Australia's Right to Disconnect has started an important conversation about what happens when the working day ends.
Employees now have a legal right, in certain circumstances, to refuse to monitor, read or respond to work-related contact outside their working hours.
It is an important protection in a world where the office is no longer necessarily somewhere we leave at 5 pm.
But it raises another question that receives far less attention.
What about the business owner?
Who tells the small business owner that it is okay to stop answering emails?
Who tells them that the enquiry that arrived at 8:47 pm can wait until tomorrow?
Who tells them that they do not need to check their phone one last time before going to bed?
For many business owners, the answer is nobody.
When Did We Become Available 24 Hours a Day?
Technology has transformed small business.
We can receive website enquiries instantly. Customers can message us through social media. Emails arrive on our phones. Online bookings can come through while we are eating dinner. Reviews can appear at any hour of the day.
That connectivity has created enormous opportunities for small businesses.
But somewhere along the way, being connected started to feel like we had to be available.
A customer sends an email at 9 pm.
You see the notification.
You tell yourself you will answer it tomorrow.
Then you think, It will only take a minute.
So you reply.
The customer responds.
Now you are working.
Even when you resist the temptation to reply, something else has already happened: you have read the message.
Part of your brain is now thinking about the problem, the quote, the appointment or what you need to do tomorrow.
You might have physically finished work hours ago.
Mentally, you are back at your desk.
Small Business Owners Do Not Always Clock Off
One of the challenges of running a small business is that there is rarely a clear dividing line between work and not work.
For many business owners:
- Business email is on the same phone used to speak to family and friends.
- The calendar contains both business meetings and personal appointments.
- Social media is both a business tool and something used personally.
- Website enquiries arrive directly on a mobile phone.
- Customers can send messages outside normal business hours.
- If something goes wrong, there is not always another department or manager to deal with it.
For a small business owner, very often you are the department.
That makes it incredibly easy for the business to gradually occupy every available space in your life.
A quick email while watching television.
Checking tomorrow's appointments before bed.
Responding to a Facebook message on Sunday morning.
Looking at a new website enquiry while having dinner.
None of these things individually feels particularly significant.
Collectively, however, they can mean you are never completely away from work.
Good Customer Service Does Not Mean Being Available 24/7
There is an expectation many business owners place on themselves:
If I do not respond immediately, I might lose the customer.
Sometimes speed does matter.
But customers generally do not need the business owner to personally respond at every hour of the day and night.
What customers really want is confidence.
They want to know:
- Did you receive my enquiry?
- What happens next?
- When will somebody contact me?
- Can I make an appointment?
- Where can I find the information I need?
Those questions do not necessarily require you to personally pick up your phone at 9:30 pm.
They require a good system.
Technology Should Give Us Freedom, Not Take It Away
This is where I think we sometimes get technology backwards.
We introduce technology into our businesses to make things faster and easier.
Then we allow that same technology to make us permanently accessible.
Good technology should give small business owners more freedom, not make them available every minute of the day.
Imagine This Instead
Someone visits your website at 10 pm and submits an enquiry.
Instead of you receiving the notification, opening the email and feeling that you should respond immediately, your systems send the customer a friendly acknowledgement:
Thanks for getting in touch. We have received your enquiry and will respond during business hours tomorrow.
The customer knows their message has arrived.
They know what will happen next.
They have received an immediate response.
And you have not had to interrupt your evening.
That is what automation should be doing for small businesses.
Make Your Business Available Without Making Yourself Available
There are many simple ways to create better separation between your business and your personal time.
Your Website Can Do More of the Work
A well-planned website can answer common questions before someone needs to contact you.
It can explain:
- Your services
- Your business hours
- Your service area
- How your process works
- What customers should expect next
- Frequently asked questions
Use Online Booking
If customers simply want to make an appointment, an online calendar can allow them to choose an available time without calling, emailing or waiting for you to respond.
Automate Enquiry Responses
Website forms can trigger an immediate email or text message confirming that an enquiry has been received.
That response can also tell the customer when they can expect to hear from you.
Use Your CRM to Follow Up
A CRM can record the enquiry, organise the contact and remind you to follow up during business hours.
You do not need to remember every message that arrived the night before.
Create a Process for Genuine Emergencies
Some businesses genuinely need an after-hours process.
That does not mean every message needs to become an emergency.
You can create different processes for urgent issues and normal enquiries so customers know exactly what to do.
We Teach Customers How to Communicate With Us
There is another part of this conversation that can be uncomfortable for business owners.
Sometimes we accidentally train our customers to expect immediate responses.
If a customer emails at 9 pm and consistently receives a reply five minutes later, it is reasonable for them to assume you are available at 9 pm.
If you answer messages every Sunday, Sunday gradually becomes part of your working week.
Setting boundaries is not poor customer service. It is setting an expectation.
You can still provide exceptional service while communicating clearly:
Our business hours are Monday to Friday. We have received your enquiry and will respond on the next business day.
Clear expectations are often better customer service than unpredictable availability.
Your Business Should Be Able to Function Without Your Constant Attention
This is perhaps the bigger issue.
If every enquiry, appointment, message and customer question requires the business owner to personally intervene, the problem might not simply be how many hours you are working.
The problem might be the system around you.
One of the most valuable things technology can do for a small business is handle the predictable things.
- A system can acknowledge an enquiry.
- A calendar can schedule an appointment.
- A website can answer a frequently asked question.
- An automation can send a reminder.
- A CRM can tell you who needs following up tomorrow.
That leaves the business owner to handle the things technology cannot replace:
- Relationships
- Judgement
- Creativity
- Expertise
- Problem solving
- Genuine human conversations
Give Yourself Permission to Close the Door
Employees now have a formal Right to Disconnect.
Small business owners might never have quite the same luxury.
There will always be occasional emergencies. There will be busy periods. There will be evenings when something genuinely cannot wait until tomorrow.
That is part of owning a business.
But an occasional exception does not need to become the way you operate every day.
Perhaps business owners need to create their own right to disconnect.
- Turn off the notifications.
- Set the expectations.
- Automate the acknowledgement.
- Let your website do some of the work.
- Allow tomorrow's work to belong to tomorrow.
Because the goal of technology should never be to make us work every hour that technology is available.
It should help us build businesses that can keep working, even when we are not.
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