Fellesferien, the Norwegian summer shutdown, is underway, and much of the country is closed until week 31. Your customers are not. They are googling, comparing and trying to book right now. If the website didn't get a thought before you left, it is not too late.
Everything below can be fixed from your phone at the cabin, in under an hour.
Check your Google hours first
The first thing customers see is not your website. It is your Google profile. If it says "Open" while your door is locked, you have annoyed a customer before you even knew they existed.
Open Google Business Profile, it works fine from your phone, and add your holiday closure as special opening hours. It takes five minutes. Do the same on your website, ideally as a short notice at the top of the front page. Customers are fine with you taking a holiday. What they are not fine with is not being told.
Write an away message that actually says something
An auto-reply that just says "We have reduced capacity" helps no one. Write something concrete instead: when you are back, when they can expect an answer, and what they can do in the meantime.
The same goes for the contact form on your website. Add one line right above it: "We are on holiday until August 4, but we answer everything from then on." People know what to expect, and they send the message anyway. An inquiry waiting in your inbox is worth far more than a customer who gave up and called your competitor.
Open your August calendar now
If you have online booking, don't leave it closed just because you are off. Closed for holiday does not mean closed for bookings. There are two weeks of fellesferien left, and those are two weeks where customers sit around planning their August. Open your August slots today and you still capture most of them.
We see the same pattern every year. The ones who let people book through July start August with full calendars. The ones who keep everything closed start August making phone calls.
Let an AI chat handle the boring questions
Most inquiries in July are not big projects. They are "what does it cost", "are you open" and "where are you located". Questions that have been on the website the whole time, but that people prefer to ask.
An AI chat that knows the content of your website answers exactly this, around the clock, even while you are sunbathing with no signal. It does not replace you. It filters out the routine questions, so what is left in your inbox when you return is actually worth your time. That is one reason we build AI chat straight into the websites we make. Not as an experiment, but as a tool that works.
Your competitors are already asleep
Here is the real opportunity. Most small businesses went dormant last week. Websites go stale, inquiries go unanswered, and calendars stay closed until August.
That means the bar is low right now. A business that simply replies properly, lets people book and has correct hours on Google suddenly looks like the most professional player in the industry. Not because it did anything advanced, but because it did anything at all, in the middle of the holiday.
The checklist you can do from the cabin
- Update opening hours on Google Business Profile and on your website
- Set an away message with concrete dates on email and your contact form
- Open your booking calendar for August
- Check that prices and services on your website are correct, because that is what people read in July
- If you have an AI chat, make sure it knows your holiday information
Everything on the list is free, works from a phone and takes less than an hour in total. Do it today, and your website works for you for the rest of the holiday.
And if you are unsure whether your website holds up, send us the address. We will take a look and give you concrete feedback, free and with no strings attached. Enjoy the rest of your summer.