Positive attitudes

szemcumo

Don't think it is just the weather! I need to have a pep talk with our customer services reps. Rotten attitudes, fighting amonst themselves, not being pleasant to customers........
Does anyone have a formula or speech etc. that I could use that you have found helpful. Need to get this back under control. Your help will be greatly appreciated.
Sandie

SMace

Are you their supervisor? If not I would start with the supervisor and try to see if you can help them help themselves.

You could start by getting the super to the side and say, "Hey I noticed, this, this and that, is there anything I can help with?" Hopefuly they will take the bait.

You could always watch the rerun of the Apprentice. The female project manager had a theory of how to deal with it.

marc

It is difficult to reduce these things to formula because situations are different and people are different. In some cases, a pep talk about the importance of customer service and the expectations of the company with respect to it would be enough. In other cases, identifying a "ring leader" and giving that person the option of correct behavior or showing them the door might be the way to go. But either way, the people involved with the unacceptable behavior need to be addressed by their supervisor or other appropriate chain of command personnel.

szemcumo

I am not the immediate sup, but because things are so bad and the sup is at her wits end the President has asked me to step in. We are ready to show several the door but were hoping to go another way first and see if we can salvage them since training is time consuming etc. He thinks a new voice (mine) may help and she won't look so much like the bad guy and all could benefit.
Thanks.

marc

Motivating people is a personal skill, some people can do it and others cannot. Sounds to me like you have been given a mixed message from the President, that is to be both the good cop and the bad cop.

If you are looking for a generic approach, I would begin with touting a three pronged build up of the Company, the product(s) and the management. Let them all know they can learn and grow here and that good performance can lead to good (insert appropriate carrots here - such as raises, bonuses, promotions, etc). Then turn to the unacceptable behavior and the consequences. Finally, they do not have to like each other, but the Company expects the highest degree of professionalism, teamwork, etc. If the customer can tell they dislike each other or has any negative attitude because of their work, then the ceiling and walls will fall in on them individually or collectively.

The choice is theirs, but the company will not tolerate this further. Choose to be professional or choose to take their issues to the next employer.

Good luck.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I suppose you could investigate the problem and see if there is any reasonable cause for these employees rotten attitudes. You certainly have a supervisor problem. Someone doesn't understand how to hire and train good customer service people.

However, I am tempted to just encourage you to identify the worst, most rotten, vile, unpleasant employee of the bunch and fire them immediately.

A couple days later hold a meeting with the remaining reps and inform them that poor customer service will not be tolerated. Internal and external customer service will be top notch or else they should start looking for other jobs now. If anyone feels they need additional training to do their jobs well, they can contact you directly otherwise you will assume they can do the job they have been hired to do.

Anyone who continues to be unpleasant should be shown the door until you have a completely "reformed" crew or entirely new people.

I don't think a "pep talk" will work at this point. Things have progressed too far.

LindaE

I agree with Paul. Actions speak louder than words, and a decisive move by mgt. will be far more effective than any buzzwords or hugs. We are about to do the same thing with a group of four people in a production dept. here. Good luck!

celeste

I have had that problem in the past. Sometimes it works to just call them all together, explain the problem and what you see that is going on. The supervisor of the department and I sat down with the group and told them what was expected of them. I ask them what it was that was making them so unhappy and what we could do to make them like their jobs more. This will usually accomplish one of two things to happen. You will get some good feedback (complaining) or there will be dead silence. Sometimes they have even told me there is nothing wrong and they love their job. I tell them what I see and how it is effecting other employees (in your case customer)and that they should consider seeking employment elsewhere if they truly hate their jobs as much as it appears they do. At least they know you are fed up with the "attitude." Two employees I have done this with don't complain much at all and walk around with smiles on their faces. Another, just keeps her mouth shut so she is at least not so openly negative. Worse case scenario, they resign.

National Guard

You could hire some one else to give the 'pep talk'. There are all kinds of companies out there that do motivational speaking/training. Programs to turn the company around. There are a zillion Tony Robbins' out there!

Who knows, maybe the whole company needs re-tuned.

AJ SPHR

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 10-12-04 AT 12:18PM (CST)[/font][br][br]A couple of opinions/comments on your two posts:
1. In my experience, asking someone to come in from the "side" is never effective at delivering a corporate or dept message. Employees know that the person speaking isn't the one they are accountable to, so they tend to dismiss it and instead emulate/look to their dept mgr to set the tone. We learned this the hard way during the big Quality movement of the 90's - had a separate Quality organization and bureaucracy that did very little to instill quality-focus in our employees. What helped the most was the department or organization manager living, breathing and talking about quality every day.

So, to ask you to come in from the "side" and hope you can convince them to have a better attitude, imho, won't do anything.

2. I always detest having HR referred to as the "bad guy" or being required to be the "bad guy" and letting the dept mgr look good while you deliver bad news (this was in your second post). If it's tough news, the employees will really get "it" if it's their manager delivering it.

Based on what you've posted - this group is beyond having pep talks. I agree with a couple of other posters who suggest taking action against the most strident offender. That shows the other that the dept manager is serious about enforcing polite and respectful behavior in the workplace. And continue to enforce that expectation by writing up those who won't comply. I believe that at this point the mgr has been "enabling" the bickering behavior to continue. Taking action will send a strong message!

One more comment - I just noticed that in your description of examples of the type of behavior they are displaying, you included a reference to showing disrespectful behavior towards customers. To me - this is a HUGE problem and should be dealt with immediately! The not-liking-each-other is one thing, but to extend that behavior to the customer is WRONG!
Whew .. good luck!