How to Keep Your Customer Service Sizzling All Summer Long

For many businesses, summers tend to move slowly. The days are longer, the weather is nicer, and most businesses report experiencing a lull during the hotter months. While that’s not necessarily bad, it can still affect how a business runs. Since the end of September marks the end of the fiscal year, having a slower summer isn’t great so business owners need to take certain steps to make sure their service and staff stays sizzling all summer long.

Rotate in seasonal products and promotions

I think one of the reasons summer slows down is that they are sort of the hump months in the middle of the calendar. Nothing too major happens during the summer, and your staff can wind up feeling bored or complacent as a result. A good way to inject a bit of energy into your business is to bring in seasonal products, promotions, and services. Test out a couple of new ideas and break up the monotony of the summer months. Not only will this give your staff something new to work with, it’ll show you what might work for the busier holiday season!

Promote healthy competition

Some competition is a great way to motivate your staff. Look at last year’s numbers, and figure out where you want to improve. Need to bring in some extra money? Want your referrals to increase? Find a metric you want to boost, put down a reachable goal, and pass it on to your staff. The trick is not to pit people against each other too much. Like I said, this kind of competition should be healthy. Reward departments and teamwork, and don’t freak out your staff with unreachable quotas or vague threats. The idea is to motivate people, not make them lose sleep.

Be more flexible

I noticed that, during the summer, if I keep the atmosphere of the office light, my staff is a lot happier. Multiple studies have shown that a happier employee is more productive, but being in an office or a store all day, watching summer pass you by, can be a bit depressing. If your business is small enough, you can all head out for coffee every so often, or maybe even do lunch. Bigger companies, in turn, can inject a bit of flexibility into the scheduling, and put in more effort to accommodating vacation requests. Trust me, when your staff is happy to be in the office, their enthusiasm will be reflected in the quality of their service.

Summer months can be tough for businesses, but that doesn’t mean your customer service should suffer for it. The trick is just keeping your staff engaged and energetic so they don’t wind up phoning it in until the holiday season. New products, revised marketing, healthy competition, and flexible schedules will go a long way in keeping everyone in the business happy and help put your company in a great position to round out the fiscal year on a positive note.