KEY POINTS:
Ever lost it with a customer?
The customer is always right - that's the service mantra in New Zealand and many other countries.
And yet we all know the customer isn't always right - in fact they're probably wrong more often than they're right.
But because they're paying, they are treated as being in the right.
Sometimes, however, the mantra is forgotten, and the customer gets an earful.
A doctor was said to have shouted rudely at a woman giving birth to her first child in a hospital in Invercargill, and is being referred to the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal. According to evidence gathered by Health and Disability Commissioner Ron Paterson, the doctor rudely told the woman to stop talking and push. Not the most encouraging approach!
And a front-line employee of a government department apparently admitted swearing at a beneficiary recently, saying he had been provoked after she called him a derogatory name, questioning his sexuality.
Losing your temper with a customer can be grounds for disciplinary action and even dismissal, depending on the circumstances. And yet sometimes even the most patient employees are tempted to tell customers who's really in the right.
Have you ever lost it with someone who's paying the bills?
And have you got away with it?
Greg Cain
Greg Cain is an employment lawyer at Minter Ellison Rudd Watts.
