Decide what you will cover
List the days you will be closed and the days you will have reduced cover. Decide who is on call for urgent issues, and what counts as urgent: an outage or a payment problem, not a question about a feature.
Tell customers early and clearly
Put the dates in more than one place so people see them before they write.
- An automatic reply that names the dates and when you'll be back
- A note on the contact page and in the chat widget
- A banner or email for longer closures
Write the auto-reply well
Say that you received the message, when someone will read it, and where to find answers in the meantime. Link the help center. Use the after-hours auto-reply generator for wording you can adapt.
An auto-reply is not a first response. Your reply-time reporting should not count it as one.
Decide what the AI may do while you are away
If you use AI answers, choose whether it keeps answering common questions while the team is off. Check that your help articles mention any holiday changes, such as shipping cut-offs, so it does not quote outdated policy. Keep refunds and exceptions with a person.
Plan the first day back
Expect a pile. Sort by priority, answer the urgent and oldest first, and use bulk actions and macros for repeats. Tell customers in the first replies that you are catching up, so they know why it took a while.
Use the backlog calculator to see how long clearing it will take at your normal pace.