Bust Out Of Service Fatigue! The What, Where, Why, And How Behind
A Decline In Customer Service Excellence BY LAURIE GUEST
Does it feel like no matter how hard you try to please your customer, it isn’t enough? Are you in charge of leading others, and the faster you train teams and build energy, the quicker it seems to fade? Are you a business owner feeling hopeless about the never-ending needs of staff and customers while trying to achieve a profitable bottom line? You’re exhausted, right?
T
his exhaustion is what’s called service fatigue, defined as that feel-
ing that keeps you from delivering the excellent customer service your staff and patrons have come to expect. Left unchecked, this weariness can impact your business in many negative ways, from short tempers to lost business.
Let’s unpack the what, where, why,
and how of service fatigue and get on the path to busting out of it.
What Does Service Fatigue Look Like? You know what customer service delivery should look like. Attentive. Proactive. Genuine. Service fatigue is “less than,” and it presents in many forms. It’s when your customer experience is less than you—or they— expect. It’s a lack of energy, elevated stress, constant ambivalence, diffi- culty concentrating, missed deadlines, frequent mistakes, or safety compli- ance issues. The trickiest kind of service fatigue to spot is the kind the team thinks they can hide from guests. It’s still there, lurking beneath the surface, threatening to bring everyone down in its undertow.
Where Does Service Fatigue Originate? After a few stressful years, various chal- lenges have caused service fatigue levels to skyrocket. But the truth is, service fatigue can strike at any time,
and much of it is really nothing new. It’s short-tempered customers who escalate to anger quickly. It’s trying (and usually fail- ing) to juggle multiple priorities at a time. It’s navigating ever-changing business policies. It’s responsibilities that outnum- ber hours in the day. It’s one bad attitude draining a team’s morale. Service fatigue can come from anywhere and knowing how to identify it is half the battle.
will adopt exactly the same solution. Decades of experience in the customer service industry prove that there’s no silver bullet to finally overcoming exhaustion. Instead, it takes a combi- nation of strategy, patience, and commitment to bolster your team and get them back on track to deliver the kind of remarkable customer service you and your customers expect.
After a few stressful years, various challenges
have caused service fatigue levels to skyrocket. But the truth is, service fatigue can strike at any time, and much of it is really nothing new.
Why Does Service Fatigue Matter? The short answer: It matters because it impacts your bottom line. When service fatigue takes over at your business, every- thing is at risk. You can play a huge part in lessening that burden for your team and your customers. If it’s possible, make work a welcoming, encouraging environ- ment for your staff so they can give your customers a reason to crow about the great experience they had at your business. By recognizing service fatigue and equipping your team with the tools to bust out of its grip before it’s too late, you’ll ensure that everyone’s experience is that much better.
How Do We Mitigate The Effects Of Service Fatigue? There are countless ways to bust out of service fatigue, and no two businesses
To get you started, here are two ways
to start busting out of service fatigue as soon as today:
• Build Better Boundaries - Profes- sional boundaries can be the single best tool to help bust out of service fatigue, whether you need to put them in place with your boss or you need to ensure your team knows that work/life separation is a good thing. Unless it’s imperative to your industry, do you really need to reply to emails at 8 p.m.? Is that gap or hiccup in a process at work really yours to lose sleep over?
We all can and should go above and
beyond to deliver customer service excel- lence. But when you’re doing far more
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