I used to work for a general manager who was critical of our hotel’s food and beverage director because he had a reputation for rolling-up his sleeves and pitching in when the restaurant was slammed. Sometimes, he would seat guests. Other times, he would bus tables.

My GM believed that the reason he had to seat guests and bus tables was because he inadequately staffed the restaurant to service the forecasted volume of guests. That may be true but, as any operations manager can attest, there is a finite number of payroll hours to work with each period in order to stay within budget.

For this reason, many operations managers roll-up their sleeves and pitch in. (Believe me, this is a lot easier than increasing your department’s payroll budget.) Often, their motivation has less to do with being seen as team players and more to do with not exceeding their budgeted payroll hours.

Maybe my former GM was right and the F&B director scheduled inadequately? Or perhaps the F&B director did what he had to do to staff a restaurant with an inadequate payroll budget? I can only judge by what I can see: a line of guests waiting to be seated and a cluttered table that needs to be bussed.

Recently, my son and I were at Cold Stone Creamery. As a line formed nine customers deep, a single employee scrambled to accept, fulfill and ring-up orders. Meanwhile, a second employee was “working” in back in full view of customers waiting in line.

As the harried employee rang up our order, I motioned toward the employee in back and asked, “Is she available to help you out?”

He responded, “She’s a manager, so she has other things to do.”

Unfortunately, her “other things” didn’t have to do with supporting her staff or serving customers. Perhaps she feels as though she’s done her time working on the front line? Maybe she’s above it now that she’s a manager and, as such, should focus on more urgent managerial-type tasks like scheduling, procurement and budgets?

Or, possibly, none of those applies and she just missed an opportunity to demonstrate leadership and exceptional customer service by supporting her staff while reducing the wait time for her customers?

Most managers are classified as exempt employees who, because of their positional duties and authority, are exempt from the overtime provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act. While managers may be exempt from overtime, they are not exempt from serving.

If you’re a manager, understand this: You will rarely have enough budgeted payroll hours to staff your operation the way you’d like to. Scheduling to service forecasted volume is fraught with trade-offs. And there will always be urgent tasks that require your attention.

The most important element to any operation is people: employees and customers. So, when you have the opportunity to serve either of them, do it. Right away.

Illustration: Aaron McKissen

Sometimes, through no fault of your own, you find yourself overwhelmed by demanding customers who may feel entitled to immediate attention. Maybe a large tour group just arrived at your hotel or restaurant, or you’re short-staffed due to job vacancies, call-offs, or lean scheduling, and a line is forming…

In these instances, even careful planning and preparation may not result in the seamless service you’d like to provide to all of your customers. But there are ways to achieve stellar service even when faced with long lines and impatient customers:

Acknowledge the customer. Make eye contact and nod. A customer may feel anxious if you don’t acknowledge his presence—especially if other customers are also waiting to be served. Many delicatessens and government offices alleviate this anxiety by issuing numbers and serving customers in order.

Smile—a lot! Customers can easily detect tension in your body language. When they do, it may make them feel anxious and uncomfortable. The well-known communications study by Dr. Albert Mehrabian of UCLA, suggests that 55% of one’s likeability comes from the visual effect—her body language. Saying “I’ll be with you in just a minute” with a serious or critical expression on your face sends a far different message than if the same words were said through a smile.

Communicate early and often. Most customers will understand delays and other setbacks if there is adequate communication during the wait. Flight delays are a classic example of this. When there is adequate and reliable communication between the gate agents and passengers, then passengers can make use of the delay to work, shop, dine, etc. It’s when the communication is inadequate that passengers become restless and upset because they’re unable to venture from the gate area for fear of the plane boarding without them.

Re-deploy and cross-utilize staff. Apple Stores do a great job with this. If you need help on the sales floor, reps are there. When you’re ready to buy, there’s no line to wait in because the same rep can complete the purchase transaction with his hand-held payment device. Is your product stocked in the backroom? Don’t worry about a lengthy wait in some line—he will retrieve it for you personally.

Entertain. Disney does a great job of entertaining its customers while they wait in long lines to experience a ride or other attraction. By having characters interact with the guests or providing overhead flat screen television sets designed to entertain, prepare, and/or engage the guest while awaiting the attraction, Disney effectively reduces the perceived wait time of its guests.

Freebies. I once waited in a long line at a Starbucks store in Virginia. When I finally received my latte, the barista also handed me a free drink coupon. It was a nice touch. Most often, when customers wait in long lines, they feel helpless and taken for granted. In this case, I felt appreciated that my wait had been recognized and deemed unacceptable by the staff.

While it’s impossible to anticipate every variable that contributes to an operation being “in the weeds,” there are times when planning is the difference between exceptional and poor service quality. For instance, if you’re expecting a large group due to an earlier reservation then staff accordingly—even when this requires some creativity (e.g., reallocating staff from other departments or locations, utilizing temporary labor, etc.).

Maybe it’s not a staffing issue. Perhaps it’s a logistical issue. If so, anticipate the processes that you’ll need to address before the group arrives. In the hotel industry, that may be the arrival process (i.e., guest registration, baggage handling, etc.). A restaurant may suggest a prix fixe menu which will streamline the ordering process, resulting in more efficient table service during the event.

Most businesses benefit from receiving lots of customer traffic. When the traffic comes, whether anticipated or not, you must be prepared to address and serve your customers in ways that reflect the service priorities of your business.

Last night, my family and I visited one of those ice cream parlors that use a heated stone to meld together savory concoctions of an array of sweets and premium ice cream. Because each order is usually custom-made, it takes a bit longer to fulfill orders here than in typical ice cream shops where you order a flavor, a size, and you’re done.

When my family of six entered the store there was only one customer ahead of us. So far, so good. As my kids were deciding on the combination of treats they were planning to add to their ice cream, I noticed another three groups of customers come in behind us. I thought to myself, “Good timing.”

About this time, I realized that the young man working behind the counter was alone. There was no one in back to support the half-dozen or so customers who had lined up behind us. Others noticed too. I was reading the body language of customers who were rolling their eyes, sighing, looking at their watches, and craning their necks over the counter to see if another employee was hiding out in the back room. After several minutes with no forward progress, not surprisingly, the couple at the end of the line walked out.

You might be thinking that this is going to be a blog post about the importance of proper staffing and you’d be half-right. Staffing levels are important. It doesn’t make sense to try and shave labor hours at the expense of customer satisfaction and sales. But staffing is only part of this dilemma. The other aspects are employee attitude and the processes that are in place to mitigate the negative effects of being “in the weeds.”

Our server, Amir, displayed a great attitude. He took a moment to make eye contact with other customers in the line, smiled, and nodded as if to say, “I recognize that you are awaiting service and look forward to serving you.” Instead of appearing rushed and anxious, he smiled comfortably, offered samples to our kids, and served us as if no line had formed. I appreciated that and told him so.

Now, here’s where the processes that lessen the negative effects of being “in the weeds” come in. Having ordered three specials (which included a free kid-sized ice cream bowl for each medium-sized bowl purchased at the regular price), Amir told me that he needed to process three separate transactions. I told him that I was paying with a credit card and it might speed things up to put them all on the same transaction.

He was stuck. Despite sound judgment (and better customer service), he deferred to policy saying, “I know it would be faster but it’s store policy to ring up specials separately.” He was using one of those tiny dial-up machines so the delay (and customer angst) was compounded. So, as customers continued to wait—rolling their eyes, and looking at their watches—he ran my credit card three separate times, and issued three separate charge slips for me to total and authorize three separate times.

It was another example to me of subordinating customer service to protocol and policy. And the customers waited…

So, what’s a service business to do? Last summer, I wrote an article that contains several customer-focused actions that employees can take to get through the inevitable periods of high customer volume that most successful service businesses frequently experience.

Check it out and make sure your staff is prepared to take care of customers during periods of high volume. Also, review any policies that are in place that may not make sense for the customer even if they help you with your internal functions.

After all, customers are the reason that your business has internal functions—not the other way around.