Dilemma
Municipal complaints officer Annemieke*: “For the past fifteen minutes I had been listening to a lady who was not eligible for social assistance benefits, now that her unemployment benefit was almost coming to an end. I had tried to think along with her about solutions, including debt restructuring and a conversation with a mortgage advisor. I had taken plenty of time for her. And now she suddenly hung up in the middle of our conversation, saying: ‘Bitch, you just don’t get it, do you, with your civil servant salary’.”
In 2022, 11.1 percent of employees in the Netherlands, like Annemieke, had to deal with undesirable behavior from customers or citizens. This is evident from the National Working Conditions Survey 2022 by TNO and CBS. How do you deal with that? Should you just accept such behavior or bite it off?
Fewer
Above all, take good care of yourself, says trainer, mediator and conflict expert Caroline Koetsenruijter. This is also in the interest of your clients. “If you continuously allow yourself to be treated like a pawn, your quality of presence in conversations decreases. For example, you passively sit through a conversation, but then do nothing with the request for help. Or you literally distance yourself: you put a telephone conversation on the speakers so that your colleagues can listen. None of that is honest communication.” That is why, according to Koetsenruijter, it is important not to avoid contact and to stand up for yourself. “Say calmly what other people’s words mean to you, and how you would like to have a conversation. If you act like this, you actually restore the connection.”
Calmly say what other people’s words mean to you, and how you would like to have a conversation
Koetsenruijter also believes that organizations should look in the mirror in the event of serious or frequent incidents of aggression. “I often notice that managers pay little attention to the tension their employees are under.” The conflict expert also regularly sees that processes have been set up carelessly. “If a municipal department sends bad news to clients on Friday afternoon about reclaiming benefits, municipal complaints officers will be called on Monday morning by citizens who are completely upset. They had to wait two days before they got a person on the phone.”
More
Why are some of the people you deal with as a complaints officer difficult to approach, frustrated or downright aggressive? Chronic stress can play a role in this. That is the starting point of stress-sensitive work, which is increasingly popular in debt counseling. The essence of this is to create a feeling of security in the other person, says trainer Marc Anderson of the Social Force consultancy. Empathy is important: “That does not mean that Annemieke always has to agree with the angry citizen, but that she listens carefully and is prepared to understand the client’s message.” Citizens must also “know where they stand, what is required of them, experience freedom of choice and feel connected.” This is not just about one-on-one contact between consultant and citizen, emphasizes stress-sensitive service trainer Marivonne de Groot: “It is also about how the service is organised, how management deals with professionals and what the principles of the are policy. If that policy is based on distrust, and citizens have to make enormous efforts before they are helped, for example, then that certainly affects how they feel.” Anderson: “That starts in the reception area. If the chairs are attached to the floor with screws and there is a security guard walking around, you only increase the stress level of visitors.” De Groot: “Look at young people who want to apply for benefits. They must first look for work or training for four weeks. They also have to collect evidence of that search. However, in practice, young people do not think so easily about applying for benefits. Then why treat them this way?” For that reason, the municipality of Utrecht has, for example, abolished this four-week search period. “They will now process an application immediately. They also offer young people a ‘making ends meet’ conversation, in which a consultant asks whether they are managing to make ends meet and thinks about solutions, without that conversation influencing the application. Not even notes are taken. Young people really appreciate those conversations.”
However, according to De Groot, it is “a widespread misunderstanding that dealing with citizens in a stress-sensitive manner would mean that you always have to be nice. When working in a stress-sensitive manner, the following applies: be gentle on the person, tough on their behavior and be clear about the rules of the game. This also means that you indicate your own boundaries when the client becomes personal.”
So
As a complaints officer, it is important to put yourself in the position of customers or citizens. However, if they insult, threaten or intimidate you, then you are certainly allowed to say something about it. At the same time, public aggression can be a signal for the organization: does it perhaps arise from service processes that are excessively complex or based on distrust?
The surname of the municipal complaints officer is known to the editors.