Harassment?

SamanthaQ

Hello! I'm a little green when it comes to HR issues and so I thought I would ask this question to get your thoughts!

We recently had a workplace violence training with all our staff. Upon receiving a training an employee comes to me (HR Director) and says that one of her co-workers has a customer who calls frequently and will only talk to this one specific employee about his account - but I'm not sure if he talks about his personal issues - being in customer service you often get customer's life story. I believe he has sent flowers to her and she just gives them to other staff members. This employee has never complained or said she is uncomfortable with the situation. Her co-worker who brought this to me must've thought it was odd but insisted that he was a nice guy.

The supervisor is hesistant to investigate because she didn't think there was a problem. Any advice?

LindaS

Customers sending "thank yous" to CSRs is not uncommon but I would talk to the affected employee, in private, and find out what her take is on the situation. If she doesn't feel uncomfortable with the situation, I wouldn't do anything. It is also not uncommon for a customer to prefer one CSR over another for any number of reasons.

Don D

Based on what you know (and post here) I would not crank up an investigation. You might, however, think about adding another component to your overall in-house training, and that would be something to address: "Keeping Your Professional Distance With Customers - Our Boundaries Policy". Anyone serving the public needs a basic mindset to not allow any sorts of involvements with customers beyond taking care of business in a prompt, professional and courteous manner. A professional customer service rep knows her/his boundaries, has no problem identifying when they're being encroached and operates within this framework, ALWAYS. i.e., no flowers, no repeat phone calls, no batting eyes, no rides home, no favors, no discussions of family issues, no special treatment.

PS: She also has a nosey co-worker.

POPEYE

Not only nosey but maybe a little JEALOUS!!!!

SMace

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-09-03 AT 10:42AM (CST)[/font][p]YOu should follow LindaS's advice and talk to the ee that received the flowers. If its no problem with her, its no problem. If you don't talk to her and something happens, one day she quits and you hear from an attorney you could be in trouble. To me this classifies you as "should have known" and "should have known and doing nothing=$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Wow I did emoticons and I don't know how I did it. That takes talent, I think?