Holiday coverage
Holiday closures: keep service calls answered.
Service departments close or run short over Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, and customers still call to book. A caller who reaches no one can try another store. See last year’s holiday service calls at Cleo, and what to set up before Thanksgiving so the phones are covered while your team is off.
The holiday week
What the holiday week looks like on the phones.
Service calls that reached Cleo, day by day, over the 2025 holidays.
Each bar is one day. The darker part ended as a booked appointment in Cleo's call log. Holiday dates are in blue.
- Service calls
- Ended as a booked appointment
- Holiday date
Thanksgiving week · Nov 24 to 30
Thanksgiving Day (Thu)
Christmas week · Dec 22 to 28
Christmas Eve (Wed) · Christmas Day (Thu)
New Year's week · Dec 29 to Jan 4
New Year's Eve (Wed) · New Year's Day (Thu)
The day before Thanksgiving was the busiest of its week, with 37 service calls. On the five holiday dates, 70 service calls reached Cleo and 27 ended as a booked appointment.
Service department calls that reached Cleo, counted on each line's own local date, from a small early group of stores. Aggregates only. This is not a count of calls on closed days, because Cleo's records do not show which stores were open on these dates, and it is not a forecast for your stores.
The five holiday dates.
| Holiday | Service calls | Ended as a booked appointment |
|---|---|---|
| Thanksgiving DayThu Nov 27, 2025 | 8 | 1 |
| Christmas EveWed Dec 24, 2025 | 16 | 9 |
| Christmas DayThu Dec 25, 2025 | 2 | 1 |
| New Year's EveWed Dec 31, 2025 | 21 | 3 |
| New Year's DayThu Jan 1, 2026 | 23 | 13 |
| All five dates | 70 | 27 |
Why a call that rings out matters.
Callers who reach no one hang up, and most service appointments still start with a call.
of service callers disconnected before an appointment was offered
Pied Piper 2025 Service Telephone Effectiveness Study, secret-shopper calls for 26 large dealer groups. It was 13% in 2024.
service appointments are still scheduled by phone
Fran O'Hagan of Pied Piper, quoted by WardsAuto in 2025.
Pied Piper's CEO says customers who find scheduling difficult “vote with their feet by moving to another dealership or independent shop.” Industry figures, not Cleo results and not a forecast for your stores.
Before Thanksgiving: five things to set up.
Add every closed or short day
Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day are quick-add holidays in Cleo's special-hours settings. Add each one as closed, or with shortened hours.
Set each department's schedule
Special hours are set per schedule, and each department follows one. Check service, sales and parts one by one.
Check your scheduler's open times
Cleo books only the times your scheduler returns. Mark the closed days in the scheduler too, so callers are not offered a time nobody will work.
Confirm your transfer destinations
Cleo transfers only to a destination that is open and otherwise takes a callback. Check that each destination is right for the days you are off.
Set it early
Cleo's dashboard reminds owners and general managers three business days before each holiday. Do your setup before that reminder arrives.
Sources: WardsAuto on Pied Piper's 2025 study · Automotive News on Pied Piper's 2024 study · Stevens Creek Subaru case study · El Cerrito Honda case study
Which days is each department off?
List every closed or short day from Thanksgiving through New Year’s, department by department. Service, sales and parts can keep different hours, so write down each one and the first day it reopens.
Who works the messages when you reopen?
Decide who takes the callback requests and messages left during the closure, and by when. A caller who asked for a call back is waiting on the first morning your team is in.
The call counts above are Cleo’s own and come from a small group of stores, so they show that callers phone on holidays, not what your stores will see. Your own phone log is the better guide: pull last year’s holiday dates from it.
Proof · Cleo call log
Results from real Cleo dealerships.
1,678
Calls answered at Stevens Creek Subaru, Sept 21 to Oct 20, 2026
30
Of Stevens Creek Subaru’s 447 booking-outcome calls were booked while the service department was closed (same 30 days)
34
Of El Cerrito Honda’s 112 appointments were booked while the dealership was closed (30 days, captured September 26, 2026)
Each figure is one store over an ordinary 30 days, not a holiday. A booking-outcome call means a booking succeeded in Cleo’s call log. It is not a completed appointment or revenue. Your results depend on call volume, caller needs, open capacity in your schedule and your setup.
If a call is not answered within three rings in any department, Cleo steps in.
Sheriff Demitri, General Manager, El Cerrito Honda
Where Cleo fits
Three ways Cleo covers a closed day.
01 · Mark the day closed
Add Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day or New Year’s as special hours, closed or shortened, on each department’s schedule. Special hours override the weekly schedule on that date, so Cleo treats the call as after hours.
02 · Callers can still book
Cleo asks for the vehicle and what it needs, reads the open times your scheduler returns and books one, confirming only after the booking succeeds.
03 · Your team picks up the rest
When a caller needs a person, Cleo transfers to a destination you set if that person is open. Otherwise it takes a callback request that becomes a task for your team.
Settings are per store. Confirm your scheduler, each department’s hours and your transfer destinations before the holiday, and decide who works the callbacks.
FAQ
Still have questions?
Do customers still call dealership service departments on holidays?
At Cleo they do. In the holiday weeks of 2025, 70 service calls reached Cleo across Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, and 27 of them ended as a booked appointment in Cleo's call log. The counts come from a small early group of stores, and Cleo's records do not show which of them were open on those days, so they are not a count of closed-day calls and not a forecast.
What happens to a service call when the department is closed for a holiday?
What should I set up before Thanksgiving?
Can Cleo book appointments while my service department is closed?
Contact
Book a demo to set up your holiday coverage.
See how Cleo would answer your service line on the days your team is off, and what to have in place before Thanksgiving.
