The holidays sound nice on paper. A little downtime, a few long weekends, maybe a mug of cocoa between emails. In reality? Half the team’s remote, the rest are covering phones, and the one person who knows the process of how to reset the voicemail password is in Florida until January.
If that rings a bell, you know how fast “holiday cheer” can turn into “holiday chaos.”
The good news? Unified communications can turn the madness into something manageable, especially if you employ these six simple productivity hacks. Then you'll be enjoying successful team collaboration not only during the holidays but well into the new year.
Ready to see how? Let's dive into these holiday business tips.
1. Update Your Holiday Greetings (and Make Sure They Work)
Start simple. Before anyone signs off for vacation, take five minutes to record your holiday greeting and update your auto attendant or call routing. Make sure callers know when you’re open, when you’re closed, and how to reach help if they need it.
Then (and this is the part most folks forget) have your team leaders test it. Call the main number, follow the menu options, and make sure calls actually land where they’re supposed to. A warm greeting won’t matter if customers get sent to a dead extension.
With Gamut’s unified communications solutions, you can make updates or routing changes anytime, right from your laptop. No IT request, no waiting.
Pro Move: Keep the message short and friendly. A quick “We’re closed December 24–25, but we’ll be back on the 26th to help you right away” goes a long way toward keeping customers in the loop and off hold with your company contact center.
These productivity hacks aren't just for big enterprises or small businesses. Schools can benefit from unified communications too! Find out how here.
2. Move Team Collaboration from Emailing to Instant Messaging
Email doesn’t move fast enough during crunch time. Shift day-to-day coordination to team chat instead. That’s where you can handle real-time questions, share quick updates, or get help on the fly without the endless reply-all chains.
Gamut’s unified communications tools make that easy. Chat sits right alongside your calls and video meetings, so switching between them is as easy as pie. It’s like having the whole office at your fingertips, even when half the team’s remote.
Our recommendation? Set up a “Holiday Coverage” channel where everyone can share quick updates, confirm who’s in, and post any time-sensitive information. It’s faster than email and keeps everyone in the loop, whether they’re in the office or checking in from the couch.
This kind of software setup turns small groups into truly collaborative teams that can brainstorm great ideas and keep every project on track even when things get hectic.
Pro Move: Pin key messages, such as coverage schedules and daily priorities, to the top of the chat. That way, no one has to scroll through a week’s worth of chatter to find what matters.
3. Turn On Voicemail-to-Email Before You Miss Something Important
Missed calls are inevitable this time of year, but waiting until January to hear them? That’s a rookie mistake. Turn on voicemail-to-email so every message shows up right in your inbox as an audio file or a transcript.
This one’s especially handy if your team is covering from home or traveling. You can listen, forward, or reply from anywhere and on multiple devices without digging into a phone system menu.
With Gamut’s unified communications setup, you can enable voicemail-to-email right from your dashboard in minutes, so every message is accounted for and data stays organized.
Pro Move: Do a quick test run before the rush. Leave yourself a voicemail, make sure it lands in your inbox, and confirm everything’s forwarding the way it should. It takes two minutes and can save you from a dozen missed calls and a full mailbox later.
4. Use Business Texting to Save Time and Keep Customers Happy
Some customers just don’t want to call. They’d rather text, especially during the holidays when everyone’s multitasking. Give them that option.
With business texting, your team can send and receive texts using your main business number. No one needs to use their personal phone, and every conversation stays professional and stored in one system (at least when you use Gamut).
You can share quick updates, confirm orders, or send reminders without tying up the phone lines. Even better, Gamut lets you schedule texts in advance, so that the quick “We’re closing early today” message you wrote on the 10th goes out automatically on the 23rd. That means fewer voicemails piling up on the 24th.
Because texts get read faster than emails, it’s the simplest way to keep communication light, fast, and stress-free during the holiday rush.
Pro Move: Create a few ready-to-go text templates for common updates, such as “We’re closing early today at 3 PM” or “Your order is ready for pickup.” Having them ready means your employees can send polished, consistent messages in seconds.
5. Use Presence Indicators to Save Everyone’s Time
Ever spent ten minutes tracking down someone who’s not even working that day? Multiply that by five coworkers and you’ve lost precious minutes.
Presence indicators fix that. They show who’s available, busy, or away in real time. . .but only if your team knows how to use them. Be sure your team makes it a habit to update their status at the start of each shift, and check others’ statuses before reaching out.
The good news? In Gamut’s unified communications system, presence updates automatically across chat, calls, and video conferencing. It’s simple, but it keeps work flowing when you’ve got fewer people on deck.
When everyone uses presence the same way, you get smoother workflows, less interruption, and far more effective collaboration.
Pro Move: Publish clear expectations around each color. For example, green means “available and responsive,” yellow is “on a call or heads-down,” red means “unavailable or out for the day,” and grey means “offline.” This way, everyone knows what each status means and when to reach out or hold off.
6. Take the Office with You by Downloading the Mobile App
Between snowstorms, delays, and family travel, December has a way of testing the flexibility of "flexible work schedules." But if you download the mobile UC app from your cloud phone services provider, you'll be more than ready to pass that test.
With it, you can take business calls, send messages, or join meetings straight from your smartphone. Calls still come from your business number, not your personal one, and everything logs automatically into the system.
So, even if you’re working from home or sitting at the airport, you’re still part of the team. Gamut’s app makes it feel like you never left your desk (just with better snacks).
Pro Move: Download and test the app early. Make a call, check audio, and confirm notifications are on. Once the rush hits, you’ll be glad it’s ready to go.
Curious about the bigger benefits of adopting a unified platform for all your business communications? Check out our blog on the subject.
Wrap Up the Year with Fewer Headaches (and a Lot More Connection) with Gamut
We hope you've seen how the holidays don’t have to be a juggling act of missed calls, buried emails, and dropped messages. With Gamut’s unified communications, you can have successful team collaboration and keep your business humming while everyone else scrambles.
Our all-in-one platform is a communication tool that is:
- Built for real people with common goals. Whether you’re a small business, a busy school, or a growing team, Gamut’s platform adapts to how you actually work: in the office, remote, or halfway to Logan Airport.
- Reliable and secure. Our seamless communication tools are designed for uptime, clarity, and peace of mind (because dropped calls and frozen screens don’t look good on anyone).
- Support that actually helps. We don’t send you into a support queue abyss. When you call Gamut, you get a human who knows your setup and gets you back on track fast.
- Local roots, but national reach. Gamut’s team is right here in New England, but our technology keeps you connected wherever you do business.
So, this season, give yourself one less thing to stress about. Get in touch with Gamut today to see what we can build for you.
