This is a guest post by Amanda Winstead, a freelance writer from the Portland area.

One of the most dangerous things in the workforce, particularly in customer service-based roles, is unconscious bias. Unconscious bias refers to the prejudices, stereotypes, or unsupported judgments for or against certain groups individuals carry that they aren’t consciously aware of.

Unfortunately, we all develop some unconscious bias at some point in our lives, and it affects how we live and work.

Customer service professionals, specifically, must do everything they can to eliminate unconscious bias in themselves and their workplaces. Here’s why.

The Negative Impact of Unconscious Bias on Customer Service

The negative impact of unconscious bias on customer service can be severe. Unconscious bias informs our decisions often, and that isn’t fair to the people customer service professionals are supposed to treat equally.

The inability to see and treat those you serve as equals will ultimately affect the strength of your customer relationships. Unfortunately, it also leads to neglect because you can’t understand or accommodate your customers’ needs.

Moreover, if employees treat customers a certain way because of unconscious bias, they’ll do the same to the people they work with. Team members who are victims of unconscious bias can start to feel negative about themselves, affecting how they work and collaborate with others.

Simply put, unconscious bias doesn’t allow you to serve your customers well or create a cohesive, empowered team that enjoys and appreciates working together.

Tips for Combating Unconscious Bias

Now that you’re aware of how bad unconscious bias can be for customer service, it’s time to be proactive about combating it. Here’s how you can fight unconscious bias in customer service roles to inspire more positive customer service outcomes.

Recruit and hire a diverse team

According to a survey conducted by Forbes, “Among survey respondents, most (65%) have in place programs specifically to recruit diverse employees.” The question is, do you? Recruiting and hiring a diverse team is critical for diminishing unconscious bias in customer service.

A team with various backgrounds, talents, cultures, skill sets, and perspectives helps them better serve a range of customers without passing judgment. It’ll also initiate respect and appreciation for what each person brings to the team, which supports an inclusive culture.

Use automation and artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help you recruit a wide variety of candidates. You can program these tools to sift through applications based on criteria that promote diversity and inclusion and initiate the hiring process with a range of applicants.

Offer ongoing training around unconscious bias

If you want to combat unconscious bias in customer service, ongoing training opportunities are necessary. Continuous education around unconscious bias basics, what’s behind what we think and do, and the groups most affected by unconscious bias will help customer service employees make more unbiased decisions.

You can create a customer experience that ensures your customers are treated fairly, have a “wow” worthy experience that exceeds their expectations, and truly feel like their needs are understood and ultimately met.

Use a staff training and development software solution to implement ongoing training around unconscious bias. Your team will have access to a portal that houses all of your unconscious bias training materials. Add new training modules and resources whenever you want and keep track of who’s completing them.

Aside from ongoing training around unconscious bias, meaningful conversations must also be continuous.

Have meaningful conversations

Although AI and other tech tools can be helpful in your recruiting and hiring processes, ongoing training, and with day-to-day customer service tasks, they can also increase unconscious biases if they’re programmed by someone with unconscious bias.

We say this to say, humans, not the tools they use, are the source of unconscious bias. So, it’s up to us to be willing to have uncomfortable conversations necessary to mitigate unconscious bias among our teams and in how we treat our customers.

Initiate meaningful, proactive conversations with your team around combating unconscious bias. Host one-on-one and group meetings that dive into:

• Each individual’s issues with unconscious bias
• Any diversity or inclusion issues arising in your team
• Team feedback about unconscious biases displayed at work
• How to continue on a path toward total eradication of unconscious bias
• The progress your team is making toward eliminating unconscious bias
• Customer complaints related to racial, social, cultural, or economic biases

In addition, even with meaningful conversations, you might still need to make some tough decisions to eliminate unconscious bias.

For example, if you’re a victim of unconscious bias, you may need to make the hard decision to escalate the issue to your manager or HR. Or, if you’re leading a customer service team, you may need to fire someone who continues to go against your no-tolerance policies for racism and discrimination.

Be willing to make those tough decisions for the greater good of your team and the customers you serve.

Conclusion

The subconscious ways we treat those around us based on the stereotypes or perceptions of certain groups we carry can be incredibly harmful to yourself, your team, and your customers. Eliminating unconscious bias in customer service will be a long, arduous battle. But it’s a worthwhile one we all must get involved in. Use the tips above to join the movement.

This is a guest post by Amanda Winstead, a freelance writer from the Portland area.

About Amanda

Amanda Winstead is a writer from the Portland area with a background in communications and a passion for telling stories. Along with writing she enjoys traveling, reading, working out, and going to concerts. If you want to follow her writing journey, or even just say hi you can find her on Twitter.

Photo by Melanie Kreutz on Unsplash