Customers with disabilities are a huge market – train employees to treat them right

The Royal Bank Financial Group estimates people with disabilities are responsible for $25 billion in annual consumer spending power in Canada.

Moreover, as Canada’s median age rises, the proportion of Canadians with disabilities will increase. In the next 10 years, they will represent 20 to 25 per cent of consumers. Therefore, it makes good business sense for HR practitioners to develop awareness and train employees to provide strong customer service to Canadians with disabilities.

The first step to providing good customer service is to recognize the barriers that make integration challenging for people with disabilities. These barriers, which include body image, self-acceptance, mobility and social stigma, are all bolstered by one of the largest barriers of all: attitudes towards people with disabilities.

Systemic prejudice and lack of education can lead to human rights lawsuits if a customer is discriminated against because of a disability. For example, a person with a visual impairment may be turned away from a restaurant after being told that a guide dog can’t be accommodated. The decision goes against a 25-year-old law barring discrimination against animals in eateries. To avoid such problems, it is essential that all staff are educated about legal obligations.

The second step is to determine if front-line customer service representatives are apprehensive about interacting with people with a disability, creating unwelcoming situations or artificial interactions.

Employees may feel uncomfortable around people with disabilities because they do not know what to say or how to act. It is essential to have a consistent and constant method of receiving feedback in this area.

Next, it’s important to understand that excellent customer service is defined as an organization’s ability to consistently exceed the customer’s expectations, which is only possible by first identifying what these expectations are. To accomplish this, don’t solely rely on the past experience or intuition of staff. Get information direct from customers about their needs.

The fourth step is to plan and train employees to meet and exceed customer needs.

To help educate employees and change social perceptions, the Canadian Standards Association (CSA), in co-operation with the Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, recently released CSA Standard B480-02, Customer Service Standard for People with Disabilities.

It is a unique, voluntary standard that provides a management framework that enables customer service organizations to effectively serve all customers, including people with disabilities.

It can help ensure a company is providing people with disabilities a level of customer service equal to that given to the public at large, says Pat Keindel, president, standards, CSA.

The standard outlines important considerations in understanding disabilities and how to interact with people to meet needs. It applies to large and small organizations, including public, commercial and not-for-profit service providers in the retail, financial services, health care, accommodations, transportation and travel, communications, education, entertainment, recreation and community, government and property management sectors.

To ensure that the experience of people with disabilities is positive, the standard gives service providers tips to help deal with unfamiliar situations in a sensitive and professional manner. It teaches service providers not to be afraid to offer a handshake to someone with a missing or artificial limb or those using a cane or crutches, not to touch guide dogs, wheelchairs and other equipment without asking first and how to provide assistance in selecting, reaching, packing and carrying products for people with a disability.

Hands-on sessions to train staff members about the needs and expectations of customers with disabilities are essential. Make sure sessions include both exercises and presentations led by people with disabilities to help build awareness and sensitivity for people with disabilities, and teach appropriate methods of providing service and interaction. Simulate a situation encountered by a person with a disability to demonstrate to staff members some of the scenarios they may encounter.

The final step is to champion at the highest levels quality customer service that accommodates the needs of all people with disabilities. Make it measurable. Make it part of the organization’s fabric and an accepted and expected way of doing business. This new standard can provide information to help verify the service performance of an organization and make sure the quality of service continuously improves.

Service performance can be evaluated by using customer service surveys, by documenting customer feedback and benchmarking against other organizations that demonstrate best practices in serving people with disabilities. This performance should be measured against an organization’s customer service policy and objectives. Some performance measures include response times and satisfaction levels for special service requests and complaints, the understanding and ability of staff to respond to the needs and expectations of customers with disabilities and response or cycle times for specific customer service tasks or features.

From a monetary perspective, given Canada’s current demographics, an organization that fails to address the needs of people with disabilities runs the risk of abandoning or alienating 20 per cent of its market. On the other hand, organizations that do serve the needs of people with disabilities can maximize their customer base and gain a competitive advantage.

Ian Brodie is a program manager, community safety & well being, with the CSA. He can be reached at [email protected]. For more information on B480-02 call 1-800-463-6727 or visit www.csa-intl.org/onlinestore/.

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