Snow day: what your callers should hear the moment you decide to close

The moment you decide, callers should hear one short message, French first: closed today, why in three words, when you expect to reopen, what to do meanwhile. That takes one switch, not an edit to your hours, and the same person flips it back next morning.

A snow day is the morning nobody has time to write, so the message gets written ahead. Four parts, in this order.

Closed today. Not “our hours are affected”, not “we are experiencing disruptions”. Closed.

Why, in three words. “Because of the storm” is enough. The caller can see out the window; they do not need the forecast.

When you expect to reopen. “Tomorrow morning” or “tomorrow at nine”. If you do not know, say so: “we will call you back as soon as we can”.

What to do meanwhile. Leave a message, send an email, call back tomorrow. One instruction, not three.

All of it in French first, with a brief offer of the other language, like any greeting in Quebec. What Law 96 asks of your phone line already covers that; we will not repeat it here.

Two samples, each under twelve seconds spoken:

« Bonjour. La clinique est fermée aujourd'hui, tempête oblige. Nous prévoyons rouvrir demain à 9 h. Laissez-nous un message après le signal et nous vous rappellerons. »

“Hello. The clinic is closed today because of the storm. We expect to reopen tomorrow at nine. Leave a message after the tone and we will call you back.”

The usual instinct is to open your hours and mark the day closed. That is the wrong door: you are changing a setting you will have to undo, and the caller hears your after-hours message, the one that says “call back during business hours”, in the middle of your business hours.

In Ringfully, every saved schedule carries its own “we are closed right now” switch, per location. While it is on, it outranks your hours and your holidays, and it waits for no publish: you flip it, and the next call hears the storm message. Your hours have not moved.

One layer down, the hours step of your phone menu does the work: it has a separate emergency exit, and that is where the message above is attached. On a menu built before that exit existed, emergency falls back to closed, and the caller hears your ordinary closed message instead. Still better than ringing into an empty office.

One thing to know: the switch works inside the menu. A number not bound to a menu rings 24 hours a day, storm or not. If your menu is still to be built, start with building a phone menu callers do not hang up on.

A person, not a role. Whoever decides to close is the one with the portal open at 6:30, and it is their name on the note. The portal says “Emergency mode is on” beside the schedule for as long as the switch is up, so anyone can see where things stand.

Turning it off is the classic miss. Next morning the lot is ploughed, the office reopens, and the phone still says “closed today” until a customer mentions it. Nothing turns it off for you: put it in the same person's opening routine, right after the lights.

Two locations means two saved schedules, and each has its own switch. The storm that closes Québec City often leaves Montréal open; you close one without touching the other.

The other way round, one saved schedule is shared by every menu that names it. If three numbers at the same branch point at the same schedule, one switch covers all three. No closing number by number.

The switch changes what the next caller hears, and that is all. It sends no text to anyone: not your team, not the customers booked for today. It does not change your website. And it does not turn itself off: someone has to remember next morning, and that someone should be named before the first storm.

How the menu, the hours and this switch fit together is on the call menus and hours page.

Related: Quebec statutory holidays in call routing, for the closures you can see coming.