Staff Meeting. Image Source.
What your staff say about your company is not just what they vocalize at the end of their working day. It is about how their image portrays the ethos and attitudes of your company to potential customers, other companies, and the public. A member of staff who is rude and poorly dressed might suggest to others that the company does not have a strict hiring policy and does not encourage good behavior, which can reflect badly on your product. After all, who would want to buy from a company that does not understand the importance of good customer service? Your staff say all sorts of things, without even opening their mouths – here are ways how to make sure they are only saying good things.
Prioritize equal opportunities
This is the 21st Century; nobody has any time for discrimination in hiring practices. If your company’s workforce is entirely made up of attractive young white women, it can show a bias in hiring. This practice is not only illegal but it also looks bad to prospective customers and creates dissatisfaction in the workforce. They want to see a variety of people, all working together happily – it reflects people’s hopeful outlooks on the world. Larger companies in Britain are now required by law to report on equality in hiring processes. Gender pay gap reporting to the British government allows them to monitor how companies discriminate between the genders. Equal hiring is definitely the future, and your customers will think so too.
Enforce a professional dress code
While in some sectors a staff uniform is obviously not appropriate, it does not hurt to enforce a dress code. Your staff members’ image is one of the first impressions customers will get of your company in a customer-facing industry. Allowing your staff to choose their own clothes is fine if you trust them to make the right choices. Their clothes have to reflect your company. If your target audience is young and hip, encouraging your staff to dress in line with that will mean customers can relate. If you are offering a more premium product, it is not unreasonable to expect a certain level of style and elegance in their appearance. Poorly dressed staff can make the company seem unprofessional.
Give off the right attitude
In customer-facing roles, the attitudes of your staff are as important as their clothes. The way they speak to customers and each other is extremely influential in portraying your company’s ethos. Staff training in this field is always important, as is a suitable hiring process. If you want friendly and chirpy customer service, hiring people who already display those personality traits is obviously a good place to start. Staff training then enables you to tweak their phrase choices, and emphasize the body language that best reflects the attitudes of your company.
Creating one cohesive image with your staff is the best way to ensure they are portraying the attitudes and ethos of your company to your exacting standards. It is all in the hiring and staff training, and if your staff believe in your standards, they will happily sing about them for the world to hear.