When The Customer Bites: What Happens To Customer Service Employees?

As an employer, what do you do when one of your employees reports existence sexually harassed by a vendor?

Like shooting fish in a barrel, right? Y'all telephone call the vendor's boss and say, "If y'all want to continue doing business with united states, then yous volition non send this person back to our company." The vendor wants your business organisation, so her respond is, "Sir, aye sir! Anything you say, sir! We appreciate your business concern! Thanks for calling!" Problem solved.

But what if the employee reports being sexually harassed past a third party who isn't and so easy to push around? Like an important contact, or ane of your customers?

Legally, you still take a responsibleness to address the employee'south claim of harassment, and it's besides the right matter to do. But it takes more finesse, doesn't information technology, because yous want to handle it without losing the customer'south business organisation. (Government employers sometimes have a similar problem when employees are harassed by members of the public -- whom it is their duty to serve.)

THE CUSTOMER ISN'T E'er Correct

Costco got preliminarily nailed this week in a customer-stalking/sexual harassment case brought by the EEOC. For reasons I'll explain at the end, I retrieve Costco may still win. But they're going to have to go through the expense and trauma of a jury trial offset.

EEOC five. Costco

The lawsuit was filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of Dawn Suppo. Co-ordinate to Ms. Suppo, a Costco fellow member approached her in 2010 and chatted with her, and then made a joking comment that Ms. Suppo was stalking him. After a few more encounters with this homo, Ms. Suppo reported to management that she felt he was harassing her. The shop loss prevention manager and two other managers met with the member, who denied information technology. They told him to avoid Ms. Suppo, and he said he would. So they met with Ms. Suppo and told her what they had done, and told her to let them know right away if there were whatsoever farther problems.

(Sounds pretty skillful then far.)

Only, according to Ms. Suppo, the member continued to lurk and hover near her, commented most her advent, and touched her a couple of times (not in a sexual way, but it would still be creepy coming from a stalker). She said she made numerous complaints to management for about a year. Ms. Suppo's begetter says that he too complained several times on his daughter'southward behalf. (Costco denies information technology.) At one point, according to Ms. Suppo, the human seemed to exist video recording her on his jail cell phone. Costco admits that this was reported, and information technology investigated but was unable to substantiate the accusation. But as a consequence of the video complaint, the shop manager told the member that he should shop at a different Costco location non far away, which he evidently did.

And then i solar day Ms. Suppo went shopping at this other location, ran into the "stalker," who past this time didn't like her any more considering she got him banned, and he made a scene, cussing her out and telling her that she was crazy. After this incident, his Costco membership was revoked.

Ms. Suppo went out on a medical get out of absence and never returned to work. She was finally terminated when she exhausted her medical leave.

Even though Costco denied having received whatever complaints except the first and final, a federal judge in Illinois (correctly, I think) decided that the number of complaints and Costco'due south response were critical facts that were still in dispute: If you lot believe Ms. Suppo, so Costco probably didn't do enough to address her concerns. If you believe Costco, then Ms. Suppo probably doesn't have a instance. This is the kind of matter that juries are supposed to decide.

Customer HARASSMENT: WHATCHA GONNA Do?

So, yes, information technology's tough if you are told that someone on whom your business depends is harassing your employees. Here are a few things you might want to consider if y'all want to (a) aid your employee and avoid a lawsuit, while y'all (b) avoid losing your client in the process:

1) Consider appealing to the harasser's boss. In the Suppo case, the member was apparently a individual citizen, and then this wouldn't have worked. Just sometimes the "customer" may be an employee of your truthful customer, which is a visitor. If that's the case, you may be able to tactfully contact the customer's Human Resource department, explicate the situation, and get them to handle it with the individual. Almost companies don't want their employees harassing anybody, and so they are likely to cooperate.

two) Separate the employee from the harasser. This is what Costco tried. Sometimes information technology works, and sometimes information technology doesn't. If it's a concern customer, you should swap employees responsible for handling the account, and have your representative come across the customer at his location, or meet only by date so yous can go the victim out of at that place before he arrives. If it's an individual retail customer, those solutions may not piece of work. But even in a retail setting, you can set up some kind of prearranged signal then that the employee has fourth dimension to "disappear" whenever the harasser comes around. (Note: This solution works only if the harasser bothers i or two employees. If he's bothering everybody, then you'll take to practice either No. 1, or No. 3, beneath.)

3) Remember that coin isn't everything. Once in a while, you will have to seize with teeth the bullet and risk losing your customer to protect your employee. That'due south too bad, and if it's a concern client, it could accept pregnant implications. But in many cases it won't be the end of the world, specially if the customer is an individual. I incertitude that Costco will go broke because they terminated this ane guy'south membership. Why, I bet he wasn't fifty-fifty an executive aureate star member. Compare that cost with the legal fees that Costco has had to incur in an EEOC lawsuit, and what may happen if a jury believes Ms. Suppo instead of Costco. (Come to think of information technology, perhaps money is everything.)

THE Silvery LINING FOR COSTCO

Remember when I said I idea Costco might all the same win this thing? Beginning, Costco will of course have the gamble to persuade a jury that its version of the facts is true.

"Tomorrow is another twenty-four hours!"

Just the real reason I think Costco may win in the end is that it sounds like Ms. Suppo may accept some "health" problems that could have affected her perception of this man's actions. Put more bluntly, it sounds like possibly he wasn't stalking her but maybe she simply thought he was. And if her perceptions virtually that are wrong, then why should we believe that she complained repeatedly to Costco?

Costco tried to go Ms. Suppo's medical records, and the EEOC (as it normally does) took a hard line and refused to produce them. But the court is assuasive Costco to get the records and send her for an independent medical test. If it turns out that this whole thing was in Ms. Suppo's head, that is a shame for her, simply the event could be a big win for Costco.

(The judge also dismissed Ms. Suppo's constructive discharge claim because she was actually terminated and didn't resign.)

Image Credits: From flickr, Artistic Commons license . Costco store (in Connecticut) past Mike Mozart, man peeking through window past Omer Ziv; man following woman by Patrik Nygren; Epcot Heart by Christian Lambert.

When The Customer Bites: What Happens To Customer Service Employees?,

Source: https://www.constangy.com/employment-labor-insider/when-a-customer-harasses-your-employee-what-should-you-do

Posted by: malikastion.blogspot.com

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