Canadian Music Trade - August/September 2020 | Page 28

Business Matters
By Michael Raine
HANDLING DIFFICULT
CUSTOMERS IN THE
PANDEMIC ERA
Customer Service Expert Shep Hyken on Enforcing
Mask Wearing & Other COVID-19 Rules
Workers Are Terrified of Enforcing Mask Rules” read a recent headline
on TheDailyBeast.com. “A lot of our people have been verbally
“Walmart
harassed to the point of breaking down and just quitting,” said one
Indiana-based store manager in the article.
If you have spent any time on Facebook or Twitter in the last month or so,
you’ve likely seen at least a few viral clips of irate customers getting verbally and
physically abusive, even outright racist, when told they need to wear a mask.
A convenience store owner in Toronto was severely beaten by four men after
telling a woman she had to either wear a mask or leave. A security guard in
Michigan was shot dead for trying to enforce mask-wearing rules.
Sadly, selfishly belligerent customers are nothing new to the retail
environment, but the rhetoric and volatility of an extreme segment of the
“anti-masker” crowd does seem unusually heightened these days. Assaults
over masks are very rare and make headlines because they’re the exception,
but apart from the truly irrational people, there is a larger segment
objecting to masks and other necessary precautions of our current situation
that might not get threatening, but will be more, let’s say, “difficult.”
DESIGNED BY STOCKKING / FREEPIK
“Whether there is a government mandate or not, if your
goal is to keep your customers safe and make your
customers feel safe, then I think it’s imperative to
create the policy and that employees have to be
very strict. Managers also have to ensure that
employees follow the policies themselves,”
begins customer service expert Shep Hyken,
a regular NAMM U speaker who’s also a
musician himself.
If customers see employees not physically
distancing and not wearing masks
(or, as Shep says he’s seen, not wearing
masks properly), then it sends two
troublesome signals to customers.
For those customers who are only
begrudgingly following the rules,
it makes them think, “Why do
I have to follow these irritating
rules if you’re not?” That is going
to lead to problems. Then, for
customers who are rightfully concerned
about the virus and feel the rules
are necessary, it sends the message that “this store doesn’t really
28 CANADIAN MUSIC TRADE