When was the last time your business actively paid attention to the challenges of staffing and its link to customer service? A well-rounded customer experience is an aspect that a company’s entire business model often hinges on, but many forget that issues in staffing inhibit the quality of customer service quite significantly.
Providing exceptional service and meeting staffing needs are two elements that are clearly interlinked, but most organizations tend to assume that “sufficient” staff is just as effective as a fully staffed operation. A recent survey by Gallup found that, according to employees, staffing levels are the top barrier to providing exceptional products and services to customers. Many elements of employee training also contribute to the quality of service they are equipped to provide, but an understaffed and overworked gaggle of employees may just be why your business is underperforming.
When organizations face staffing challenges, the customer experience of the products and services is also directly affected. (Image: Pexels)
Staffing Challenges Affect Customer Service: It’s Time to Take a Closer Look at Your Workforce
On a mission to help businesses understand the shortcomings in their customer experience, Gallup conducted a detailed study into the matter. The data from Q3 2025 showed that 43% of US employees strongly agreed that they feel a great sense of responsibility in shaping the customer experience, but only 23% also strongly agreed that their organization always delivered on the promise made to customers. If a growing number of employees are willing to take accountability for customer experiences and outcomes, then why are they unable to deliver results to the same degree?
Gallup answered this question as well, finding that staffing issues were seen as the top barrier to quality customer service. Over 37% of employees pointed to staffing shortages as the main obstacle in their workplace. Other aspects like training, tools and equipment, and unclear standards were also mentioned, but service staffing challenges took the lead as the primary concern. This wasn’t just felt by employees either.
Staffing or “having the right number of people to do the work” was cited as the primary concern by 45% of leaders, 41% of managers, 43% of project managers, and 34% of individual contributors. Clearly, organizations are unable to find sufficient workers who are fully qualified and willing to play these roles, and this issue is holding businesses back from achieving their full potential.
Service Staffing Challenges Intensify as Workforce Reduction Plans Lead the Way
Despite the rising need for experienced, driven employees, organizations have collectively set their sights on reorganization and downsizing efforts to realign their business with their goals. Nearly one in four US employees report that their organization is working to reduce its headcount, and among them, 65% reported that individual contributors working directly with customers were most affected by these layoffs.
When asked about the employee experience over the last three months, 58% of employees reported an organizational or team restructuring, 52% reported budget reductions, and 63% explained that employees were asked to take on additional responsibilities. This is one of the primary reasons why staffing problems challenge the quality of service, where workers are asked to take on more than their fair share of work in order to compensate for the shortage of able hands.
Executive and senior leaders also witnessed these barriers to exceptional service as a result of low staffing in their own way. Almost half of them witnessed the rise of stress and frustration among workers. Their own challenges in the light of these changes was also apparent, with some citing a lack of communication from leaders, others discussing the difficulty of finding the right balance between people management and individual contributor responsibilities. About 18% also reported an increase in the number of employees they managed, which suggests staffing shortages in their department as well.
These Staffing Barriers to Exceptional Service Have Been Apparent in Recent Years
The findings of the Gallup survey are unsurprising and we have seen clear evidence of this in the real world over the last few years. Over 31,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses, who were aligned with the UNAC/UHCP, recently went on a 41-day strike in California and Hawaii. While there were many contract and compensation concerns at the center of the strike, understaffing issues were also a key concern. San Francisco’s Superior Court also saw court clerks recently go on strike over staffing and training issues.
These staffing challenges are most apparent in healthcare, government, and education sectors, however, such problems can emerge in any business where headcount reduction plans are taken too far, leaving more work for the staff who remain. An overload of duties affects their ability to perform their role with attention to quality and performance, and once employees are burnt out, their performance further declines.
As a result, employee engagement and enthusiasm suffers and this is where staffing affects customer service as well, when the gap in quality becomes apparent to the end user. Any business that hopes to maintain a certain standard of operations must also look at maintaining a stable workforce of employees with reasonable workloads. Even if employees can manage more than their fair share of responsibilities, it still benefits a business to maintain a workforce tasked with a reasonable workload. Happy customers mean better business, ensuring the organization thrives overall.
Do you agree that staffing challenges affect the quality of products and services offered to customers? Share your experience in the comments with us. Subscribe to The HR Digest for more insights on workplace trends, layoffs, and what to expect with the advent of AI.
