Another Call for Civility in Customer Service – and at Airports

I’d like to add my voice to the ranks of businesspeople calling for a renewed focus on civility in the workplace. Work should be a place where people are able to do their best work to the best of their talents and capabilities, not a place where they feel harassed, put down, or treated poorly. This topic comes to the top of my mind – and my blog – because I’m writing this entry while I fly back from O’Hare after a very negative encounter with TSA.

Let’s address the TSA issue first and why it made me think about customer service and civility. I travel a lot through most of the major airports in the country, so I have become very familiar with the challenges of traveling. Most TSA agents are quite nice; in fact, I’ve been amazed at the courteous and professional behavior at a couple of airports like Minneapolis and my hometown, Seattle. Both of these are very busy cities and hubs for a major air carrier. With few exceptions, I’ve found these agents to be comprehensive, courteous, and kind, despite the inherent challenges of doing a job most members of the travelling public don’t understand and don’t appreciate. These agents understand how to do their difficult job with grace and professionalism. They remind me that we should all work this way, regardless of the task or the audience.

Today at O’Hare, however, I encountered something totally different from what I hope is the norm:  an entire security checkpoint of what appeared to be unhappy agents, none of whom smiled at passengers and many of whom barked orders to get passengers to do what they were supposed to do. In the urgency to get to my flight, I forgot to remove my phone “ear-bud” from my ear, but no sirens went off and I proceeded through the checkpoint to gather my belongings. Moments later, from across the checkpoint, I hear a very loud and adamant, “You!  Madam!  Take that out!  Now!” I’m not sure O’Hare has had terrible problems with tall blond terrorists (madams?) of Scandinavian descent sneaking explosives into airports through ear-buds, but I was nonetheless subjected to a lecture on how I’d held up the line and how my ear-bud would now have to be rescanned through the belt – this was accomplished with much rolling of eyes by the agent for my apparent stupidity.  Risking being subjected to a full body cavity search for making a suggestion, I took the chance as an educator to calmly let the supervisor know that he might consider some training for his staff in basic customer service, starting with “Please”, “Thank-you”, and “I’m sorry." And, I’m using this rather unpleasant experience to think about how these basic customer service skills might apply to my work.

In most of our firms, we often must ask busy professionals to do things they’d rather not do – like write a section of a proposal, attend a strategy meeting, or “perform” in a presentation. And, we often have to ask for these things in chaotic and challenging circumstances. In public agencies as well, also a large percentage of my clients, city and county professionals often deal with members of the public who are not at their best.  And, they, too, must work under very challenging and chaotic circumstances while serving the public. It’s hard to be civil all the time, it’s hard to be nice, and it’s hard to be kind when we don’t get what we want or need. Despite this, most of the time, most of us do very well by way of civility, regardless of circumstance, but for those situations when it’s harder than others, I’d like to propose some basic guidelines that I hope you all will join me in adopting for our various organizations:

• ·       We don’t have to be like our customers all the time, but we do have to be polite and professional.  This is particularly challenging when our customers – internal and external to our organizations – are not at their best.

• ·       Basic courtesies of “Please”, “Thank you”, and “I’m sorry” will go a long way toward diffusing difficult situations.  Because human beings are natural mimics (we tend to unconsciously adapt our behavior to the environment), being courteous generally elicits more courteous behavior in response.  If you don’t believe me, find the sourest looking person at an airport and smile.  Chances are, you’ll get a smile back – most people can’t help it. Similarly, if you model courteous behavior, even in a challenging situation, most people will respond in kind.

• ·       Remember, someone else’s bad behavior isn’t about you, and you don’t have to respond accordingly.  I’m convinced some people were raised by wild animals because that’s the only way I can explain their behavior.  Despite this, I’m challenging myself and others to be consistently courteous – and even nice – even in the face of really bad behavior. 
  
  

Sometimes our customers are not from the outside; they are from our own firms and organizations. Just because these customers are “family” doesn’t give us a ‘bye’ on behavior. Courteous, civil behavior is the cornerstone of any successful business.  Organizations that support rudeness, harassing, or discriminatory behavior are bad places to work – and I suspect there are many other problems in those organizations that will eventually come to the surface. Great organizations support courteous and professional behavior, within their organizations and to their customers – all the time.

So, I have a proposal – one that I’ve made to my clients over the years. I think all of us should take initiative to drive civility and professionalism back into the workplace in places where it’s absent. In other words, I don’t believe we will create more courteous workplaces simply through policies or training. I think all of us – at all levels of our organizations – need to model civil/courteous behavior to each other, demonstrate consistently what we want from others. 

I think we should no longer tolerate bad behavior. This doesn’t mean responding in kind. But, it does mean making professional behavior part of our promotion and teaming decisions. It means requesting the behavior we want when we don’t get it – in a calm, professional manner. And, it means taking a deep breath in chaotic or challenging situations and responding to others in ways that are calm, professional, and reinforcing of a positive image for our organizations.

And, I think we should practice thanking people for the difficult jobs that we need to do ours. While it might not make people nicer, more courteous, or even more professional, we’ll feel better about our work and how we interact with others. So, to my TSA agent from ORD: Thank you for your service to keep the flying public safe. I know you have a hard job and I appreciate what you do, even when I have to take off my shoes, coat, watch, hair clip…..and ear-bud.