>> Indirect Communication of Criticism

You might someday find yourself in circumstances that call for use of the indirect communication of criticism.

Say that a customer service department employee is rude in her handling of calls from customers. You might observe in a staff meeting that: "I have heard a lot of praise of our customer service operations. In fact, the majority of the comments I have heard have been positive."

The thought is planted in everyone's mind that you must have heard some negative comments as well.

If anyone asks about the negative comments, you should respond with some reluctance but also supply some facts that permit follow-up. You could say: "Oh, there are always a certain number of customers saying that they get rude responses and so on, but my point here is that most of the comments I have heard have been positive."

If there are higher-ups in the company concerned about providing good customer service, they will follow up and you cannot be faulted for having identified the problem. If there are no higher-ups concerned about providing good customer service, the reality is that you probably were never going to get anywhere trying to solve this problem in any event.