Customer Service - Retail
Training Customer Service Employees on Disabilities
Currently, 15.5 % of the Canadian population is people with disabilities, and this number will likely change to 20% with our aging population. That’s 1 in every 7 Canadians and as the population ages that number will grow.
Whether we are looking at a large or small organization, attracting all customers is essential to a businesses success. Improving services that deal with customers with disabilities can help increase the customer satisfaction and return rate that will help improve the business image. Having an environment that is accessible to customers with disabilities isn’t just the right thing to do; it’s also the law.
People with Disabilities do ordinary activities just like anybody else and by providing service that welcomes people with disabilities; you now have improved your services to everyone, which creates a better welcoming environment. Not only is everything above that’s mentioned important, but also treating all the people who come through the doors with individual respect and support is at the heart of proper customer service.
Interview
Because the topic that we are focusing on is retail in training and development, we decided to branch out to one of the Human Resource business partners at another retailer, who is also one of their board directors for Training as well. This will provide a comparison view with Wal-Mart’s. The following questions have been asked below regarding how they work with training employees and developing them to be better workers around customer services and customers with disabilities.
You will be able to see that some areas are similar to the approaches we previously talked about and agree with, and others raise a different perspective as well.
What types of disability do think is most commonly encountered for customer service employees?
What do you think is the most important thing to remember when helping out this type of customer?
Do you think it is important for customer service employees to learn about different disabilities?
Is it worth the time and money to invest in this training?
If you had to give one tip or advice while training an employee in customer service in regards to disabilities, what would it be?
Customer service finds that they mostly have to assist people who are in Wheel chairs, or have Cain’s/other mobility disabilities, which can be the most challenge to work with and for the customers too in regards to accessing the store. The second most common and dealt with are customers who have vision and hearing disabilities. One disability that can be also challenging would be mental disabilities.
Its important to remember that you cannot assume someone has a disability. You should always treat the customer like any other, by asking, “how may I help you”.
It’s a huge part in training, and even has its own large diversity and inclusion department that is there in the retail business that’s job is to implement and enforce the training of employees on disabilities.
Lately, the ministry of labor has also being going around to different retailers and doing spot checks to see if the AODA standards are being implemented.
*retailer* has recently moved over to online internal training, where all employees being trained have to access and complete different modules. One of the tests they have to pass is one on the large section provided on AODA. *Retailer* then asks situational questions like “if a person comes in visually impaired and asked you on how to get soup, what would you do?” to increase their development training by giving them real life scenarios.
Everyday, managers do hurdles with the staff to talk about challenges that might arise or if anyone has any questions. This keeps the team up to date and is also seen as “on the job training”. The manager will also run by a couple scenarios to increase training.
People training the employees should give them scenarios and case studies so employees will understand and be more prepared for dealing with customers with employees. They should not be afraid to ask questions about how the manager or trainer has previously dealt with customers like such. The trainer should also show the employee how to do it so that they can see it first hand. Its really important that the employee knows how to feel comfortable and overcome and challenges at times as it is often seen as the “white elephant in the room”.
Other information discovered:
Annual performance reports are done and so are mid year ones (around June) to see if goals are being met. Based on the scores on the meetings, the managers can see where there needs to be improving and works on it.
*The retailers* in store (ex: cashier) employees are unionized, however managers are not. This means that employees get an annual raise, and managers get raises based on performance and what’s seen on the talent grid.
*The retailers* main corporate location is now functioning like Google, in the way that it compromises the work life with daily life. If you are too busy to go grocery shopping you can do it online and pick it up when you go home. It has day cares, lots of food, and social lounges ext…
*The retailer* used to have learning center, just like Wal-Mart has a learning corporate center. Wal-Mart is more conservative and this still exists however *the retailer* found when people would come back; they would not know or forget everything because they didn’t have on the job training. Now *the retailer* has online modules and provides on the job training.
Story about hiring: Once a manager came up to me and said we have someone who has applied that can only put one can of soup on the shelf every hour. Any person who has a disability has the equal chance of getting the job as any other person. You have to keep in mind what really best for the person and if this will benefit them, do they really want to be doing this?
Works Cited
"About the AODA." AODA Training & Consulting. Accessibility Ontario, 02 Sept. 2014. Web. 09 Nov.2015.