How Companies Can Identify Racial and Gender Bias in Their Customer Service

Research shows that minority customers — blacks and Asians — regularly receive worse customer service than whites in ways that are not immediately obvious to onlookers (or even managers). These results prompt a couple of questions for executives and managers. One, does your company hire individuals to interface with customers? Most likely, the answer is “yes.” Two, do you know if your employees are treating all customers equally? The answer here is probably “no.” This is, in part, because many aspects of customer service are intangible, nuanced, and difficult to observe. A well-designed internal audit can help you understand exactly how your employees are treating customers, and can help you formulate changes to implement.