Holiday or shutdown period? Prep your phones

Shutting down for Christmas? Closing for a long weekend? Add the dates to your rule once and Cradle handles the rest. Callers get your holiday routing on those days, and your normal week takes over again by itself the day after. There's nothing to switch over and nothing to switch back.

Add the shutdown to your rule

1. Log into the Cradle admin portal and head to the Rules page.
2. Open the rule your numbers point at. If different numbers use different rules, repeat these steps for each one.
3. Find the Dates that are different card and click Add dates.
4. Under What is happening, give it an obvious name such as Christmas shutdown, then pick the First day and Last day. Closing for a single day? Pick the first day and the last day fills itself in. Click Add.
5. Your shutdown now has its own tile under Where calls go, just below the dates. It starts as a voicemail with a default greeting, sending messages to your email address, so it works from the moment you save. Open the tile to make it your own.
6. Give it a proper greeting. On the tile, use Voicemail greeting to upload an MP3 or WAV, record one in the browser, or click Create from text to type a script and have Cradle read it in a natural voice. Whichever way you go, cover these questions: When are you closed from? When are you opening again? What should customers do in an emergency? Remember to include your business name, and consider pointing callers to your website if that's a better option than leaving a message.
7. Check Send voicemails to is the email address that should receive any messages left over the break.
8. Click Save.

You're done. On the first day of the shutdown, callers hear your holiday greeting. The day after the last day, your normal week resumes on its own. Your numbers never change and there's nothing to remember when you're back.

Public holidays for the whole year

No need to enter public holidays one at a time. On the Dates that are different card, click Add public holidays, pick your country, region, and year, and Cradle adds every holiday your region observes. They all share one Public holidays destination, so you record that greeting once and every holiday uses it. Dates you've entered yourself are left alone, even when they fall on the same day.

If you have staff on call

Open the shutdown's tile under Where calls go and change Send calls to to Another number. Forward calls to a mobile or the beach house landline for the duration, while the rest of the year stays exactly as it was.

If nobody will be checking voicemail

Switch on Announcement-only on the shutdown's voicemail. Callers hear your greeting and the call ends without taking a message, and a missed call email still goes to the saved address so you know who rang.