What to do if Corona Virus is impacting your team

Providing customer service in any business can involve having to interact with unhappy customers. In most cases, your frontline staff won’t get a warning when customers are going to phone or arrive demanding better, more or different.

It just happens and your team have to respond quickly and professionally.

But right now, in mid March 2020, we have a situtaion where we can predict that our customers will be feeling a range of emotions; from concern to anger - all of which can make it challenging for your frontline team.

I've just watched the news and saw some pretty angry people. Upset F1 patrons being told the event is cancelled. Some patrons were swearing at the staff at the gates, others were letting out their frustration on other patrons and sadly, we also have recently seen ‘toliet paper’ craziness in Supermarkets - both are examples of customers behaving badly which happens when emotions of anger or fear are unable to be controlled.

I feel for the frontline staff who are going to have to interact with these patrons - face to face and over the phone. 

If your customers are impacted by the COVID-19, your frontline staff are going to need strong leadership.

Whilst we wait to find out how much, how long and how hard the impact will be, remind your team that this is unprecedented - we are all navigating choppy seas together.Some of your staff and customers may shrug their shoulders and float along calmly, some may find it an uncomfortable paddle and others may demand answers to steady their boat.

Lead with direct communication (face to face) because it's body language and tone of voice that convey how you feel and what your attitude is - and it needs to be professional and empathetic to how your team and customers are feeling.

If you have written info to share with your team and customers, consider including a short video in your email that confirms your attitude and feelings, or schedule a live webinar so you can answer questions in realtime.

Direct and honest communication is always better than no commuinication - even if you don’t know the answer, the way to calm others is to speak clearly, use a calm tone, listen to concerns and repond with honesty.

If you would like more ideas of how to support and calm your team and convey you are a leader with emotional intelligence, click here for a copy of my book - hard copy, audio and e-book available. Chapter E is for Emotional Intelligence and Chapter Z is for Zen.

By Cate Schreck - Author of The A - Z of Service Excellence