Training

This is a perennial problem in my work place, and, no doubt, in many other customer service departments within all kinds of organisations: training. Lack of, quality of, quantity of... you name it!

In my work place, it is a lack of proper training causes a problem. Generally, we work together as a small team to discuss the best approaches to common problems, and to apply hindsight to specific incidents. This helps to an extent, but it does mean that on some of the more challenging issues that arise, we really have to make do with our own judgement, rather than relying on solid training.

A topical example:

You receive a telephone call from a blatantly racist customer. How do you handle their comments?

I am really not comfortable with racism, so on one occasion I decided the best option was to put the call across to my manager. This proved to be a mistake, because the manager in question turned out to be incredible prejudice AGAINST racist people. The conversation very quickly dissolved into an abusive tirade, with my boss slamming down the phone on the lady in question. I later had to deal with her husband, who also wanted to speak to the manager and could not see how his wife had been racist, as there was nothing wrong with what she said. Another abusive call with much shouting ensued.

This incident raised several issues for me:

1) how important it is to keep ALL prejudices, even apparently positive ones, out of the way when dealing with customers
2) how you cannot always rely on your manager to keep their temper, so it is better to deal with discomfort during a call as far as possible, rather than chickening out
3) specific to this particular call - how many people don't think that making derogatory comments about Eastern European (particularly Polish) people is racism, which of course it is.

I pondered this incident for some time, not least because I felt partially responsible for making the situation worse by handing the call over to my manager in the first place. It made me braver today when someone made the following comment:

"I used to work for you so I know what the company is like... you need to tell X to train your f***ing Poles better..."

I felt my blood turn in one beautifully cold, crisp wave. Apparently my voice did the same thing. My response was as follows:

"With all due respect, sir, I currently work for the company, so I know what they are like now. X does not train our staff and the issue would be the same regardless of the nationality of the staff member."

The call went on for some time, with me keeping a very forceful tone of voice and repeating my advice, which actually solved the chap's problem, but he didn't want to admit defeat. I did win out in the end, but not without a fairly large dose of adrenaline, and a bar of chocolate to restore my nerves afterwards.

My question is whether there is a good, customer-friendly way of dealing with a racist customer? Should the comment just be ignored, or is a firm line needed to make sure the customer realises they have stepped over the mark? Or would such people understand a subtle indicator like: "the nationality of the member of staff makes no difference"?

In a politically correct and sensitive world, it is a very difficult thing to judge. Do we have to respect everyone else's views, even when those views are disrespectful to others? Is there any advice out there for people on the front line of customer services to help them deal with this problem?

I don't really want to be political with this blog, but this has to be the most pressing issue I face as a customer service worker and I think it is time it was aired and discussed sensibly. With a friendly, understanding smile of course... :P