People are rude, pushy and condescending – and it’s probably happening on your contact center floor more than you think.
More than 95% of employees say they’ve been affected by incivility at work, one study found. Incivility comes in many forms. For instance, being the victim of an ill-tempered co-worker’s tirade, being snubbed by a clique or being sabotaged by a colleague.
Almost always, when employees witness or are victims of incivility, productivity and morale will drop. People lose time and momentum thinking, stewing, talking and feeling bad about the situation.
So the goal of any contact center should be to eliminate rude, obnoxious, disrespectful and cruel behavior. To take steps toward that goal:
- Set standards. You have performance standards, right? You can establish rules in your contact center on how agents and supervisors must behave.
- Grade performance. Include adherence to the behavioral standards in performance criteria. Review it as often as you review task performance.
- Train. Some people may not realize their behavior (or that around them) is unacceptable. Include at least annually training on what rude and inappropriate behavior looks like, how to report it and ways to better handle situations that may be contentious.
