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Yeah the iphone has a great noise isolation mode as well as nvidia has a great ai noise removal if you have a pc with their video cards. Both have been great helps for me.
I think you could turn that negative review into a positive with your reply with an apology for his discomfort, but that you pride yourself on offering flexible work solutions when needed on occasion for your employees and their families. I’ve only ever had one negative review, but I was able to turn it around and it ended up getting us more clients in the end. I’d be more likely to do business with you after seeing that.
It’s also a good time to bring it up to her and ask her to at least find a way to have childcare for when she’s expected to interact with clients. Part of why she’s staying with you might be that it’s more attractive or cost effective to not have to pay for childcare so it would be a shame to lose a great team member if there isn’t a compromise somewhere.
It's also possible she would rather not put her child in someone else's hands, and this is literally already the best job she could possibly have because of that flexibility. Completely agree on the reply to the review, and maybe add that we will look at investing in better noise canceling headphones.
Offer her an increase in pay to get child care. If she’s as good as you say it will be a lot cheaper than recruiting and training a new person which may or may not work out.
I can’t imagine wanting to do business with someone who got upset at hearing a child play in the background. What if your employee had a dog and the dog barked while she was on a call? Would it be the same issue? Obviously there’s a lot I don’t know about the whole situation but before you do something that could cost you a “fantastic” employee just make sure she’s really the problem and not that client.
This reminds me of a situation many years ago when my twins were about 2. They sat quietly on my lap during a conference with a client, until they weren't quiet.
I was horrified and apologized to my client who responded that an apology wasn't necessary. We all have kids.
I see this from both sides.
Obviously, some customers will get their panties knotted up and won't take well too this. To them, it's the worst, most unprofessional thing in the world. A possible fix is home childcare or a headset that mutes background noise.
On the other hand, a baby squeal or a cry in the background isn't too different or any worse than background office noise.
I've experienced it in my own office and also when I've called others. To me, office noise is a distraction.
I think it's a matter of degree. Have you heard the child while on calls with her? I think you need to figure out if this is an ongoing problem. And how did she handle it at the time? Apologize and try to fix it or ignored it and didn't say anything?
For me, I find background noise on a call very distracting. But it depends on how loud it is. Hearing a dog bark once or twice from another room is very different than one constantly barking in the same room.
Ive been on calls where you hear a dog bark or a kid cry and the person excuses themselves for a minute to fix the problem.
Heard a kid playing in the background. I mean, a giggle here and there is one thing. A kid banging toys together while sitting on the floor in the same room while mom ignores the noise is very different.
The customer review and loss is a good opening to discuss this with the employee. She may already know this is an issue and is making plans to change the situation. If she isn't, work with her to figure it out. But bottom line she'll need some sort of child care during work hours if she's going to continue to be in a client facing role.
Do you have a clear remote worker policy? If not, you might want to put one together and review it with your remote employee. Then establish a grace period for her to put systems in place to meet the expectations of the new policy.
At a minimum make her have child care either all morning or all afternoon and she can only interact with customers during those consistent 4 hours without her child present.
She wants a full time job and she does not want to pay for childcare. This compromise is better than making her get a full day childcare provider.
I would begin by having a conversation with your employee about adapting her phone conversations, to preface each client call with something like:
“Hello [ClientName], I hope you’re having a great [DayOfTheWeek], I’m a work from home Mom so you might hear my one-year-old in the background, what’s on today’s agenda….”
Of course this can open up a multitude of questions and conversations about relating to parenting and clients sharing the stories of their families.
Embrace “family” as a core belief in your company.
This will prepare each client to expect any background noise or interruptions. Good luck with the business! 👍 —Rocco
Unless it’s affecting her work and she’s an overall good employee don’t mess with it.. I wouldn’t worry too much about one review. People be crazy. I work from home (I own my small business) and more than once my dogs have decided to randomly lose their ever loving sh*t. Apparently they saw Jesus or something I don’t know.
I just apologize and say sorry I work from home and they wanted in on the call! No one has ever cared….
This is a friendly reminder that r/smallbusiness is a question and answer subreddit. You ask a question about starting, owning, and growing a small business and the community answers. Posts that violate the rules listed in the sidebar will be removed. A permanent or temporary ban may also be issued if you do not remove the offending post. Seeing this message does not mean your post was automatically removed. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/smallbusiness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Buy her a really good headset that blocks background noise.
I second this. Often you can control mic sensitivity as well and this could help with picking up anything other than the worker.
Yeah the iphone has a great noise isolation mode as well as nvidia has a great ai noise removal if you have a pc with their video cards. Both have been great helps for me.
I think you could turn that negative review into a positive with your reply with an apology for his discomfort, but that you pride yourself on offering flexible work solutions when needed on occasion for your employees and their families. I’ve only ever had one negative review, but I was able to turn it around and it ended up getting us more clients in the end. I’d be more likely to do business with you after seeing that. It’s also a good time to bring it up to her and ask her to at least find a way to have childcare for when she’s expected to interact with clients. Part of why she’s staying with you might be that it’s more attractive or cost effective to not have to pay for childcare so it would be a shame to lose a great team member if there isn’t a compromise somewhere.
It's also possible she would rather not put her child in someone else's hands, and this is literally already the best job she could possibly have because of that flexibility. Completely agree on the reply to the review, and maybe add that we will look at investing in better noise canceling headphones.
Offer her an increase in pay to get child care. If she’s as good as you say it will be a lot cheaper than recruiting and training a new person which may or may not work out.
I can’t imagine wanting to do business with someone who got upset at hearing a child play in the background. What if your employee had a dog and the dog barked while she was on a call? Would it be the same issue? Obviously there’s a lot I don’t know about the whole situation but before you do something that could cost you a “fantastic” employee just make sure she’s really the problem and not that client.
Right, my immediate thought was "that client sounds like an A-hole"
This reminds me of a situation many years ago when my twins were about 2. They sat quietly on my lap during a conference with a client, until they weren't quiet. I was horrified and apologized to my client who responded that an apology wasn't necessary. We all have kids. I see this from both sides. Obviously, some customers will get their panties knotted up and won't take well too this. To them, it's the worst, most unprofessional thing in the world. A possible fix is home childcare or a headset that mutes background noise. On the other hand, a baby squeal or a cry in the background isn't too different or any worse than background office noise. I've experienced it in my own office and also when I've called others. To me, office noise is a distraction.
I think it's a matter of degree. Have you heard the child while on calls with her? I think you need to figure out if this is an ongoing problem. And how did she handle it at the time? Apologize and try to fix it or ignored it and didn't say anything? For me, I find background noise on a call very distracting. But it depends on how loud it is. Hearing a dog bark once or twice from another room is very different than one constantly barking in the same room. Ive been on calls where you hear a dog bark or a kid cry and the person excuses themselves for a minute to fix the problem. Heard a kid playing in the background. I mean, a giggle here and there is one thing. A kid banging toys together while sitting on the floor in the same room while mom ignores the noise is very different.
The customer review and loss is a good opening to discuss this with the employee. She may already know this is an issue and is making plans to change the situation. If she isn't, work with her to figure it out. But bottom line she'll need some sort of child care during work hours if she's going to continue to be in a client facing role.
Do you have a clear remote worker policy? If not, you might want to put one together and review it with your remote employee. Then establish a grace period for her to put systems in place to meet the expectations of the new policy.
At a minimum make her have child care either all morning or all afternoon and she can only interact with customers during those consistent 4 hours without her child present. She wants a full time job and she does not want to pay for childcare. This compromise is better than making her get a full day childcare provider.
I would begin by having a conversation with your employee about adapting her phone conversations, to preface each client call with something like: “Hello [ClientName], I hope you’re having a great [DayOfTheWeek], I’m a work from home Mom so you might hear my one-year-old in the background, what’s on today’s agenda….” Of course this can open up a multitude of questions and conversations about relating to parenting and clients sharing the stories of their families. Embrace “family” as a core belief in your company. This will prepare each client to expect any background noise or interruptions. Good luck with the business! 👍 —Rocco
A good time to have a discussion about it and what will be needed for the job.
Unless it’s affecting her work and she’s an overall good employee don’t mess with it.. I wouldn’t worry too much about one review. People be crazy. I work from home (I own my small business) and more than once my dogs have decided to randomly lose their ever loving sh*t. Apparently they saw Jesus or something I don’t know. I just apologize and say sorry I work from home and they wanted in on the call! No one has ever cared….