By Hala Al-Qahtani
Al-Watan
WHEN you work in service sector and interact with customers, make sure your behavior and facial expressions represent the work ethics of that sector. It’s better to leave your negative attitude and feelings at home, instead of carrying them with you to office every morning.
No doubt such negative attitudes would hurt the feelings of customers as they do not know why this official deals with them with a gloomy face. The employee is doing his duty while dealing with customers in a nice manner, even though he is meeting them for the first time.
If you are head of a government department that extends services to the public you should be present in office at the beginning of working hours. Your absence or late arrival negate your leadership qualities. You should correct these mistakes in order to achieve success.
The general work atmosphere and professional ethics should be supporting each other. You may not find a suitable working atmosphere in a smart building if the employees do not carry out their work in a professional way. If they work properly meeting public requirements, customers would not make any complaints about poor service and long procedures.
I would like to draw the attention of authorities toward work environment of women’s sections at the Passports Department, Civil Status Department and courts. A visitor will find the atmosphere and premises of these departments gloomy with shabby furniture and facilities
You can see several posters on the walls giving religious instructions and teachings. It reminds you about notices of school activities. Television screens on the wall show only programs from the Qur’an channel, especially in women’s waiting halls. The female employee deals with customers through a narrow window and speaks to them in a harsh tone as if they had a conflict before.
This creates a poor working atmosphere in these departments and customers would not be able to see employees’ face properly in order to interact and complete their procedures quickly. I think this must be changed to promote a culture of proper interaction between employees and customers.
If you visit the men’s section the atmosphere will be totally different. They have better furniture and facilities. At the same time, they also lack professionalism. The employee will not care about the presence of customer at the counter and will be busy talking to a friend on phone.
Some of them will be having breakfast and will not bother about talking to customers with remnants of food on their faces. Eating breakfast in front of customers has become one of the worst customs in our government departments. This epidemic has even hit private organizations.
I do not find any justification for any government service department for not developing its services and facilities and improving systems to receive applications. Many depressed employees will not like a client to ask any clarification without standing in the queue. The employee may be depressed for different reasons and for not receiving allowance for years.
When you go to a government department for any purpose you will rarely find a smiling official to welcome you and deal with you with respect. If you stand before him he would ignore you completely. If you ask him any question he would answer hastily and incoherently.
You want to know whether he has received your application or not but you have to wait and wait with patience until he completes watching what is on the screen in front of him and after completing some of his phone calls. He will then get out of his chair and disappear from office through the back door.
You don’t know when that official would respond to your request. Patience should be the quality of the employee not that of customer as the former should learn that quality in order to deal with different people on a daily basis.
An employee should give enough time to understand the problem of a customer and his requirements and should get good training on how to deal with customers clearly and efficiently. A customer will not be bothered about whether the employee has taken his breakfast or not. They also do not want to hear his problems with boss and colleagues. They want to know the progress of their applications and run away from your angry and depressed face.
Employees should be helpful to clients. They should not shrug off responsibility by just replying “I don’t know.” Instead they should find out where the file has gone and what is its present status? They should also help clients remove the obstacles facing their application. If you do not know the rules and regulations you are not qualified to deal with customers.
The immediate boss of such employees should understand this problem and take measures to provide them with necessary training to deal with customers efficiently.
Employees should also develop their communication capabilities by learning the language and ways to deal with customers properly to win their satisfaction. On many occasions the use of inappropriate words often creates conflict between an employee and customer. They should also learn the skill to manage emergency situations and contain tensions. Some customers come to the office carrying their previous bad experiences with them and they should be dealt with carefully.
Another most important professional skill is your readiness to accept mistake and criticism. If you are ready to hear from others the points of weaknesses in your professional performance it reflects your willingness to develop your personality and change for the better.
