Here's How To Maintain Customer Service, Even When You're Short-Staffed

The pressure and stress employees are under when short-staffed can degrade a business’s service and quality output. This decline directly impacts customers and can negatively affect a brand’s reputation and sales. However, there are solutions for businesses to maintain the level of customer service your patrons expect, even with an undersized staff.

14 members of Forbes Business Council shared how managers can ensure high-quality customer service with a lean workforce. They offered some key insights on how to keep a short-staffed team’s morale and a business's reputation afloat, despite the challenges being faced.

1. Take Care Of Your Employees

If you take care of your employees, they'll take care of your customers. Make sure you're following up constantly to make sure they feel seen, heard and supported. Let them know you understand they're in a difficult situation, but you are in the proverbial foxhole with them. - Brian Hennessy, Talkoot, inc.

2. Be Proactive, Not Reactive

Remain focused on being proactive versus reactive. Increase touchpoints, where and when appropriate. Lead with empathy. Embrace interactions with clients through email, voice and in-person with a mindset of listening first to understand. While it’s natural to focus on efficiency, it should not come at the expense of purpose. - Gregory Roll, Touchpoint Associates

3. Let Them Know You Care

Communicate often! Let them know you, as the leader, care and hear them. Teamwork and recognition are absolutely essential during times of being short-staffed. Something as simple as a company lunch with pizza brought in can lift spirits at a fraction of the cost of losing a good employee. - Natalie Barnes, Business Alliance Inc.

4. Create A Supportive Space

Managers need to connect with employees to create a supportive space during stressful times. When employees feel supported, they are able to ensure their level of support to customers is being recognized and they feel valued. - Roxanne Derhodge, Roxanne Derhodge Consulting

5. Focus Your Team On Your Top Accounts

In the current economic conditions, leaders often believe that major customer pain points are price, lead times and product availability. But, the No. 1 customer need is engagement. This means more communication, collaboration and visibility. For customer service, you must prioritize your top accounts who are responsible for most of your revenue and profit. Focus your workforce accordingly. - Dave Philippi, Strategex

6. Create And Enforce SOPs

Create a strong standard operating procedure (SOP) that is enforced. This is key to creating systems that keep employees communicative with clients. If there is a specific action and timeframe for every possible situation noted in the SOP, your team knows when they need to reach out. Simply knowing when action is needed and who is responsible goes a long way to maintaining customer service. - Robert Brill, Brill Media

7. Communicate Internally And Externally

Effectively communicate internally and externally. Externally, be honest and open about the staffing shortages, and recognize what you are doing to still provide superior customer service. Internally, identify the three to five most important characteristics of a great customer experience for your organization. Then streamline processes and focus your people on maximizing those characteristics. - Jordan Smith, Jet Dental

8. Leverage Tech Solutions

A business that reaches this issue generally hasn't found the right framework to implement automation within it. Users want answers fast. So, how does a business provide the resolution its clients want? Leverage technologies, such as chats, email solutions and automated processes to provide simple, easy-to-understand solutions. - Udi Dorner, SetSchedule

9. Highlight Examples Of Exemplary Customer Relationship-Building

We aspire to that which we see recognized. Every day managers should seek examples of exemplary customer relationship building, not just customer service. Recognizing and elevating the narratives of amazing relationship building will both provide examples for others to emulate, which subtly acknowledges that, in a short-staffed environment, there are those going above and beyond. - Lowell Aplebaum, Vista Cova

10. Prioritize Important Tasks Over Urgent Ones

Prioritize important over urgent. Making this part of your culture along with upfront, continuous communication with clients and internal team members can help determine priorities as well as provide leeway for longer wait times, slow response and projects that might not get done. Outsource anything that is not a priority to your team. - Kevin Coker, Proxima Clinical Research, Inc.

11. Name Your Top Priorities

During periods where the workforce is lean, it is important for managers and their teams to focus on the essentials. Make a list of the top three to five customer service priorities that will keep clients happy. Then, develop a clear plan of action to get out of the short-staffed period as soon as you practically can, identifying which roles to hire first to help alleviate some of the pressure and stress. - Johan Hajji, UpperKey

12. Be Open With Your Customers About Expectations

Openness is integral. Explain why your service has been impacted and how it will affect the customer. You will evoke a more empathetic response by explaining being short-staffed at the start of your interaction and by immediately setting expectations regarding what you can deliver. For example, you can say, "Hey there, just wanted to let you know we're short-handed, but will be with you in 10 minutes." - Chris Gerlach, Synergy Life Science

13. Follow Up And Check In With Customers

Managing a team that is short-staffed may show the character of the company when they put their all into the work by making follow-up calls to customers and checking in. It can be seen as genuine if this is truly done with empathy and kindness. Making the customer base aware, which many may understand after the last two years, only shows the value you have in your base and why they matter. - Paul L. Gunn, KUOG Corporation

14. Meet With Your Customer Service Supervisors Daily

We have daily meetings with our customer service supervisor to go over issues they may be having with customer service agents. These daily meetings are held 30 minutes before the workday starts and this has proven to work best for our company when agents' errors and mishaps are fresh problems being dealt with before they escalate to bad customer service reviews and/or complaints. - Tammy Sons, Tn Nursery.

-Compliments of Forbes Business Council

Dan Zeiler

Dan@zeiler.com

877-597-5900 x134

Dan Zeiler