Lesson 2.8
Conversations & Behavior Around Customers and Coworkers
Estimated time: 7 minutes
Not every conversation belongs everywhere.
Employees sometimes forget that customers can hear them.
Imagine customers hearing staff loudly discussing:
- another customer’s problem
- a coworker’s private life
- salary disputes
- insults about management
- sexual jokes
- gossip
- an argument
- confidential business matters
Even when the conversation has nothing to do with the customer, it affects the customer’s experience of the business.
Appropriate Language
Professional conduct does not require speaking unnaturally.
People can laugh.
People can have personality.
People can enjoy their coworkers.
The question is:
Is this conversation appropriate for this environment?
Scenario
Two employees disagree about who failed to complete a task.
Customers are standing nearby.
One employee begins shouting:
“You always do this! You are very useless!”
What should happen?
The disagreement may need to be addressed.
But humiliating each other publicly damages:
* employee dignity * teamwork * customer confidence * workplace reputation
A better approach is to move the disagreement away from customers and handle it through the appropriate workplace process.
Module 5 will teach workplace communication and conflict in greater depth.
Module 6 will cover emotional control and dignity.
Here the basic principle is:
Know what behavior belongs in a professional environment.
Remember
Customers should not become unwilling members of your workplace drama.