Professional Services Offer the Ability to Effectively Fill Gaps During Labor Shortages

As we approach three years since the onset of COVID-19, many companies are grappling with the lasting impact of pandemic life on workplace culture—in particular, the ongoing challenge of hiring and retaining new talent. It’s clear that while businesses struggle to find and train new talent, the work itself is not slowing down. New customers require onboarding, regulations continue to evolve, and older tools and systems require updates and replacements. On top of everything else, even when companies do succeed in hiring new talent to support their customer communications management (CCM) needs, the process of bringing them up to speed costs businesses precious time and productivity.

CCM solutions can be complex, often requiring mapping customers’ journeys, integrating all channels and points of contact, noting all interactions and outcomes, and responding appropriately. For companies struggling to navigate the current labor shortage and still meet their CCM requirements, hiring a professional services team is often a viable and cost-effective alternative to selecting and onboarding a new member of your team. Unlike a new staff member, who may require weeks of training and supervision before being brought fully up to speed, a professional services team familiar with your software (or even expert in your software) is readily available and can provide the most efficient and accurate approach towards project completion.  It can also work quickly to gain a thorough understanding of your organization’s projects and daily tasks to assist there as well.

Once the professional services resources have gotten familiar with these higher- and lower-order concerns of your organization, they can help your existing employees maximize their time and productivity. Your team can quickly and easily hand off specific tasks to professional service experts and spend their time focusing on other areas that may need more of your employees’ attention. Your internal team can choose to have professional service resources spend one-on-one time with them to review items they may be struggling with, essentially providing great insight into overall improvements to their processes.

The goal of professional services is to empower the established members of your team to work more efficiently toward existing goals. While these services are certainly useful in navigating the post-pandemic labor shortage, they can also support your team in navigating a number of other challenges, including restructuring your workflow when needed.

This was certainly true for Uluro user, MRS, a leader in statement printing and processing, which experienced the sudden death of a key employee responsible for its CCM program. Without this key person’s knowledge and experience, the remaining staff attempted to divide the work among themselves, but found it was taking too long to onboard new clients and complete other development tasks.

Realizing they were falling behind, the MRS team called Uluro Professional Services for help. By contracting Uluro Professional Services for the number of hours that best fit their budget and workflow, MRS was able to recover the information that had been lost with the passing of their operations manager while staying on top of their current tasks and working toward increased efficiency in their workflow.

The labor shortage stemming from the Great Resignation isn’t likely to go away anytime soon, but employing a professional services team can be a great workaround for companies that are struggling to attract new talent or simply need more help to get jobs out the door quickly and accurately.

Professional services can be a cost-effective means to fill gaps in your business and chart a new course for increased efficiency in your operating environment.

Learn more about the benefits of Uluro’s professional services by reading the full MRS case study here.

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