a new customer loyalty paradigm founded on purpose and values. With more and more misinformation and fake news, consumer choices will be more and more based on emotions than critical thinking. 

This wave of activism is only set to grow exponentially. 

 

3.  eCommerce will visibly contribute to climate change combat

 

eCommerce has the potential to significantly contribute to the battle against climate change through various initiatives and strategies related to marketing. 

For example, businesses can make use of zero party data to reduce waste and improve sustainability. By collecting and using zero party data, businesses can create more targeted and personalised marketing campaigns, which can help to minimise the environmental impact of their marketing efforts by reducing the amount of unnecessary or ineffective marketing materials that are produced and distributed. Marketing teams are  preparing for this transition, with 90% planning to employ zero-party data in 12 months. 

Another way that eCommerce can contribute to the climate change combat is through the promotion and facilitation of re-commerce, which refers to the buying and selling of second-hand or pre-owned products. This can help to reduce waste and extend the lifespan of products, thereby reducing the environmental impact of the manufacturing and disposal process. 

 

4. Customer data sets will expand to support diversity and inclusivity as well as true Customer Intimacy

 

In the past, customer data sets have often focused on traditional demographic and behavioural data, such as age, gender, income, location, and purchasing history. However, as businesses and consumers increasingly prioritise diversity and inclusivity, it is likely that customer data sets will also begin to include data on characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and disability status. This can help businesses to better understand and serve their diverse customer base, and to create more inclusive marketing and product offerings. 

As a result, this means brands can demonstrate true Customer Intimacy – whereby they create meaningful bonds with customers. By collecting and analysing more detailed data on individual customers, businesses can create more personalised and targeted marketing campaigns and product offerings, which can help to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

 

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