Staffing challenges? Why not just hire more people? If only it were that easy. In what is now dubbed the “Great Resignation” the pool of qualified applicants seeking work has been shrinking in just about every field. Staffing shortages often hurt small businesses the most where each set of hands matters more than ever. Having less staff on board and less qualified applicants seeking work should mean disaster for America’s small business owners but that is not the case. We spoke with a number of small business owners across the country who have been exploring creative ways to deal with the seemingly insurmountable challenges that staffing shortages pose. Here are their inspiring stories of resiliency:

Incorporating Social Good

“When I started my blog, I worked with a largely American team. While the Great Resignation hasn’t affected me nearly as much as most brick and mortar businesses, we have had a few members of the team leave.

As a team, we have made the decision to work with young workers from other countries, predominantly third world, who need the experience as well as the work. We make it our mission to not only onboard the new team members, but also offer them upskilling and mentorship.

We have had amazing results. We’ve found that the international team has a deep desire to work and learn, something we consider incredibly valuable.”

Mollie Newton, Founder & Editor, PetMeTwice.com, Columbus, OH

 Optimizing Schedules

“We run thousands of virtual events every month, and for the most part our staff is able to handle this volume smoothly. However, December is exceptionally busy for us with both virtual team building and virtual holiday parties. For the first three weeks of December we make staffing and other adjustments to optimize our available staffing. For example, while in December we have set start times for events, like 11am, 1pm, 3pm, and so on — the goal is to to prevent overlapping time slots, so that fewer staff members can facilitate more events. When there is a small amount of overlap we have a host and co-host system to manage it. For example, usually the lead host will facilitate an entire event, including the intro, games and activities and conclusion. In busy times, the co-host may lead the intro, which means that the event isn’t disrupted if the host would otherwise be a few minutes late coming from another event. Again, the result is we can run more and better events for our clients.”

Michael Alexis, CEO, TeamBuilding.com, Covington, WA

Re-Thinking Delegation

“When dealing with staffing shortages, we make sure that our individual team members aren’t forced to take on additional or overtime work to make up for it. It is not their fault that there is a shortage in staff, so they shouldn’t have to take on the brunt of the additional work. We want to respect their job duties and time, so instead we have to figure out how to create an efficient delegation plan. We analyze individual strengths and specialties, and we work on delegating tasks effectively to the people who will be able to handle them correctly and quickly. If there is still additional work to be done, management staff will help complete them. Occasionally, we will hire freelancers to help with specialized projects or time-consuming tasks. There are always freelancers available to hire, so we know that they are always a possible resource.”

Kyle MacDonald, Director of Operations, Force by Mojio, Campbell, CA

Leveraging  AI

“As the owner of an SME ecommerce store, I’ve had to get savvy with resourcing the business as efficiently as possible. An example of how we maintain our customer service levels with 65% of the staff we had last year is by using AI tools. We use a chat bot to field all customer service enquiries both through live and email. The chat bot’s main aim is to separate those enquiries which the customer can solve themselves by visiting our FAQ’s or a product page from those more serious enquiries which require human invention. The other benefit of using a chatbot is that it offers an immediate reply, where as before our customer service agents would take up to 48 hours to reply, so in effect our service levels have actually improved with less staff.”

Marc Bromhall, Founder, Surf Gear Lab, San Clemente, CA

Embracing Flexibility

“In the current business environment that has been adversely affected by the pandemic, flexibility is the name of the game. In my opinion, flexibility isn’t just about giving employees the freedom to come to and leave the office at convenient times; it’s also about equipping them with a diverse set of skills. This way, even if there are fewer employees available at the office, their wide range of skills will allow them to work together productively. Let’s take the example of a retail store. If each department manager is also trained to administer employee satisfaction surveys, that means they will not only help customers with finding the products, but they’ll also be able to take the required feedback from them. This will ensure that there is enough flexibility in the workplace to compensate for a low number of employees and keep the business operations running smoothly.”

Elisa Bender, Co-founder, RevenueGeeks, California, USA

Staffing and the Future of Work

Technology and necessity have kickstarted a new conversation on the nature of work. Traditional pieces of a business as rigid as staffing itself have changed in ways never imaginable even five years ago. Modern alternatives and flexibility means that more of America’s flavorful and invigorating small business will survive which is always a good thing. As small businesses flex their every advantage in trying to stand toe-to-toe with big-name competitors, it’s clear that the businesses who adapt have the best chance of coming out on top.

A growing trend in the business world has been creating a culture of “open communication” in the workplace. Open communication workplaces have been a welcomed and growing trend among employees, supervisors, and bosses — but what exactly constitutes “open communication” and is it right for your business?

What is an Open Communication Office Culture?

In short, an office with a culture of open communication is one where employees feel comfortable speaking openly without fear of backlash. Open communication means that both supervisors and employees can speak candidly about their problems in an environment in which both know they will be treated fairly.

For example, imagine that a designer is concerned about their current workload and thinks they may not be able to meet current deadlines. If that designer didn’t feel comfortable speaking about their limits to their supervisor, the designer may work late, then grow resentful of their job and company. In a culture of open communication, the designer would feel comfortable approaching their supervisor to adjust their workload. In the same respect, an open communication-friendly supervisor would authentically listen to the designer’s request and act on it in whatever way possible.

Changing an office culture doesn’t happen in a day, but changes from the top of a company often trickle down. The most essential step of fostering open communication is getting bosses and supervisors educated on the key points of an open communication office.

Know Your Employees as People

While this tip may sound abstract, seeing past employees’ titles and into their humanity is the basis of an open communication office. Learn your employees’ goals, ambitions, hobbies and otherwise. Let meetings and work conversations go off-topic every once in a while. Keeping communications strictly business quickly builds an “us versus them” mentality between employees and bosses.

A great way to get to know your employees is to get out of the office. Set up social outings a few times a year at local restaurants or attractions. By putting everyone on equal footing outside the office, higher-ups can take off their “boss caps” and learn about their employees less by their work responsibilities and more by their genuine personality.

Anonymous Feedback Channel

Either through surveys or anonymous email inboxes, having an anonymous avenue for feedback is one of the best ways to get candid criticism from employees in the early days of an open communication office. The goal, of course, of an open communication office is for employees to feel comfortable speaking their minds but starting anonymously is great first step for learning what your employees are looking for and in a zero-stakes environment.

If you plan to set up an anonymous Google Survey, advise employees to not use their gmail accounts when filling out the form, as it may show alongside their results. Advise the same when using an anonymous feedback email inbox.

When drafting your survey, ask the type of questions that matter to employees but that they may not be comfortable saying out loud. Ask questions like “do you feel happy at work, why or why not,” “Do you think our office runs efficiently, why or why not.” It is essential that when you get genuine criticism or feedback that you act on it immediately. Employees will begin to feel like their voices matter when their feedback leads to concrete action.

Learn from Exit Interviews

Employees leave companies for a multitude of reason, but make sure someone isn’t leaving your business because they felt stuck or unheard. Employees in exit interviews will likely be more open about both the good and bad things about an office since they are on the way out anyways. Don’t be afraid to ask hard hitting question not only about office culture but about the performance of bosses and supervisors.

Put together a written survey for exit interviews and ask outgoing employees to fill them out ahead of time. By giving employees time to think about your questions early, you’ll almost always get better thought-out answers.

In the actual interview itself, do everything you can to drop feelings of interrogation in exchange for conversation. Avoid targeted questions and make absolutely no reference to specific employees. If the conversation suddenly turns to bashing another employee, listen without directly agreeing. Your job is to get authentic feedback about what your outgoing employee liked and disliked about your office. Use their feedback to fuel future changes in yourself and the office.

After several exit interviews, see if you can find a trend among former employees and their feelings about the office. Like in the results of an anonymous survey, be certain to act on all feedback to further foster a culture where everybody’s voice matters.

Public OKRs and Regular Meetings

Be upfront with your employees about the company’s objectives and key results (OKR). Explain to each employee how their work fits into the company’s goals and plans. Make sure key changes in the company are communicated clearly and to everyone.

The best way to get all of a company’s information on the table is to host regular meetings both with your entire team as well as semi frequent one-on-one meetings. Find a flow for these meetings that lands between professional and informal. With the prevalence of remote work and Zoom meetings, it can be doubly difficult to find time for watercooler informal chats, but as the boss, take the first step in setting the tone for your meetings.

Open communication means open communication, so good and bad updates must be shared equally. The quickest ways for employees to feel left in the dark is for them to learn negative updates are being sheltered from them while positive ones are being celebrated. It’s not enough for just the boss to share news and OKRs. Employees must be a real part of the conversation. Get your team in the habit of sharing what projects they are working on as well. Since company OKRs are public, reenforce that everyone’s projects are pieces of the company’s overall goals.

Own Your Mistakes

In the world of tough-guy-isms and old-world corporate boys’ clubs, bosses who own up to their mistakes were weak and seen as weaker by their employees. This is absolutely not true. If a boss is willing to admit when they missed the mark, employees may feel empowered to do the same. Use your mistakes and shortcomings as a learning experience and be just as open about them as your successes.

Talking about mistakes with your team is another great way to break down the vicious us-versus-them mentality between employees and bosses. Trust is essential in an open communication workplace. Don’t betray your employees’ trust by withholding information out of fear of losing face, as the negative impact of suppressing information is almost always greater.

Open communication culture lives and dies by those “in charge”. If change isn’t authentically accepted by higher-ups, employees will never feel comfortable enough to speak openly. 

Are You Effectively Using Open Communication Practices?

Many workplaces may be quick to claim their offices believe in “open communication,” but rarely do those claims come with concrete changes. Every business owner and employee can benefit from learning more about, and embracing an open communication office culture. So, if your workplace can use some improvements is to take small gradual steps, ensuring you include your employees along the way, and culture will follow.

Before a customer makes even one purchase from you, their customer experience has already started. The customer experience is the culmination of every moment a customer spends with your business until they are no longer your customer. A good customer experience creates an emotional bond between your business and that customer, keeping them coming back again and again. Cultivating a stellar customer experience takes time and care but does not have to break the bank. Many strategies that strengthen the customer experience are cost-free and those with a price tag have the potential to produce great ROI through satisfied return customers and increasing the life-time value of a customer.  

Don’t Confuse Customer Experience with Customer Service

All of the most basic interactions your business and staff have with a customer account for customer service. Customer service is the most baseline expectation for customer interaction that businesses must meet to avoid bad online reviews and word of mouth. Answering the phone, making eye contact, saying ‘thank you,’ and listening to customer requests are all examples of customer service; all good things, but in no way memorable. Customer experience, on the other hand,  accounts for all of the unique, personal touches your business can make to emotionally connect with your client base. If done correctly, your customer experience should both raise your reviews from average to great as well as increase the number of sales you make through word of mouth and advocacy marketing.

The customer experience is what people remember about your business. Think about the small businesses that have made an impression on you. All of those elements that may have impressed you or made you laugh are a part of your own customer experience; it should be your business’s goal to get those same emotions from your customers.

Building a Brand

The first step to strengthening your customer experience is making sure you have a strong brand. While your small business may not be able to match the variety of Amazon or the low prices of Wal-Mart, small businesses have every opportunity to make their own brand, or business personality, compelling, targeted, and identifiable. Building a compelling brand for your business often begins with keeping all aspects of your brand like colors, tone, font consistent. If you don’t know what aspects work best for your business, do some light research to find out the median age and interests of your customers. Having a business with a distinct personality is the first step to making customers feel like their interactions with your company feel special.

Focusing your businesses’ brand to be more appealing to your customers is the best way to make those customers feel even better about visiting your business. Keep in mind these key pieces of a business’s brand when assessing your own.

Brand History and Story: Customers will feel even more connected to your business if they know how you started out. Small businesses with grassroots or individual histories should actively tell those stories on their website and social media pages. Businesses with start-up stories will likely resonate even more with customers, strengthening their customer experience.

Brand Personality: Establishing a brand personality means giving traits to your business that customers can then associate with. The first step to finding or refining your brand personality is choosing some adjectives that you think define your business. Get your staff into the conversation as well and try to get a list of words like “laidback, friendly, sophisticated, professional,” or anything that fits your business. A brand personality is essential for cultivating the customer experience, as customers more easily establish an emotional bond with a business that has perceived human traits.

Brand Values: Being upfront about what your business stands for is increasingly important to the customer experience. Bind your brand to memorable and compelling values like diversity, accessibility, or whatever values you think apply to your business. Then, draft a concise mission statement for your business that encompasses those values. Make sure your customers can easily access your mission statement from your website, social media and especially in your actual place of business.

Handwriting Goes a Long Way

This tip may seem basic, but handwriting is often overlooked for the sake of digital convenience. How often does your staff use pen and paper when communicating with customers? Think back to any time you’ve received a thank you card with genuine handwriting and how that made you feel. Clever use of handwritten notes reminds customers that your business is run by people and not robots and algorithms. Even further, use writing by hand as an opportunity to further your brand personality. Here are a few places your staff can implement handwriting to go the distance and make a personal connection with your customers.

Receipts: When appropriate, encourage staff to add a personal touch to customer receipts. Even a smiley-face or “thanks” is a quick way into a customer’s memory.

Special Notices: Even the most mundane notices like restroom closures or your business’ mask guidelines are ripe for handwriting as well as brand personality. Instead of simply writing “restroom closed,” consider your brand personality and make a sign another way to display your business’s unique traits.

Marketing Materials: Marketing doesn’t have to mean expensive postal and email campaigns. Marketing to cultivate the customer experience can be as simple as making changes inside and out of your store. If your storefront is along a street or busy walkway, consider getting a chalk board and writing something clever about your business beyond your hours. Once again, if your business is on a walkway, consider getting a water bowl for pets during the warmer months. Write a witty, cute note above the bowl inviting pets to take a drink. While the pet partakes, the owner is then much more likely to take a second look at your store.

Get Your Staff Involved

Direct interactions with staff are the basis of making customer experiences memorable. If you run a business with outward facing staff, be certain that your training encourages staff to interact with customers when appropriate. If you have in-house customer service, be certain they are trained to be both effective and infectiously friendly. For businesses who sell products from a brick-and-mortar location, round up your staff and either cultivate a ‘Staffs’ Picks’ collection of products or encourage your staff to select their favorite products and write up endorsements; double points if those endorsements are hand-written!

When getting your staff involved, be sure they are just as aware of your company’s brand and personality as you are. When your business’s brand is strong enough, you can even use your brand to attract staff that already represent your preferred tone and outward appearance.

Dynamic and meaningful staff interactions account for the most important piece of a customer experience. If customers are meant to resonate with your business’s brand and perceived traits, those traits ought to come through strongest via your employees who embody those same traits.

Follow-up After Visits

Following-up with your clients is one of the most certain ways to both improve their customer experience as well as increase the chances they will return to your business. There are several ways a business can follow-up with clients eg: email, SMS, letters, social media; it is essential your business finds out which medium resonates most with your customer base.

Follow-ups with clients absolutely must be timely. Be certain that any kind of follow up message is sent either the same day the customer interacted with your store, or as soon as possible. By sending a follow-up message close to the client’s visit, it’s clear to the customer that they are a priority to you, the business.

In order for your follow-up messages to avoid a quick send to the digital trash bin, think of creative ways to add value to your correspondence. Some examples are to give avenues for direct feedback and places for customers to give suggestions. If a customer fills out a feedback or suggestion form, that is another great place for a personalized follow-up! Be receptive and respectful if customers have meaningful complaints or thought-out criticism in their responses, as addressing those complaints thoughtfully can massively rebound a poor customer experience.

Social Media, Blogs, and Keeping Customers Engaged

Customers who are already wowed by your company and want to keep up with your brand even further will often use social media and your company website to keep in touch with your business until their next visit. Make sure that your web presence is sharp and up to date with content that reflects your established brand. Use your social media channels to advertise events in your store or to highlight new products in fun and charming ways. Your goal with social media outreach is to stay in the conversation; whatever that conversation is will be up to your target audience and existing customers.

The most sure-fire way to positively influence the customer experience on social media is to actively engage with customers. When people comment on your posts or “@” your business, it is imperative that your official account responds and engages with those posts in a timely manner. Keep a close eye on posts from people who tag your business after visiting; just a simple ‘thanks for stopping by’ can make a huge impact on that customer’s experience.

A great way to make social media part of the customer experience is responding to comments or posts that mention your business. Even engaging customers on social media is part of the customer experience. Get creative! If you have some regular customers who are big fans of your business, maybe feature them on your social media page along with a quote from that customer. Make sure to always get clear consent from customers before taking their picture or uploading pictures of them to the Internet.

An new strategy for keeping social media costs low is to work with interns. Large companies searching for social media managers often ask that applicants have several years’ experience to even apply. By making your company an entry-level opportunity, you can both grow your brand and business personality while giving young professionals the experience they need to pursue social media management as a career.

Final Considerations on Brand and Customer Experience

The basis of a memorable customer experience is one that breaks the mold of mundane daily tasks. Your aim should be to genuinely surprise customers with your business’s humanity and attention to detail. Good staff are an undeniable necessity when building a memorable customer experience; be certain they are as aware of this as you are. Find ways to both engage your customers as well as your outward-facing staff and those stellar experiences emblematic of small businesses will often happen naturally.

No small business is spared from the almighty equalizer that is inflation. Small businesses often find themselves helpless, toughing out the consequences from decisions on high that drip like dominoes until finally reaching their own bottom line. Small businesses, however, are known for their resiliency. Even in the face of unstoppable forces like inflation, small business owners have proven to be flexible and resourceful in ways that their large corporate counterparts can never emulate. This article is a showcase of some small business owner’s unique methods for combating inflation. These business owners come from a wide range of industries and even countries, but their grit and determination is universal.

Taking Advantage of Alternative Materials

“We saw a huge surge in sales when Covid shut down all the local pet stores, so we needed to expand our grow capabilities. Lumber prices and other material prices were becoming more and more expensive. So, we went looking in other places for material we could use for constructing breeding racks and packaging tables. Salvation Army and Habitat for Humanity stores were a great resource because of their used furniture. We ended up buying used pieces of dining sets and wooden bed frames, broke them down, and built the racking and tables we needed. This was a great way to get the material we needed to expand our operation. Of course, the racking looks a little odd, but no one can deny their utility.”

Jeff Neal, Ops Manager, Critter Depot, Lancaster, PA

Tactical Financing

“When it comes to our business, during periods of high inflation, we often prefer to take advantage of the situation to increase our business’s rate of growth and expansion by applying for a small business loan from banks/lenders that offer fixed interest rates. The reason why is because inflation tends to generally lower borrowing costs, which means that when it is time to pay back the loan, we can do so with cheaper money than we initially borrowed, thereby effectively giving us a good discount on what we need to repay. This then gives us the chance to effectively invest our loan proceeds into beneficial investment opportunities that allow us to better strengthen and differentiate our business, which ultimately allows us to further build our pricing power in the long run.”

Eden Cheng, Co-Founder, PeopleFinderFree, Singapore

Creative Stockpiling and DIY

“I use a lot of chemicals in my business, so the best way that I have found to help beat inflation is to keep as large an amount of stock as possible. With bulk chemicals that I keep by the barrel full, I constantly check on alternative pricing options and suppliers, taking advantage of specials and renegotiating with current suppliers, even so far as trading services for better prices. For the more specialized, smaller products that I do not use daily, I keep limited stock but will specifically buy extra when there is a special running. I aim always to have stock available, purchased at lower prices so that inflation does not have an immediate, negative effect on my Business. 

I also have my own range of DIY products, which are essentially exactly what I use every day; it is just repackaged as a DIY product which I then sell to my customers. 

This allows me to bring in extra money by selling what I would use anyway,except at a higher price.”

Jack Miller, Exterminator & Pest Infestation Specialist, HowDoIGetRidOf.com

Customer Attraction at all Costs

“To limit the effects of inflation, you can raise the prices of your commodities but make sure that they are still in comparison to brands offering similar products. This method will allow you to earn more profit and give a way to offset the effects of inflation. Aside from that, you can also give out some discounts in order to attract more customers. 

But the best-tested method to combat the effects of inflation is the use of social media for promotions in order to increase customers. You can deploy a mini-competition in social media where customers can post videos or pictures about how they use your products. They just have to use hashtags related to your products and to your company. Additionally, you can hire an influencer to promote the competition in order for it to gain traction. This is a sure way to increase customer retention as well as profits even during an inflation period. Nowadays, social media can really save a business from inflation. A business owner just has to know how to leverage it in order to gain something from it.”

Scott Hastings, Co-Founder, Betworthy, Darien, CT

Stamps, Stamps, Stamps

“I run two history-related brands, History By Mail and Historic Cartoons. Inflation directly impacts the daily operations of our businesses. One way we have combated inflation is to purchase large quantities of USPS Forever stamps. We mail out thousands of historic replicas to subscribers every month using USPS First Class stamps. The cost of stamps is rising by 3 cents at the end of August. By purchasing large quantities of stamps before the price hike, we can lessen the immediate financial impact of the rise in cost. We have also had to slightly raise the cost of our products, which poses unique challenges for our subscription customers who are auto-subscribed and are used to being charged the prior lower rate. New customers are charged the new, higher rate, and prior customers are grandfathered in at the lower rate. We thought long and hard about raising our prices, but with the cost of supplies and labor rising, we needed to cover some of the extra expenses.”

Ari Siegel, Founder and CEO, History By Mail & Historic Cartoons, Chicago, IL

Running a small business is a balancing act on a never-ending tightrope; inflation is just one more spinning plate added to the business owner’s routine. In learning more about how small businesses combat inflation, we at Kapitus hope to spark the same creativity for our readers. Not every business solution is bound by rule books. And sometimes the answer to inflation lies in the Salvation Army furniture section.