Misbehaving with the staff

There are several ways a customer can behave inappropriate towards staff members, physically and verbally. Both can be damaging for an employee just trying to do their job. Not everyone is a hard nut to crack. The biggest problem is the employee really doesn’t have any place to go.
What tells do we have on this person:

• Showing no integrity or respect

• Constantly making physical contact

• Making remarks or commenting on skin-color, beliefs, gender or physique.

The misconduct generally will start directly when they come in. They lack a certain awareness for etiquette. They may think whatever they want, but there is a limit in what they can say or do. Now how much you are willing to accept is up to you. You might feel your place of employment finds the customer to be ‘always right‘ but there is no reason for you to let yourself be offended.

The verbal comments are usually a little less invading compared to physical ones, but can still hurt. When people think they are funny by offending another person(customer or colleague) you should never keep your mouth shut. Speak up and defend the other person. If it happens to you, please do not do nothing. Either defend yourself and tell them to leave or go and ask a manager or co-worker to help you. Do what feels most comfortable to you.

Physical contact consists of innocent things like tapping on your shoulder to grabbing your arm or touching someone in more private places. This absolutely happens in all kind of places, fastfood and high-end. Always protect the guest or colleague by standing your ground and do not accept the contact if you feel it is inappropriate. Depending on the seriousness a 1-warning-system is a fair deal. It might be a very shocking experience so you absolutely need to deal with it right away. Hiding it away only makes you weaker. Find a trustworthy person to handle it for you, integrity is key.

Personal note:

Some values that define ethical principles in hospitality are: honesty, trust, integrity, fairness, keeping promises, caring for others, responsibility and respect for others. Be sure to have these. It makes you one of the better people on earth. Take care or your guests and co-workers if a misbehaving customer walks in. There is no excuse for their behavior and they need to be treated without too much respect. Get rid of them asap.

Sincerely,

Den The Man