Aggressive customer behavior makes technicians ill in the long term. However, there are ways for managers to rebuild their technicians after these situations. What options do I have? And which of them are really effective?
You always get along well with 90% customers. Even if you really haven't covered yourself in glory in some situations. It often gets difficult with the other 10%. The customers who hit below the belt with alarming regularity. As a manager, what can you do to provide your employees with the best possible support after such incidents and avoid burnouts, absences and resignations?
Example from practice:
On a field job, one of my technicians had to leave the building every time the customer entered the machine hall. He didn't want to stand the sight of my employee as long as the plant was at a standstill. He had previously made a slug of him several times in front of the entire team. Customers like that make your technicians sick! Empirical studies show that encounters like this have a direct impact on the likelihood of burnout and absenteeism in service. - Dr. Simon Tonat
The four archetypes of the intervention manager
Essentially, there are four dimensions of action that can be considered in order to respond to such incidents. For the sake of simplicity, I have summarized these into four archetypes. The archetypes are based on Bowen and Johnston's model:
The empathizer
The empathizer tries to put himself in the technician's emotional world, expresses understanding and sympathy and tries to rebuild the technician through emotional support.
The participative
The participative employee listens to suggestions from his technicians on how to deal with such customers in the future and how to adapt processes and structures so that such encounters occur less frequently. He also involves those affected directly in his decisions in this regard.
The enabler
The enabler gives his technicians power and therefore more control over the situation. For example, he could allow the technicians to independently approve higher goodwill amounts. This gives the technicians more leeway when dealing with the customer and strengthens their position. Of course, this empowerment does not have to be limited to goodwill arrangements.
The rewarder
The rewarder, as the name suggests, rewards his technicians when they successfully master difficult customer situations. Rewards can be both tangible and intangible. Material rewards include, for example, pay rises and improved job prospects or even promotions. Intangible rewards include recognition, public praise and the assignment of challenging and exciting tasks in addition to day-to-day business.
The Belohner wins the race!
Are all four options equally effective? Unfortunately, no! There is an interesting study on this question from 2014. One important finding is that each archetype only has a chance of being successful if the manager's intervention is perceived as fair and appropriate by the employees. This is only the case to a very limited extent with the first three archetypes (together in just 30% of cases). In order to keep service employees motivated for a long time, it is not enough to talk them down and let them make their own decisions to a somewhat greater extent. The only really promising approach is to establish a fair reward system (70%).
High employee satisfaction in a service environment is not possible in the long term without an intact reward system. Managers should ensure that technicians are rewarded in direct proportion to their stress levels. Technicians who have to deal with problem customers more frequently must also be better rewarded. However, the reward does not necessarily have to be of a material nature. You don't have to constantly walk around the department with a suitcase of money and hand out gifts. There are other ways.
No technician exposes himself to an aggressive environment in the long term. After-Sales if he is not rewarded fairly for the emotional sacrifices he has made.
For maximum success, you should focus on those employees who experience such situations most frequently. For employees who find themselves in difficult scenarios less frequently, all four of the above-mentioned intervention options and the reward system in particular are generally very effective. Limited positive effects.
With this in mind, reflect on your own intervention style and check whether there are ways in which you can position yourself even better in the future. The technicians will thank you for it.
