What exactly is downtime in a business? Some businesses run twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. Some businesses do not have the privilege of working during the day and resting throughout the night. Internet sites and online businesses are some of the examples of businesses that are always running.
Downtime is the period when business operations are halted. In websites, downtime is the time when the site schedules its maintenance in order to clean up its cache, get rid of bugs, and just refresh the system in order to help it run smoothly. The word ‘downtime’ is very common these days especially those whose business is being run by a certain system or program. In a layman’s language -downtime means that the system is down or when the business is not getting the number of clients that it usually gets. This can also be considered as the state of weak sales for business. But whatever it means for a business owner, they need to make this downtime period something more productive for the business. All downtime may become uptime when it is planned carefully and exerted efforts to.
Types of Downtime
Planned and unplanned downtime
Some downtimes are unplanned. Some will encounter a server problem and the website can be down for several hours or even days. Some businesses experience an internal problem and have to halt services until the problem is resolved. Sometimes, unforeseen natural disasters occur forcing the establishment to temporarily close down. These are unplanned downtimes wherein the operation is halted without prior warning to their clients.
Planned downtimes are preferred because it allows both the clients and the employees to prepare. If clients are informed beforehand that the business will temporarily stop operations, they can place their orders ahead and bring in any concern before the company stops operation. For employees, knowing that there will be a downtime will give them the advantage of planning what to do during their few days off. They might want to schedule that dentist appointment they’ve been putting off or plan a weekend away with their loved ones.
Here are some tips on how to make the downtime period useful for the business.
This is the best time that you update your client list. Check on it and see who are still active and not. This will give you the opportunity to connect with your past clients again. It is also the right time to appreciate your loyal customers. During downtime, you can create cards or newsletters that will be sent out to your clients. In doing this, you can make up for your lost connections or business network. You will also be able to update your clients with what has been happening to your business. Instead of waiting for the uptime, just make tools that will be able to create sales and attract possible clients.
You can also do some surveys while you are still waiting for the uptime. Surveys will help you achieve total customer satisfaction. It will give you ideas on how to improve your business through the suggestions and comments of those who have answered your survey.
If you are working on an online business, you can check on the entire website during downtime and see which areas you need to improve or alter. Auditing the performance of your website can be done when you do not really have much to do. This will give you the time to focus on your website and business. Auditing can correct current problems that your website is experiencing. This will also give you the chance to update the information that you have on your website.
If you have a physical store, you can decrease the litter and trash that you have. You can clean up and make a general makeover in your place. This will give you and the store a fresh look and will energized everything in it. Sometimes, a place just needs to be changed in its looks so that a new force of energy will be attracted.
Downtime may be a negative term for businesses. It is the time when business people may not be able to use their systems or have nothing to do and just wait for the uptime. But if you would just think of it, there are so many things that you can do during this time. In fact, you can further improve your business by using this time to plan on things and make schemes that will be best beneficial for your business.
Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/defining-downtime-how-have-productive-sahil-gupta
