How to manage customer expectations during busy periods

Every business experiences slow days watching the hours tick by and busier periods that lead to customers and tasks being put on the back burner. This is especially the case if you run any form of trade business, be that electrical, plumbing or gas. When your operations are stretched to their limits, managing your customer's expectations effectively is essential to avoid disappointment and a negative reputation. Businesses that do this excel at navigating times of overcapacity. Let’s look at strategies that businesses can implement to better manage their client's expectations during busy periods.

Source A Management Solution

A beneficial approach to your future business management during unpredictable times is implementing an electrical, plumbing or gas engineer software. By utilising software you have the latest technology refining your communication, scheduling, team tracking and quoting and invoicing processes, saving you time on admin. This also allows you to streamline your customer relationship management, gaining better insight into their expectations through analysing interactions, preferences and requirements. This enables your team to create bespoke, personalised experiences with clear, consistent and timely customer communication building long-lasting relationships and positioning the business for future success.

Setting Realistic Expectations

The foundation of managing customer expectations lies in setting realistic expectations from the moment they show an interest in using your services. To do this you need to provide them with transparent information about timeframes including delays, responses and resource availability. Your business will have multiple forms of advertising services including a website, social media channels, marketing emails and more. You should use these platforms to communicate with your current, returning and potential clients. By doing this, you will provide awareness and understanding of what to expect from your services which reduces future disappointment and frustrations.

Effective Communication

During busy periods you and your team will need to keep consistent and proactive communication with each other and customers. You should keep your current customers informed about delays they may experience during this time and ensure they are always updated when changes occur no matter how big or small. This helps them feel engaged and valued, improving the services you are providing despite the circumstances. You should also provide this information to potential customers via your website, social media and enquiry forms so they know what to expect if they choose your service. This honesty will benefit you in the long term. It is important to anticipate any questions these people may have as and when they feel concerned, you may even include an FAQ page answering any repetitive inquiries you are receiving to save time.

Prioritise Customer Support

High-demand workload will usually put those providing customer support under immense pressure due to the constant incoming calls and emails looking for updates and answers. By providing training to all members of your team you can streamline your internal operations splitting customer service across your workforce effectively. Investing in your customer support will increase your reviews, recommendations and customer loyalty in the future. Ensure you provide relevant teams with the up-to-date softwares, systems and equipment needed to fulfil their duties to the best standards.

Efficient Allocation

Managing customer expectations and efficient allocation go hand-in-hand. As the manager of a business, it should be your priority to ensure your peak times and highest demanded days have the right staff capacity and the correct inventory numbers. This is something that can be successfully managed with a plumbing, gas or electrician management app. By accurately planning ahead and effectively assigning and aligning resources for each job you can mitigate disruptions to your operations, avoid customer disappointment and ensure your teams are not overwhelmed.

Feedback & Improvements

As a business, you should be consistently looking for ways to improve and grow, and to do this you will need to receive positive and constructive feedback from customers about their experiences. Once you have navigated your busy periods, this is a fantastic opportunity to ask your customers for their reviews. To do this you can monitor your social media platforms, send survey forms via email and encourage feedback via text, email or on websites including Trustpilot. Not only is this great social proof for future customers to browse through, but it will also give your team the opportunity to analyse and identify areas of improvement. Once your team have identified your growth potential, you can begin to implement a strategy to achieve this. Demonstrating your commitment to providing quality service and learning from any mistakes will only further enhance the confidence your customer has in your business and their loyalty to your services.

Offer Alternatives & Incentives

If your customers are likely to face delays and issues during your peak times, you should take a proactive approach to maintain their satisfaction through incentives. You can also provide them with alternative solutions which are easily accessible to them in the short term. These incentives could include priority access in the future, discounts on upcoming services they require or exclusive offers for loyalty. Providing this will show your customers that you value their business, understanding and trust during difficult times.

Wrapping up

In conclusion, managing your customer's expectations can be a balancing act that takes time, consideration and practice. With great communication, effective allocation of resources and teams, unmatched customer support and providing incentives when unexpected issues arise you can ensure you keep your customers satisfied. Whether you have a team or you run your own one-man band business, introducing an electrical, gas or plumbing software to help you during these unpredictable days and months will reduce your stress and improve your teams' productivity which results in greater management of customer expectations we are seeking.