Text version scenario

Of course customer is king, but is the king always right?
We need to understand their needs, and develop good relationships with them but, sometimes they ask for a favor or make a demand that could cause us to compromise our commitment to safety.

For example, a customer visited one of our construction sites and declined to wear the personal protective equipment (PPE) that we provided for him. He said he was just making a quick tour of the work zones, and that he wouldn’t get hurt. Our team was conflicted: They wanted to respect the customer’s wishes, but they also wanted to support caring for life.

Discussion question

• Have you been in a situation when the client declined follow the safety rules?
• How did you approach it?
• What did you learn from it?

Things to consider

We can learn from these situations to help us truly live our values. We can consider the following actions:

• Pro-actively discuss our values and the impact that they have on our customers and on the lives of our employees.
• Whenever possible, look for safe alternatives to address the customer’s requests.
• Ensure that everyone is clear and knowledgeable about our mandatory safety processes so that nothing is compromised.
• Courageously handle situations with both employees and customers.

For guidelines on this topic read our Code of Conduct chapter on Health, safety and well-being.