Memo to business owners: Christmas is coming

By: Nathalie Schooling

I’ll be the first to admit that owning and running a business keeps one pretty busy. And I’ll also concur that as a business owner, sometimes it seems like you’re juggling so many responsibilities that you can lose track of time as it whooshes by.

But despite all the busyness of business, it doesn’t seem possible that the owner or manager of a company could miss the fact that every December, with alarming regularity, the holiday season is going to roll around and their customer numbers will swell for a month or two.

So, if it is a known fact that this festive season boom is going to happen every year, why is it that so many retailers, restaurants and customer service businesses seem to get caught with their pants down every December?

If there’s one thing that can quickly take the ‘festive’ out of festive season, it’s terrible service caused by the failure of a business owner to make adequate preparations to meet the sudden growth in customer numbers.

It’s impossible to say whether this failure by so many businesses to staff up and train up in preparation for the holidays is the result of greed, poor management, or simply oversight, but regardless of the cause, the result is always the same – unhappy customers who vow not to spend their hard earned cash there ever again.

I’m no financial guru, but surely if the short-term costs of hiring and training a few more staff members results in happier customers and return business for years to come, this would constitute an excellent investment.

As a consumer myself, and someone with a passion for customer service, there are a few things my experience of the silly season has taught me that I think other business owners would do well to consider:

  1. Just because people are relaxed and on holiday doesn’t mean they will tolerate (or, for that matter, deserve) poor service, long waits, bad products or cold food.
  2. The increased customer numbers are temporary. So while you may not see the impact of poor service on your bottom line immediately, a bad service experience now will mean a loss of business, and profits, later.
  3. There’s always a way to keep your service levels up. If you can’t staff up, reduce the burden some other way. Most restaurant patrons, in particular, would be more than happy with a smaller menu if it means the kitchen can cope with orders and maintain high standards.
  4. Make maintaining service excellence a priority. If you have to incentivize your staff to smile, despite their massive workload when everyone else is on holiday, do it. Your bottom line will thank you.

But possibly the most important consideration of all for retailers and service business during December and January is to avoid the temptation of seeing this time as a short-term cash cow, and rather view it as a brilliant opportunity to expose their offerings and brands to a much larger market than they can during the other 10 months of the year. And when this market exposure is accompanied by excellent service and a positive customer experience, the long-term benefits could be massive.

Think of great service as the gift that keeps on giving – mostly back to you and your business.