…The effects of customer incivility on employee experience
A good friend of mine has this as one of favourite sayings: “Character is like pregnancy. No matter how hard you try to hide it, it would eventually show.” It might sound funny but it is true. It does not matter how hard and how long an individual tries, the one’s true character eventually shows. It must be stated that there are some people that are so good at hiding their true character that, for years, they are able to conceal their true selves from all. However, there are some others whose true characters show within just a few minutes of coming across them.
Of this latter group are some customers. For those few minutes one interacts with these individuals, it becomes clear the kind of person the one is. If that customer turns out to be someone with a sweet, caring soul, then the customer-facing employee is in for a great experience. However, if that customer happens to be someone who is of an undesirable character, then the customer service employee has to gear up for a not-so-pleasant encounter.
With so much emphasis on the need for organisations to give customers the best of experiences, it seems we sometimes forget that there is even something like an employee’s experience. Businesses are so keen on giving customers a great experience that they seem to forget that those who are responsible for giving those experiences must also have same, or similar, experiences. Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the burden of many business leaders and managers. The truth, however, is that if a customer-handling employee comes across a cantankerous character for a customer, the employee’s experience would be affected negatively.
Over the years, there has been a number of studies that have been commissioned with the broad aim of finding out how customer service employees are affected by customer behaviours—and the extent of these influences. These studies have been found to be of importance since their findings have practical implications for the success of many businesses.
One of such studies was titled, “The relationship between customer incivility, restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention.” It was published in the October 2015 edition of the International Journal of Hospitality Management. Conducted among more than 220 employees from 28 independent restaurants in the US state of Florida, this study found that many front line employees were leaving the job because of burnout. The study found that the incidents of burnout were predominantly as a result of the actions of customers.
The researchers were however quick to point out that two factors were able to influence the intention of employees to leave the business because of the actions of customers. The study found that support from the organisation was one of the factors. When employees feel supported by the organisation, they tend to survive a lot of what customers throw at them. Knowing that the company they are working for will stand by them is enough motivation to get front line employees through whatever comes their way from customers.
The other factor that helps to lessen the effects of customer incivility is support from the one’s supervisor. Working directly with the employee, the immediate supervisor has a very important role to play in the employee’s attitude and actions. It is one thing to have the support of the company when things do not go well. It is a totally different thing when it is your immediate boss is behind you. After all, it is the immediate supervisor whose impressions will be considered by Management. Therefore, being in the good books of the immediate supervisor means a lot to customer-facing employees.
Another study, published in the May 2016 edition of the Journal of Services Marketing, threw more light on the effects of workplace incivility on customer service employees. This study involved service employees from a hotel in South Korea. This publication was titled, “The Effect of Workplace Incivility on Service Employee Creativity: The Mediating Role of Emotional Exhaustion and Intrinsic Motivation. As can easily deciphered from the title of the study, the focus was finding the relationship between what customer service go through and how it affects their creativity on the job.
The results showed, as with the findings of the 2015 study mentioned before, that the uncivilised acts of customers (and even colleague employees) caused customer service employees to become emotionally drained. The emotional exhaustion affected the motivation these employees have on the job. The loss of the intrinsic motivation—that driving force that keeps the employee going—ultimately resulted in a decrease in the creativity of the individual.
The findings of the above studies were also corroborated by another study published in the May 2021 edition of the Frontiers in Psychology journal. The study was titled “Perceptions of Customer Incivility, Job Satisfaction, Supervisor Support, and Participative Climate: A Multi-Level Approach”. The study was conducted among employees in a large clothing shop chain in Belgium. According to this study, another effect of customer incivility is a decrease in the satisfaction of the employee on the job. No customer-facing employee comes to work looking forward to be abused by a customer. The thought of a customer being rude or abusive can suck out any joy the employee might have for the job.
This Belgium study however added that two factors helped moderate the effect of customer incivility on employees. Just as with the earlier study conducted among hotel employees in Florida, it was found that support from the one’s supervisor was very important in helping the employee manage the unsavoury behaviour of customers.
Additionally, the study found that when employees were allowed to participate in the decision making within the unit, department or organisation, they are better able to handle customer incivility. A participative environment is created when power, influence, decision-making, and responsibility are shared among employees, colleagues and supervisors. Knowing that their views would not only be heard but would be given serious consideration helps customer service employees handle poor customer behaviours better.
There has also been a more recent study on the relationship between the uncivil actions of customers and the emotional exhaustion that results in customer service employees. This particular study was titled “Understanding the Role of Customer Incivility and Supervisor Monitoring in the Relationship between Customer Orientation and Frontline Employees’ Emotional Exhaustion.” The results were published in the November 2023 edition of the Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
This latter study came out with similar findings as the previous studies regarding the relationship between customer incivility and the emotional exhaustion of employees. However, according to the researchers, one factor that played a key role in this relationship is the customer orientation status of the employee. Employees who are more prone to put the needs of customers first are those who are better able to handle customer incivility.
If there is one thing the ongoing discussion is making abundantly clear, it has to be the fact that customers also have a responsibility to behave well when they interact with those whose job it is to serve them. There has been such an abuse of the concepts such as the “Customer is King” and “The Customer is Always Right”—to the extent that many customers have taken these statements literally and have become gods on to themselves. The behaviours exhibited by some of these customers is nothing short of abuse.
Unfortunately, it is the poor customer-facing professional who gets to bear the brunt of the actions of these customers. To make matters worse for the customer service employee, Management of many businesses have also made it clear, either explicitly in words or implicitly in deeds, that when there is conflict between a customer and a customer service employee, the organisation will always take the side of the customer.
It is interesting that this phenomenon has been found to be most rampant among front line employees in the hospitality industry. Waiters and waitresses, bellboys, chefs, bouncer, etc. These are those who are more likely to walk away from a job because of the uncivilised behaviour of a customer. Could this be because many of these jobs are not too well paying and thus these employees will have no problem walking away when they feel insulted?
I am asking this question because I doubt if other professionals in well-paying jobs such as those in oil and gas, banking and finance, telecommunications, etc. are not being subjected to the actions of incivil customers. How come those who work at the front line of these companies are not resigning as their colleagues in the hospitality industry? I worked in banking for a while and I do not recall a time during my days in the industry when I, or any of my other colleagues, wanted to resign because of rude and discourteous customers. We just “managed” them and moved on with our lives.
It is also interesting to note that these studies were done in economies where employment opportunities were not as scarce as they are in this part of the world. I would love to see the results of such a study in this country. I would not be shocked if such a study churns out totally different results. A person who has had to suffer just to get a job would think twice before resigning because of the actions of a customer.
Regardless of which part of the world these results came from, it is clear that the actions of customers have consequences, sometimes dire. Business leaders and managers should not pretend as if this does not exist. These consequences, even if not glaring, exist and thus, something must be done about the causes of these effects. It would help if customer-handling employees are trained to be more resilient to the not-too-desirable actions of customers. However, it would also help if customers are also urged to behave!
