Let’s face it, no one ever said moving office was easy. If they did, they clearly were never the ones doing all the planning. It doesn’t matter if you’re just moving up or down a floor or to the other end of the country, moving an office can be stressful, especially when you’re the one in charge.
It’s impossible to completely avoid downtime when moving offices due to so many moving parts but minimising it should be your top priority. Nothing screams bad customer service more, than a business you cant get in touch with. If your clients cannot contact you when you’re moving offices, then you’re leaving the door open to your competitors and that’s a risk you don’t want to take!
What can I do to avoid this?
There are many different strategies you can have in place to help you avoid any type of downtime when your moving office.
- Planning – A smooth commercial move relies heavily on planning. You should start planning your move at least twelve weeks before your move date. That way, any hiccups that may arise can be sorted out ahead of your moving day.
- Backup your digital data – Computers are very sensitive devices and they can lose your data if damaged during transit. To avoid loss of any critical data causing downtime for your business, make sure you take backups and if you can, back up to an external source for added certainty.
- Get connected – Internet service can take a while to get going and you wouldn’t want to be left without such a critical element of your business, so plan this well in advance.
- Retaining your current telephone numbers or re using your current telephone system – If you are retaining your current telephone numbers or re using your current telephone system at your new site then some degree of downtime simply cannot be avoided and you may wish to have a contingency plan in place that allows for out of hours work to be planned around your move dates.
- Installing new systems – If you are installing new systems at your new site then a smooth transition during working hours should be possible. Your new systems can be up and running in advance of your move and any issues with calls to your existing telephone numbers can usually be managed through diverts ensuring a continuation of service for all.
- Calling in the professionals – Professional removal companies are there to help with your commercial move and will be able to provide you with expert advice and knowledge, but just remember this expertise comes at a price and this is something you need to factor into your budget.
- Choose the best day for your move and make sure you discuss this date with your staff – This may sound like a no brainer but it’s a common occurrence for many business owners to find out that the day they planned their “big” office move has coincided with many of their staff being off on annual leave, leaving them to sort out everything on their own. As a business owner, you don’t want to waste any time and you want to avoid downtime at all costs. Moving on a weekend might be a good idea if your business is usually closed on the weekend.
There are many things that can go wrong whilst moving office, but there are steps you can take to minimise the potential impact of a disaster – and ideally prevent it happening in the first place. This why we say, PLAN, PLAN, PLAN! A reliable Business Continuity Plan can save your business from unnecessary disruption and save you from a whole lot of stress in the meantime.
Get in touch
We hope the above information is useful to you, if you would like assistance in understanding your best options then please contact us on 0800 505 3350. Alternatively, you can visit our Moving Office services page, which has all the information you will need for a stress free office move.
