Deliver customer service in accordance with equality and diversity
Overview
This standard is part of the customer service competence area related to Impression and Image. It covers delivering customer service in accordance with equality and diversity. It includes area that covers the customer service behaviours and processes that have most impact on the way your customer sees you and your organisation. Remember that customers include everyone to whom you provide products and services. They may be external to your organisation or they may be internal customers.
Many customer service situations involve dealing with diverse groups of people inclusively and with respect. Responses to diversity can lead to discrimination that might or might not be deliberate. Discrimination can result from simply not knowing the beliefs and preferences of different groups or may result from actions based on stereotyping rather than on solid evidence obtained from your customer. You establish your customer's expectations and needs in a way that takes full account of them as an individual.
This standard is for customer service professionals who deliver customer service in accordance with equality and diversity.
Performance criteria
You must be able to:
- develop self-awareness of your own beliefs about different groups of customers to identify potential bias
- observe verbal and non-verbal clues to gather information about your customers' expectations and needs
- identify and avoid stereotypes that might be applied to your customers and could cause offence
- identify aspects of your customers appearance and communication that could lead you to treat them differently
- question your customers to check that your understanding of their expectations and needs is based on valid evidence
- adjust your interpretation of your customer's expectations and needs because of further evidence you have collected by talking to your customer
- show respect for customers individual beliefs, expectations and needs that may result from their membership of a particular group
- adapt your approach to customers to take account of their beliefs, expectations and needs that result from their membership of a particular group
- work with colleagues to agree consistent approaches that team members should adopt to provide inclusive service
- implement the approaches that your colleagues have agreed to provide inclusive customer service
- follow the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out
Knowledge and Understanding
You need to know and understand:
- the importance of recognising your own potential bias towards customers and how to build your self- awareness of personal biases
- the reasons why consideration of diversity and inclusion issues affect customer service
- your organisational guidelines to make customer service inclusive for diverse groups of customers
- how to observe and interpret non-verbal clues when communicating with customers
- how to listen actively for clues about your customer's expectations and needs
- the techniques for obtaining additional information from customers through tactful and respectful questions
- the behaviour that might cause offence to specific groups of people to whom you regularly provide customer service
- the ways that you can demonstrate respect for customer's individual beliefs, expectations and needs
- how to adapt your approaches according to different customer groups
- the ways that you can create inclusive customer service by working with colleagues
- the legal, organisational, codes of practice and policies relevant to your role and the activities being carried out