ComputerHunter.org |
|
|
|||
|
 |
Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Work Ethics and the Customer
This article relates to the Ethics in the Workplace competency, commonly evaluated in employee surveys. It gives examples of how employees and customers consider ethical behavior and sound values an integral part of your organization. This competency covers a variety of topics like customer treatment, employee professionalism, and expected/acceptable organizational behaviors. At a high level, this competency will investigate the standards by which your employees treat your customers, co-workers, and the organization itself. This short story, Work Ethics and the Customer, is part of AlphaMeasure's compilation, Tales from the Corporate Frontlines. It provides a view from the customer's side of the counter that might inspire you to rethink the old phrase "the customer is king". Anonymous Submission I work in a back office environment. The front lines of customer service are far away, so I don't think much about the ethical matters involved in providing good service. All of that changed recently, when I found myself on the customer side of that check out terminal (formerly known as a cash register), and in dire need of help. I was shopping for a USB computer keyboard to attach to my computer. I needed that type, and only that type, and I needed it that very day. I visited four different retail stores, all large chains, and had four noteworthy experiences that left me thinking about ethical behavior. On he first visit, I asked an obviously available (he was playing a video game) sales person how I could tell the difference between PS2 and USB port keyboards as the display models cords were embedded into the rack. His response was -" I just know from working here". Okay. Not unethical, but not helpful either. Well, which one is cheapest, I asked. He showed me a $70 keyboard. I left the store. At the next stop, I saw no keyboards, so asked a sales person (once she was off the telephone making plans for the evening.) "Oh, she said, the only ones we have come with the computers." I thanked her and went home. The rest of this odyssey would have to wait. At home, I called another chain store, navigated the voice mail, and asked the clerk if they had USB keyboards in the store and for the cost of the lowest priced model. After a quick click and a short silence, he told me of course, they are $24. Great, I was on my way. It was Saturday evening and the store was packed. I found the keyboard section, and stood there amazed. He had outright lied. The lowest priced model was $80. There was nothing remotely near $24. The few clerks on duty were swamped. I found one available in another department and told him about my situation. He was genuinely sympathetic and suggested that I visit the nearby superstore on the hill. I thanked him and left. There my journey ended. I found my keyboard, after hours of searching, amid opened boxes (apparently some of them lied, too) in a crowded aisle in the electronics department of a store selling every product imaginable. I was exhausted. No wonder people shop online. ------------------------------------------------------------- Measure. Report. Improve your organization with AlphaMeasure employee surveys. Josh Greenberg is President of AlphaMeasure, Inc. AlphaMeasure provides organizations of all sizes a powerful web based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention. AlphaMeasure is fully customizable and allows you to target the organizational topics and challenges facing your staff today.
Google News - Top Stories
|
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Enron?s Ultimate Victim: Ethics FROM the 'MORAL HIGH GROUND', where we imagine ourselves, the Enron fiasco should have come as no surprise. Enron is simply a quintessential example of the degradation of principles such as trust, loyalty and ethical standards. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Work Ethics and the Customer This article relates to the Ethics in the Workplace competency, commonly evaluated in employee surveys. It gives examples of how employees and customers consider ethical behavior and sound values an integral part of your organization. This competency covers a variety of topics like customer treatment, employee professionalism, and expected/acceptable organizational behaviors. At a high level, this competency will investigate the standards by which your employees treat your customers, co-workers, and the organization itself. No Credit is Due: Bad Telemarketing Just a few minutes ago I was debating what to write about this week -- something interesting, perhaps, or maybe it was about time to give some credit to snails, I thought. Then, by some random stroke of luck, fate or writer's lightning (a term I created just now), I received a phone call from a credit card company... Business Ethics: An Oxymoron? Why do I believe good PR and business ethics are inextricably linked? It comes down to definitions. Ethics is learning what is right and what is wrong and then doing the "right thing." PR involves providing counsel on the "right thing" to do and then helping the organization get credit for it. The Armaments Industry and Holy (?) Roman Emperors "The time for fixing every essential right on a legal basis is while our rulers are honest and ourselves united. From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every movement to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money... The shackles, therefore, which shall not be knocked off at the conclusion of this war, will remain on us long, will be made heavier and heavier." - Thomas Jefferson How To Detect Liars In Your Business & Personal Life We live in a world full of lies and deception. Most of us (or all of us?) lied or were forced to do so, in a small or larger scale, because of some circumstances. Unfortunately, some individuals use to prevaricate or lie deliberately. They use to do it frequently in every aspect of their life. Are You Selling Out Your Integrity? Integrity in business is a quality that is highly under-rated by executives these days. Many executives are so "pushed and pulled" by a not so hidden force called the "profit motive" that they often find themselves compromising something that without which they could lose all credibility and trust from those they are trying to retain business from. Work Ethics ? A Paradigm Shift Work ethics is a hot topic in today's business and educational worlds. Yet, how do we define this hybrid phrase with the word work meaning more than a specific outcome and the word ethics being more than the values that enhance that outcome? Ethics in Business - Please Have Some Is your business ethical? Minding Your Global Manners To say that today's business environment is becoming increasingly more global is to state the obvious. Meetings, phone calls and conferences are held all over the world and attendees can come from any point on the globe. On any given business day you can find yourself dealing face-to-face, over the phone, by e-mail and, on rare occasions, by postal letter with people whose customs and cultures differ your own. You may never have to leave home to interact on an international level. Laws and Ethics?. Who?s Kidding Who? Years ago I read an article by a renowned psychologist wherein he wrote his studies found one percent of all human beings would never lie, cheat or steal. One percent would always lie, cheat or steal and given the right set of circumstances, the rest of us would likely lie, cheat and/or steal. Business Ethics There is much talk today about ethics in business - as there should be, but there should be more than talk; there should be a high moral code for all executives who are responsible to both their customers and their shareholders. The Views of Karl Marx VS Max Weber Compare and contrast the views of Karl Marx and Max Weber with regards as to what motivates people to work. Conflict: Not Necessarily a Bad Thing I got yelled at tonight. Not the type of yelling that someone does when you've done something to tick someone off, but the kind of yelling that was a swift kick in the pants about something that I'm NOT doing. Ethics? How To Take the Measure Business When asked to write a small piece pertaining to ethics and integrity in the business world, my first inclination was to draw on personal experience. Diversity I know that diversity has been a big topic of conversation ever since the early 1990s when research supported the demographics that by the year 2000, 85% of the entering workforce would be female, African-American, Asian-American, Latino, or new immigrants. The fact that white males would be a minority entering the workplace was a wake up call for corporate America. Tales from the Corporate Frontlines: Shifting Culture and Climate in Todays Corporate World This articles relates to the AlphaMeasure core competency Culture and Climate. AlphaMeasure defines climate as the effect an organization has on the employees, while culture refers more to the acceptable behaviors, attitudes, and habits of the organization as a whole. Knowing and understanding workplace culture and climate leads to a better understanding of what factors are influencing employees. In relation, the level of service your customers receive is almost always influenced by the culture and climate of your organization. This competency can be especially insightful if your organization is experiencing customer service related issues or problems working together internally. Do Organizations Serve Us Or Do We Serve Organizations We have seen an erosion in the confidence that society has in organizational leadership and its integrity recently with the numerous accounting scandals that have become public.Clearly this has led to the demise of several large organizations. In performance terms it is obvious that erosion of leadership integrity is not good for business. The Collapse of Enron: Managerial Aspects Executive summary Is Good Neighborliness Good Business? [Note: This story is not a criticism of Buddhism. It is a story of neighborly love.]
|
|
|
|
|
