Training Staff to Handle Curation Challenges

Staff may be caught off guard if they don’t have training about how to handle customer pressure in response to curation. In a few cases, we have seen interactions recorded and posts go somewhat viral, leading to broader harassment of the store and/or individual booksellers.

It is in the best interests of the store owners, the staff, and the principle of free expression to have staff trained to anticipate and counter certain traps. We recommend redirecting the conversation to your curation principles instead of engaging about the content of a specific book (no matter how you feel about it).

These tips are broken into best practices and traps to watch out for.

Best Practices

1. Make sure to have a statement on free expression and/or curation prepared for your store. Here are some samples as starting points. Make sure to customize them for your store’s identity and approach!
2. Train staff in de-escalation. No set of guidelines can truly prevent aggressive customer interactions, but there are established best practices for de-escalation. Check out this presentation on de-escalation and this handout on the GAMBLIN method.
3. Have sample verbiage for staff behind the counter. Some examples follow in the section on traps to watch out for.
4. Have a code-word for staff to call for assistance. Many stores instruct staff to call for assistance with a fake name (not matching any real employee) to indicate that rapid help is needed. Gender-ambiguous names are most effective here to avoid tipping off the harasser (Alex, Sam, Lee, etc.).
5. Have the owner’s business card at the register to give to people who want to complain about curation. Giving people another way to raise their complaint may defuse the situation.
6. Give the customer a complaint form to fill out. This is another way to let them speak their mind while deferring the need for an immediate response. Here is a sample complaint form you can customize for your store.

Traps
 

The goal is to keep staff safe and change the dynamic without antagonizing: get more backup, get someone with more experience, create visibility to other customers or passers-by, and/or defer the response.

In response:

1. “Let me get my manager”
2. “Let me get someone to help you” and start calling the name of someone loudly (perhaps an established code name) while creating physical distance
3. “The person responsible for that is not working right now, let me take down your comment” (while creating physical distance/using a physical barrier like the desk/relocating to a more visible area)
4. “I want to make sure the owner hears your concern. Here’s the owner’s email address/business card”
5. “Hold on, let me get you a complaint form”

In all instances, keep some physical distance between you and the individual who is agitated. Moving behind the counter, taking a step away to ensure that staff is not within arm’s reach, or walking away from the situation are all options.
 

“This book is disgusting/evil/does harm/is offensive/is wrong/should not be in the kids section.”

Remember to follow the previous steps to shift the dynamic or get a manager if you are not confident responding.

The goal is to let them know you have heard their comment, either without implying an action in response or to redirect them to finding something they want in your collection.

In response:

6. “We serve the whole community and others are interested in this book”
7. “What kind of book are you looking for? Maybe I can find something else you’ll like better”
8. “We follow the publisher’s guidelines for shelving and categorization”
9. “We are probably not the store for you, since our mission is [your curation principle]. You might prefer [name of a nearby store with general interest selection]”

If they are not being abusive or threatening, they are not doing anything wrong by expressing an opinion, no matter how you feel about that opinion.

If they are abusive, threatening, and/or bigoted: de-escalate; find numbers or visibility to customers/team members/the street; ask them not to use abusive language (loudly if there are people in the store); and/or ask them to leave; and/or walk away in support of your mental and physical safety.
 

Secret recording during the encounter.

Always assume this is happening even if it is rare. In a charged interaction, take a breath, and don’t say anything you wouldn’t want attributed to you online or in print. You can also step away altogether, or call a manager or owner.

Avoid engaging over the merits of the title or author, even if you would proudly defend them publicly. In some cases there are organized groups waiting to swarm people they disagree with or take advantage of opportunities to stir things up completely unrelated to the title at hand. They may be preparing to read a passage out of context, cite rumors or news stories you’re not aware of or that may be inaccurate, or do other things designed to embarrass you or stoke outrage. For similar reasons, some people avoid typing certain keywords (replacing letters with asterisks or other characters) to make it harder to be swarmed online. It’s the same principle.

Know your rights. Some states require two-party consent for both individuals in a conversation to be recorded. If a video of you is posted without your consent or that was taken without your knowledge, you can report it to the platform to have it removed. In other cases, you may be able to take legal action to have it removed.