Health and Safety law indicate that companies should not place employees
in situations that might pose a threat to their safety and well-being. This law is ideally understood and adapted where employers identify
physical dangers like hazards from faulty equipments, slips, and trips. It is significantly
less practiced when the wellness of employees face threats from exposure to customers' aggression.
Managing the effect of consumer aggression appears significantly less as compared to managing the dangers to employees from equipment failure. Nevertheless the influence of being continuously around
the emotion loaded clients may build severe stress and tension in employees.
Companies have a legal duty to
accomplish all they are able to to help employees coping with client aggression. In practice, this implies playing an active role in managing the behaviour of clients. Organizations must
support staff in the management of
customers' behaviour at 3 levels, which are:
- Individual level: The employees attempt to handle the conflict directly with the customer. Employees must be provided conflict management training to successfully handle customer's behaviour, recognize, and separate the real problem from customer aggression. In case the employees are not able to calm the situation, the customer must be directed to a supervisor or manager.
- Supervisor/manager level: The supervisor or manager must aim to calm the client down by attempting to address the customer's behaviour once again. There is certainly an automatic down shift in customer's aggression level once they get to speak with a higher official. Sadly, this does not usually improve their behaviour when they speak with the 'front line' the next time, especially if they perceive their aggression as a 'win' in the first time round.
- Organisation level: In the event the aggression persists or is repeated frequently, the supervisor/manager must involve senior managers. Decisions taken at this level may contain requesting that the consumer only communicates in writing with the company, or speaks to managers only, or goes to a particular place to access the service, or in intense situations, the service may well be withdrawn.
We regularly meet employees who
have to handle calls from some
known aggressive callers every day
or weekly. Employees stay in fear of those encounters as they are extremely stressful to manage. Firms have a duty to handle these circumstances irrespective of the customers' situations. This could be a challenging idea to accept for managers and employees with vulnerable clientele. Nevertheless, some time and discussion with employees on what could be done to handle client aggression can be helpful.
Assistance for employees must consist of addressing what the Health and Safety Executive outlined as the key
standards to reduce stress. Integrated in these requirements would be the train employees with additional skill to function, manage their
demands much better, and improve support
through formal debriefing, supervision and conflict management. A motivated, confident, and
supported staff leads to higher customer service levels. Our conflict management programs
are intended to give attendees
an opportunity to discover how they personally respond
to conflict and practice expertise through individual and group exercises.
