A few weeks ago at the bank, while I was waiting to be assisted, a male employee approached me because, in his own words, " I looked lonely" and he wanted to "keep me company". He didn't stop there; he attempted to strike a conversation by asking me a couple of personal questions. He ended the conversation by proposing a meet-up. You can image how awkward and uncomfortable that must have been for me, who was just waiting to be assisted.
This is among the many examples of what customers/clients especially women go through when accessing services in this country. I have heard way ridiculous scenarios than what I encountered. A few months ago, several female customers came forward on social media to express their annoyance over being romantically approached by a professional while they were getting assisted. Some it has happened even at hospitals, and a whole lot more of these cases happened at most of these well-known banks.
Some of these “professionals” (using the word very loosely) go to extra lengths to obtain a customer’s/client’s information, even when its illegal to do so. There was a case where a lady on Twitter called out an employee of one of the well-known banks, who had accessed her “know your customers” information and used it to contact her for personal reasons. Making sexual/romantic advances to a customer who is trying to access a service, especially when its clear that there are only at the said location to solely access a service is not only unethical but disrespectful. With the frequency of these scenarios, its easy to conclude that most companies are oblivious to how badly such behavior can tarnish their reputation and, in the end, affect their sales and customer relationships.
It is shameful for a company to be known for its unethical employees. There have been cases where female customers resorted to stop accessing services from a certain service branch of a bank to avoid dealing with such kind of employees.
Is it that companies assume that employers know to conduct themselves with customers? such that such issues are never covered during trainings ? Is it that employees aren’t aware that they are breaking their boundaries, or that they know there won’t be any real consequences to their actions even if they are reported ? Whatever the case is, employers or service providers need to seriously take into consideration and come up with solutions to handle the concerns which customers or clients have with regards to accessing a service.
Accessing services in this country is already a painful experience; let's not make it any worse by employing people who don't understand the value of dealing with clients in a respectable and ethical manner.
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