Business Sense: Avoid Getting Burnt Out During the Holiday Rush

By Katherine Gifford of Moraware

The holidays are a beautiful time of joy, family time, and relaxation. Well… for about 10% of us.

For more than half of us, the holidays are a breeding ground for stress. It shouldn’t be that way, but here we are.

According to a study, there are three main culprits for holiday stress:

  1. Lack of money
  2. Lack of time
  3. The general focus on commercialism and spending money

For many fabricators, this is all happening at home and the workplace. Your customers are in a mad rush to get their homes ready for company, and you’re to blame if things don’t go according to plan.

Here’s some advice for handling the holiday countertop rush like a pro.

Practice Benchmarking, or Setting Customer Expectations

Before we get into any Moraware-specific solutions, we have to mention a super simple customer service tip: set expectations. This is also more formally referred to as “benchmarking.”

We all use reference points to evaluate the world around us. 

For example, if all your friends eat out every single day, you feel pretty good about cooking three times a week. If all your friends cook at home every single day, you feel like you aren’t making enough home-cooked meals.

The same thing happens in business – if you say you’ll reply to all emails in 24 hours or less, that’s the reference point your customers will measure you against.

“If we don’t provide our customer reference points by setting customer expectations, customers will search out their own reference points,” explains Sarah Chambers, a Customer Support Consultant.

In other words, if you don’t set any expectations at all, your customers will pull from other experiences to set a reference point. Maybe their friends said their countertops were ready in two days. If that’s your customer’s reference point, they’ll hire you the week before Thanksgiving and expect a perfect kitchen by Thanksgiving Eve. Sound familiar?

Be cautious around the holidays. Set clear expectations! Even if you think you can pull it off, make sure your customers are fully aware that they may not have their dream kitchen installed by turkey day.