What to do when positive customer service staff turn negative
Positive customer service staff say things like; “This change will help me gain new skills”, “I look forward to trying something new”, “We can do this” and they really do mean what they say. You can see it on their faces and hear it in their tone of voice. They are focused on improving customer experiences and this ‘power of positivity’ comes from them making a conscious effort to leave negative behind at the start of their work day/shift and keep it at bay all day.
You may have these people on your customer service team, you may be one of these people OR you may be reading this and think that these people don’t exist - they do.
Our purposely positive customer service staff don’t reserve their positivity just for face to face customer interactions, they bring positive to team meetings, to staff rooms, to training, they bring it phone conversations and they look for ways to inject it into written communication too. All this positivity is great for business but, it could be easy to think that positive behaviours come naturally to some staff.
We may think that some customer servic staff don’t work at being positive - they are just ‘born that way’. Not true.
If you ask our ‘Patriots of Positive’, they will confirm that on some days, it takes effort for them to bring positive to work. On some days they have to steel themselves to smile, to remain calm with difficult customers or to find the good when when bad news or unexpected change arrives.
In truth, on some days they have to act how they may not feel. Positive staff are not immune to life’s challenges but they ‘switch on positive’ because they are self-aware which when combined with self-care, means they can self-regulate and this leads them out of the storm of negativity.
This is a sign of emotional intelligence (EQ) ; the ability to identify and adjust our behaviour to suit the environment. Work is a professional environment and moaning, complaining, sulking and negativity are un-professional behaviours. Customer service staff with good levels of EQ know that those attitudes and behaviours at work lead to complaints, mistakes and disharmony in the team. Not good for anyone.
In truth, consciously choosing a positive attitude and maintaining it all day is not always easy and some days it can feel impossible.
Situations in our personal lives and/or our mental and physical health can negatively impact our emotions and make it difficult for us to concentrate, to think clearly and to smile. Ongoing workplace challenges with no sign of reprieve can test the best of us - COVID19. Customer service staff who know the power of EQ seek ways to keep themselves positive and help others in the team too.
Here are my 4 tips to maintain a culture of positive in your customer service team;
Regularly remind staff the importance of disclosing when they are facing challenges that are impacting their ability to be positive and professional. This allows you/the Manager to consider the best steps for the workplace as a whole - including the individual who disclosed. (Disclosure should be private and confidential but if the staff member permits, sharing and asking for help can strengthen a team).
Ask staff to share positive thoughts/ideas or actions at the start and end of meetings. It may seem trivial but it makes a positive difference, particularly if there are challenging agenda items to cover.
Have a “Positively Positive Day”. Go all in and task the team with giving positive feedback to 5 people (more or less depending on your team size) and reflect on how they all felt at the end of the day.
Remind staff to be kind to themselves ie: take allocated breaks, get fresh air and drink water.
A culture of ‘yes we can’ doesn’t happen through the positive acts of a few or one or two acts of kindness, it requires a team effort of consistent actions.
If you or someone on your team would benefit from professionally developing their emotional intelligence and have access to self-care strategies for customer service staff, you need my book The A-Z of Service Excellence. Hard copy, e-book and audio versions are available.
If you want to create a cutlure of service excellence across your team all year, CONTACT US NOW.
By Cate Schreck - Director of Lightbulb Training Solutions