What are some keys to serving Indigenous customers well?
- Treat everyone as an individual
- Avoid ‘tarring with the same brush’
- Demonstrate respect
- Be aware of cultural differences
- Become skilled at difficult interactions
- Get more training
- Looking for appropriate trainers
Of course, you will serve most Indigenous customers as you would any other customers. All of the principles that you have learned through experience and training in communication and customer service will apply to all people.
But there are some things to keep in mind to ensure that all of your Indigenous customers feel welcome and comfortable when using your service.
Treat everyone as an individual
This is the first and most important point of all – everyone is different. Indigenous people, like other cultural groups, share things in common, and have differences between them. So if you are serving an Indigenous customer, be aware of possible cultural differences, but don’t assume them. Remember this as you go through the points below.
Avoid ‘tarring with the same brush’
Sometimes when people have faced difficult or hostile interactions with one Indigenous person they begin to assume that other Indigenous people will act the same way. It is important to fight this assumption because it gets in the way of good communication. People can feel when you are harbouring feelings of judgement, anxiety or defensiveness, and can, as a result respond negatively.
Indigenous people often experience racism, defensiveness or aggression in their daily lives. For this reason, they are often ‘on edge’ when walking into a business. So it is important to openly and genuinely demonstrate how committed you are to serving them respectfully. Don’t ‘say one thing and mean another’, because people will detect it. Commit yourself to genuine respect, and then make that commitment apparent.
Be aware of cultural differences
Be ready for cultural differences in communication, particularly in areas where traditional culture has been less disrupted.
A few examples are given below, but you should talk to local people about others to be aware of.
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Some Indigenous people prefer not to hold a gaze. Their protocols of eye contact may be different.
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Some Indigenous people prefer a softer hand-shake.
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A few Indigenous people may need assistance in filling out forms if they did not receive many years of education.
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Some men will prefer to speak with men, and women with women, so you should be ready to accommodate that preference (as you should with all customers).
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In some rural and remote communities Indigenous people will communicate differently in public. For example, some Indigenous people shout at each other in public places. Sometimes this can feel threatening. However, you should not be distressed by it. To some extent it is just a different style of communication. Arguments are more easily had out in the open, rather than behind closed doors. (Of course, if it escalates to physical violence it is cause for concern, and can require police intervention)
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Become skilled at difficult interactions
Occasionally you will have difficult interactions with Indigenous people. Here are just a few pointers on how to manage this well.
Most importantly – try not to take any hostility personally. One of the impacts of history has been that it has built up a legacy of hostility and mistrust between us. Some tend to assume that people will try to exploit them, or treat them disrespectfully, and many experience significant discrimination. This assumption can lead to negative communication on their part which then leads others to be defensive or hostile back to them, which further builds their hostility and mistrust. A vicious cycle of mistrust builds up.
But you can break this cycle. Simply commit, within yourself, to interacting with the person respectfully and personably. If you are genuine in this, she or he may quickly come to see you are a helpful person, and will communicate more easily.
Here is a simple ‘checklist’ to ensure that you are communicating well in difficult circumstances
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Have I really understood what this person needs?
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Am I using language that s/he understands?
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Am I being as respectful as I can? (This can be hard when you are not being treated with respect, but it’s the quickest way past the difficult interaction)
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Am I going out of my way to demonstrate how keen I am to help her or him?
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If you are holding negative attitudes to Indigenous people, it will show. No matter how justified you might think these negative attitudes are, they will make it harder for you to communicate well. In fact, the negative attitudes will lead to more difficult experiences, which will harden your negative attitudes!.
If you are not well acquainted with Indigenous perspectives, it will limit your capacity to communicate with Indigenous customers and partners well.
Good training can ensure you are better informed on Indigenous perspectives and enable you to explore some of the things that frustrate you about Indigenous policy, perspectives or ways of being. If you are interested in receiving such training, or you think that others in your office or branch would benefit from such training, ask your manager if such training can be arranged.
Looking for appropriate trainers
Local Indigenous agencies, or the local or regional office of the State Government Department responsible for Indigenous issues, may know of suitable Indigenous trainers. Contact them for a list of people you might approach. The following notes may assist you in selecting an appropriate trainer.
Generic Indigenous awareness training will generally involve 3 broad areas:
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Understanding traditional culture
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Understanding the inter-generational impacts of history, and the challenges faced by Indigenous
people today -
Working well with Indigenous people.
Be clear that the trainer(s) specialize in Indigenous awareness training - not in more generic cross-cultural awareness. (Some trainers provide excellent training in working across cultures; - with people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. However, the experiences and perspectives of Indigenous people are very particular, and often quite different to non-Indigenous groups, and should be dealt with separately).
Perhaps the best way of ensuring the training you get will be of good quality is through word-of-mouth recommendations. Talk to people you know who have been trained by particular training teams. Have they found the experience valuable? Did they feel alienated by the training? Did their views change positively as a result of the training? Do they understand the perspective of Indigenous people better? Do they feel better prepared to work effectively with Indigenous people?
However, if you cannot speak to people who have been trained by a particular team you will need to assess their suitability independently.
A number of factors may enhance a person’s capacity to provide excellent Indigenous Awareness training. Few trainers will have all of these features, but this ‘check-list’ will help you consider the likely effectiveness of a trainer.
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Lived experience of being Indigenous. If training involves only one trainer, that trainer should be Indigenous. If you need training specific to a local area, you should ensure that a local person or people are involved.
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Lived experience of working in cross-cultural settings. Both Indigenous and non-Indigenous trainers should have had long, practical experience of the frustrations and joys of working cross-culturally. Otherwise they run the risk of teaching ‘theory’ that is removed from the often complex realities of real life.
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Cross-cultural training partnerships. Good cultural awareness training is not just about Indigenous people. It is about how to build good working relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. Therefore, it requires non-Indigenous participants to look at their own part in those relationships. For that reason, it is generally more effective to have a non-Indigenous person involved in the training (with an Indigenous person as ‘lead’ trainer).
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Capacity to reveal the full, often difficult picture, while maintaining engagement of participants. Good Indigenous awareness training requires the trainer to both confront people with some raw truths about the lived experience of Indigenous people, past and present, and ensure that participants feel neither blamed, nor despairing. You might ask trainers how they ensure this balance.
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Training experience. You might ask trainers how many training courses of this type they have run.
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Experiential training. Attitudes are rarely changed simply by provision of information. They are changed through a relationship with the trainer, and through moving experiences (which might involve, for example, videos, personal stories, interactive role-plays, etc.) The training itself needs to be something of a ‘journey’, so that participants can experience, and move through, the uncomfortable process of change. You might ask trainers (or people who have experienced their training) how they go about creating real attitude change, rather than just information giving.
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Relevance to your work. Much of the subject matter in Indigenous Awareness training will be common to many organizations. However, you might speak to potential trainers about how they can ensure workers are able to focus on the particular nature of their work in the course of the training. (It may be that this is done through particular segments – ‘How can we, in our workplace, work more effectively with Indigenous colleagues and clients?’.)
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Relevance to your locality. If you want your training to be particularly relevant to the locality or region in which you work, all of the three issues shown in the introduction need to be understood through local eyes. For this reason, if you’re training includes staff that all live or work in your locality, ensure that trainers involve local Indigenous people.
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