Publications
Publications
- Harvard Business Review
Fighting Bias on the Front Lines
By: Alexandra C. Feldberg and Tami Kim
Abstract
Most companies aim for exceptional customer service, but too few are attentive to the subtle discrimination by frontline employees that can alienate customers, lead to lawsuits, or even cause lasting brand damage by going viral.
This article presents research about the way bias occurs in the provision of core products and services (“exchanges”), the furnishing of help that exceeds the minimum required (“extras”), and the manner in which service is delivered (“etiquette”). By breaking customer service into these three dimensions, the authors offer a framework for identifying and addressing frontline bias in your own organization. They recommend talking to your customers, examining available data, and running experiments to get a better sense of what biases exist among your customer service workers. Armed with that information, you might try to mitigate prejudiced behavior by broadening employees’ exposure to people of diverse backgrounds, giving them standard procedures to follow when they interact with customers, and encouraging a sense of responsibility to act fairly.
This article presents research about the way bias occurs in the provision of core products and services (“exchanges”), the furnishing of help that exceeds the minimum required (“extras”), and the manner in which service is delivered (“etiquette”). By breaking customer service into these three dimensions, the authors offer a framework for identifying and addressing frontline bias in your own organization. They recommend talking to your customers, examining available data, and running experiments to get a better sense of what biases exist among your customer service workers. Armed with that information, you might try to mitigate prejudiced behavior by broadening employees’ exposure to people of diverse backgrounds, giving them standard procedures to follow when they interact with customers, and encouraging a sense of responsibility to act fairly.
Keywords
Customer Service; Customer Focus and Relationships; Service Delivery; Diversity; Prejudice and Bias; Organizational Change and Adaptation
Citation
Feldberg, Alexandra C., and Tami Kim. "Fighting Bias on the Front Lines." Harvard Business Review 99, no. 6 (November–December 2021): 90–98.
About The Author
