Luring Lady is an entrepreneur who has an extensive history within the customer service industry, specifically in fine dining. In a recent Youtube video, she touched upon an important topic that has gotten overlooked in much of society these days. There is currently a major issue regarding understaffing and labor shortages within the customer service industry, but the reasons as to why it continues to be so prevalent are not as clear cut as one would think. Luring Lady offers the following reasons.
“The customer is always right”
The first and arguably most important reason as to why there are continuing labor shortages within the customer service industry is the mentality of “the customer is always right.” In the past there have been minor instances of customers abusing this to get what they want, but in recent years the abuse from customers has ramped up tremendously. Customers have come to expect that they will get whatever they want if they simply kick and scream like little children, and it is this mentality that has directly led to individuals looking elsewhere for employment rather than staying within the customer service industry. As Luring Lady states in her video, managers do not have to put up with this mentality. They can have a backbone and lead the customers out of the establishment when they become abusive instead of allowing it to keep occurring.
Workplace environment and culture
Along with the customer mentality, the workplace environment and culture has devolved in such a way as to make it impossible for customer service employees to truly enjoy their jobs. Luring Lady has seen this firsthand working within the restaurant service industry, where a negative culture that only focuses on fixing mistakes and problems has led to ongoing labor shortages. Everyone makes mistakes at the end of the day, but when the workplace chooses to only focus on them and none of the positive aspects of what the employees are doing it leads to an environment that no one truly wants to work in. As Luring Lady states best, the workplace should “treat employees like they are human” and not be so negative all the time.
Lack of servant leadership
Luring Lady also touches on how leadership has impacted the customer service industry in recent years, specifically the lack of servant leadership. Managers and leaders are more focused on the bottom line and always trying to please customers to the detriment of employees. As Luring Lady touches upon in the YouTube video, the negativity coming from management has increased tremendously as a result of staffing issues, but that is not something that should be directed towards employees at all. Instead, managers should be lifting employees up and focusing on setting them up for success as much as possible throughout the day. Luring Lady states that “employees are overwhelmed enough as it is,” and this is something apparently managers are tone-deaf about. They would rather take out their frustrations on employees instead, and until they can exhibit servant leadership the labor issues within the customer service industry will remain.
Daily magazine for entrepreneurs and business owners
