How Buffer Protects Our Team When A Customer Is Abusive
How well does your library protect your staff from abusive patrons/members/customers? Here’s how Buffer does it.
The Teammate Protection Pledge
As a Bufferoo, you’ll get the privilege of building relationships with thousands of customers. Hopefully most of these will be enriching, positive experiences. Every once in a while, an interaction might take a negative turn. It could be that our product has led to intense frustration or that the customer is just having an off day. In rarer cases, things may turn abusive or threatening. If things do turn abusive, we never want a Buffer teammate to feel unsafe.
I’d love to share a new teammate protection pledge, aimed at giving you the confidence to end Buffer’s relationship with a customer when it’s clear that the wellness or safety of our team is at stake. If you encounter any of the following three elements, you are empowered to initiate a process to part ways with a customer:
Michael Sauers is the Director of Logan Library in Logan, UT. Prior to this he was one of the founding staff and Technology Manager for Do Space in Omaha, NE. After earning his MLS in 1995 from the University at Albany's School of Information Science and Policy Michael spent his first 20 years as a librarian training other librarians in technology along with time as a public library trustee, a bookstore manager for a library friends group, a reference librarian, a technology consultant, and a bookseller. He has written dozens of articles for various journals and magazines and has published 14 books ranging from library technology, blogging, Web design, and an index to a popular horror magazine. In his spare time, he blogs at TravelinLibrarian.info, runs The Collector's Guide to Dean Koontz website at CollectingKoontz.com, takes many, many photos, and typically reads more than 100 books a year.
Unless otherwise stated, all opinions are my own and are not to be considered those of the City of Logan, UT.
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