Supporting The Institute of Customer Service on their ‘Service with Respect’ campaign

Rainbow International are supporting The Institute of Customer Service campaign ‘Service with Respect’.

Addressing the hostility faced by front-line staff

In July 2020 The Institute of Customer Service launched their new campaign: ‘Back our essential workers: service with respect’. BBC Breakfast helped highlight this important issue, interviewing ICS CEO, Jo Causon, about the aims of the initiative.

With nearly 80% of the UK’s workforce working in customer-facing roles, mounting abuse is affecting staff across every sector – from retail to public services; financial institutions to our public transport networks.

The Institute of Customer Service research reveals more than half of customer-facing staff have experienced abuse from customers since the start of the pandemic – ranging from verbal abuse such as shouting and abusive language to, in the most extreme cases, physical assaults.

As part of supporting this campaign, we are also pledging to our staff that:

• We will adopt a zero tolerance approach to hostility and abuse against your employees
• We will hold regular catch ups with your front-line staff and keep close to what is happening in their day – encourage them to report incidents
• We will invest in appropriate training and tools for staff to handle the new (and increasingly challenging) duties they are being tasked with, and to deal with potential conflict as it arises

The health and well-being of our staff in these challenging times is of paramount importance to us, so supporting this campaign is a priority.