Introduction

The service industry is often fast paced, with new clients always emerging on the scene, sometimes in a blink of an eye. When you choose to build your business in the service industry, you must be ready to meet all client demands, however over a long period of time this can take a toll on your personal health. More often than not, service industry leaders find it hard to balance client demands and personal health, leading to Burnout and reduced productivity which harms their personal and professional lives.

If you’re a service industry professional struggling to manage your work-life balance in the midst of growing client demands and competition, here’s a quick guide for you to manage expectations and gain better results in your personal and professional life.

Understanding The Challenges Of Serving Client Demands As A Service Industry Leader

Before learning the ways on how to maintain the balance between client demands and personal health, let’s look at some of the challenges that service industry leaders face owing to the nature of their work:

High Emotional Labor

Service industry leaders, by the very nature of their work, often find themselves in situations that demand high emotional intelligence and resilience. The back and forth with clients, keeping the communication supportive, managing expectations, and the constant need to stay in touch with both internal and external stakeholders can be emotionally exhausting, leaving less time for the experts to recharge and manage emotional connections in their life outside of work.

This can be often seen in the digital world, especially social media where the leaders might be managing too many clients at once, aiming to help all of them achieve their business goals. Whether it’s creating social media strategies to help them gain more followers or using valuable insights from social media marketing statistics to enhance their brand presence across social media channels, the expectations and workload can increase over time, and the service industry leader may find themselves too deeply involved in meeting their targets.

The constant emotional and mental labor that goes into communicating with all the clients on a daily basis, and offering them constant support can deplete the emotional health of a media industry leader who wants to work closely with all their clients but also burns out in the process.

Inconsistent Workload

Service businesses are cyclical in nature. Some months are filled with activities, and client demands beyond the capacity of service leaders, while other months are extremely slow, leading to Stress for business leaders trying to scale their businesses through real resilience. This also means that service leaders try to go above and beyond when the work opportunities present themselves and in doing so, may often sacrifice their personal health.

For instance, while landscaping businesses are a year-round business, they pick up pace closer to winter months, especially before the holiday season. The large amount of client intake in a shorter span of time can lead to a workload that might be beyond the capacity of a landscaping industry leader. Even if they aren’t directly involved in the physical labor, the sheer act of large-scale stakeholder management, both on an internal and external level, can be extremely overwhelming and may impact their personal health.

Lack Of Time For Self

Service business leaders, especially during busy times, may find themselves working on multiple things at once. The lack of breaks and meeting multiple deadlines, as well as client expectations, can make it difficult to find time for yourself, and lead to burnout and decreased productivity. There can be urgent deadlines or last-minute changes which must be handled swiftly. The unexpected nature of the work is one of the biggest challenges that service industry leaders face.

A great example of this situation is seen in the world of management consulting where big business decisions are made in a matter of minutes. The stakes are high and when industry leaders are working with multiple big names, it can leave no room for a breather, leading to an increased chance of declining personal health while managing client demands.

Higher Stakes

Service businesses are all about people management, and when client satisfaction is the biggest selling point of a business, one move can make or break the Growth journey of a business, putting extra stress on service industry leaders to give their best at all times. 

For instance, a wedding venue management company that specializes in providing venues across California may always be able to find affordable venues in orange county and neighbouring places like Anaheim, Fullerton, and Santa Ana for weddings, owing to their closeness to the famous theme parks such as Disneyland and lots of attractions, but the same may not be the case in, say, venues of Sonoma county. 

Alternatively, a New York wedding management company may be able to secure a wedding venue closer to Queens, but the sheer number of couples who wish to have their wedding in Manhattan could make finding venues in New York County difficult, and failing to meet client demands may take a higher toll on the personal health of a service industry leader who may either work extra hard, or take ensuring client satisfaction too personally.

The constant back and forth across venue management and helping couples find a beautiful venue for their special day can be both rewarding and exhausting, leading to higher stakes and consequences for the service business and its leaders. The demand for different locations based on demographics and personal preferences of the clients, along with availability of venues also inadvertently impacts the stakes and can push a service leader in the wedding industry to work extremely hard, leading to an imbalance between personal health and professional commitments. 

5 Ways To Balance Client Demands And Personal Health As A Service Industry Leader

Balancing client demands and personal health as a service industry leader can be difficult at times, owing to the stressful nature of the industry, but it isn’t impossible. With a little planning and focused execution of the following tips, you can create a holistic schedule to meet your professional goals without sacrificing your personal well-being:

Set And Respect Boundaries

As an industry leader, it’s so easy to get consumed by your work and forget to take much-needed breaks as you’re in the midst of your work. The first sign of a lack of balance between client demands and personal health can be seen in the early signs of burnout. By setting boundaries around work and life and respecting them, you can significantly reduce the chance of burnout, raise productivity, and help you meet client demands more efficiently. This includes maintaining boundaries within your workplace as well as clients, which can seem difficult at times.

Here are some ideas on how to maintain boundaries as a service industry leader to keep your sanity intact:

• Prioritize your work tasks based on what needs to be done by you and which tasks can be delegated to others. Delegation is a powerful tool to succeed in any business setting, especially as a leader, and can be an important factor in determining your productivity and the success of your service business as a leader, so learn to manage your time and tasks effectively through delegation.
• Set your work times and follow them religiously. Make as few exceptions as possible and set regular time for breaks to prevent burnout. Establishing a work schedule is as important for you as it is for your employees. So instead of working 12 hours a week, and being available all the time, give four hours of uninterrupted time to work, focusing on deep work. Follow it up with resting periods to balance client demands and your personal health.
• If you’re working in a remote setting, avoid being available all the time. Set time for meetings and keep your availability hours to a minimum so that you can focus more effectively on the task at hand. Use the company’s communication and collaboration tools efficiently to keep the boundaries intact.

Establish Self-Care Routines

Self-care is an integral part of ensuring personal health while balancing client demands as a service industry leader. Making self-care a part of your life outside of work can make a significant difference in how well you manage your client’s demands, considering the emotionally intensive nature of service businesses. Taking care of yourself, both physically and mentally, can help you show up as the best version of yourself in the professional world.

Here are some ways to practice self-care in your day to day life for your mental, physical, and emotional well-being as a leader:

• To practice self-care, set some personal goals for yourself, just like you do in your professional life. These can range from going to the gym three times a week to spending more time with your family. Consciously making a choice to care for your physical and mental well-being can do wonders when it comes to taking care of your personal health, leading to an enhanced ability to meet client demands.
• Build a rest routine, just like a work routine. If you fail to find the time to take breaks while you’re working, adding necessary break times throughout the day can enhance your productivity and make you more adept at handling client demands by clearing your mind.
• Last but not least, having a strong support system around you is an integral part of succeeding in your professional life. Whether it’s your family or close friends, keep a network of people around you and actively engage with them outside of work, ensuring that you maintain that work-life balance and enjoy your personal time outside of work.

Build A Balanced Work Environment

A leader is only as strong as the team behind them, so leverage your team’s ability to offer client satisfaction by providing them and yourself with a balanced work environment. Instead of prioritizing overwork, make use of the right technologies and tools to create a healthy work environment and foster a culture of employee care in your business. This will not only increase employee productivity and satisfaction but will also help you lead by example and disconnect from work at the end of the day on a happier note. 

Here are some tips through which you can foster a healthy and balanced work environment as a service leader in a fast-paced industry:

• Implement policies that promote work-life balance and make sure that they’re being followed by everyone in the office, including you. This will prevent burnout among employees by reducing chances of overwork, leading to the holistic growth of the business.
• Foster a culture of mutual respect and diversity to create a healthy work environment as well as a talented team. A diverse team is adept at handling the client’s demands and expectations in a respectful way, owing to their collaboration with people from all walks of life.
• Appreciate hard work through awards and rewards. Since your employees are your company’s biggest asset, making sure that they’re recognized for going above and beyond can help you make a better leader, and help you find people who you can rely on, reducing professional stress on you. 

Invest In Enhancing Team Efficiency

To ensure client satisfaction of the highest degree and meet client demands throughout the year, you need a high-performing team that’s efficient in the kind of work they do, instead of micro-managing all your employees. Training your team is an integral part of managing client demands as a service leader and letting go of some of the pressure that you inadvertently harbor as the authority figure. An efficient team can take a lot of things off your plate, ensuring you get the opportunity to prioritize your health while running a successful business.

Here are three ways to enhance team efficiency for higher productivity across the board as a service industry leader: 

• Provide your team with useful communication and collaboration tools to make work easier, irrespective of whether they are working in an office or remotely. The open channels of communication, synchronous or asynchronous in nature, can make it easier for team members to work together, directly improving team productivity and efficiency.
• Establish goals and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) early on. These could be weekly, monthly, or quarterly targets that need to be achieved by your team. Having a structure around their goals and defining responsibilities can make it easier to stick to them, and even exceed them.
• Give your team ample time and opportunities to hone their skills and learn basic communication skills, irrespective of the role they are hired for. Since service businesses are client-centric, knowing how to build a rapport with clients and handle queries gracefully can add to your team’s effectiveness and leave customers feeling understood, resulting in higher retention rates.

Focus On Quality Instead Of Quantity

While service businesses aim to increase the number of clients they can reach out to and help in a short period of time, sometimes the best thing you can do for your business is to focus on scalability instead of expanding it. If you can give the highest quality service to a hundred clients, they’ll offer you more business than a thousand dissatisfied clients in the same position. 

For instance, if you run an event venue management company and can give your clients the exact type of venue they ask for, be it a winery wedding venue that can host 350 guests and lots of four-legged friends or an indoor children’s party venue suitable for kids aged 10-12 years, you’re more than likely to retain those clients and they’ll be willing to pay you more because they trust your business to build lifetime value for them. So always prioritize quality over quantity. It will not only help you retain your clients in the long run but will also reduce the stress of managing too many clients and projects at once.

Embracing Balance For Personal And Professional Success

At the end of the day, the conversation around work-life balance needs to be implemented in real life for emotionally intensive businesses such as that of the service industry. While managing client demands is an integral part of garnering success, it’s even more important to stay in the best physical and mental state of being a service industry leader to take your work to the next level and maintain your expertise in the field. 

By setting healthy boundaries between work and life, focusing on doing more quality work, and training your team for efficiency, you can ensure the highest level of client satisfaction without compromising your personal health.

Contributed by Christopher Wood, JHB Supply

The post Balancing Client Demands and Personal Health: A Guide for Service Industry Leaders appeared first on Business Advisor and Executive Coach | Doug Thorpe.

Doug Thorpe MBA, CLC, CEC

Small business owners will hit an invisible wall that can stall the growth of the company. The key reason there is a wall is that owners need to shift from manager to leader. The question is, how to do that?

Doug is a coach for CEOs and Senior Leadership Teams with 30 years of leadership experience. He is the president & CEO of Doug Thorpe Group. Doug is also a podcast host.

He helps owners understand the ways they need to reshape their thinking and attitude to make a successful break through the wall.