Introduction: Dimensionality of customer aggression and Theoretical framework
Customer aggression has been increasing significantly within the retail and services sector. There are four elements of customer aggression: ‘reactive-expressive’ aggression (REA), ‘proactive-expressive’ aggression (PEA), ‘reactive-inexpressive’ aggression (RIA), and ‘proactive-inexpressive’ aggression (PIA). REA is characterised by physical behaviours intended to intimidate or harm frontline service employees. PEA involves yelling, being verbally demeaning, threatening, or insulting. Meanwhile, RIA is non-verbal, non-physical but threatening behaviours directed toward someone. Lastly, PIA is also non-verbal and non-physical but involves indirect interactions to cause disruptions and attain certain goals e.g., dishonest 1-star Google review to attain a free meal as compensation.
According to the ‘displaced aggression theory’, customer aggression can be redirected to a target other than the original source of frustration because that source is too powerful. Other concepts relevant to customer aggression include ‘customer sovereignty’, ‘status shield’, and ‘service interaction continuum’. Customer sovereignty is the idea that customer is always right. Status shield refers to the perceived protective effect of someone’s social or perceived social status (e.g., the perceived low-status and low-skilled work associated with retail workers reflects low status shield and causes more customer aggression). Finally, a service interaction continuum exists which categorises whether the interactions with workers will be relationships (e.g., a pharmacy assistant) or simply isolated encounters (e.g., a young anonymous cashier). For example, when a customer feels frustrated about a failed refund that they think they are entitled to (customer sovereignty), they may behave aggressively
toward a young anonymous cashier (low status shield and isolated encounter) because they cannot do anything about the powerful dissatisfaction source (the business’s refund policy).
However, earlier works focused on simply one element of aggression (verbal abuse) or within single context (e.g., call centres), hence failing to acknowledge the full range of potential proactive/reactive aggressive behaviours as above, especially in a retail and services setting. Additionally, no comprehensive tool has been developed to measure such behaviours, thus limiting empirical examinations that may act as guidance for prevention and mitigation strategies. This research overcomes the limitations of earlier attempts by contributing five studies to develop a four-dimensional Customer Aggression scale, which may serve to measure the range of customer aggressive behaviours toward frontline employees more accurately. This is the first study to validate the multi-dimensional element of customer aggression.
Method and sample
To develop the Customer Aggression scale, five studies were undertaken to generate and select items, develop the scale dimensionality, then evaluate the scale’s validity. The measurement items were achieved through open-response surveys administered over 8 weeks to 211 undergraduate students who currently worked within a retail or services frontline role. The participants were instructed to briefly describe a recent negative or unpleasant service experience with a customer. The generated items were carefully selected, refined, classified into the four categories (REA, PEA, RIA, PIA), and rated by academic experts from different universities.
Key findings
1. Customer aggression is a complex and multi-dimensional phenomenon.
2. Supported by the displaced aggression theory, the study’s scale has validated that a customer may react aggressively in different types of customer aggression (REA, PEA, RIA, PIA) toward employees with low status shields and isolated encounters because they perceive they are unable to overcome the original source of the aggression, thus the need to redirect the behaviours.
3. The four dimensions of customer aggression predict employees’ emotional exhaustion, which in turn causes job stress that leads to undesirable outcomes such as deviant behaviour and turnover intention.
Recommendations
1. Managers should treat customer aggression as any other workplace hazard that needs to be accurately identified, measured, and prevented. They should utilise the study’s easy-to-administer measurement tool to assess the extent and type of aggression their employees face, from which appropriate strategies can be implemented.
2. Managers should provide greater management support regarding customer aggression to reduce workplace misconduct and intention to leave. This can be done by developing customised solutions or service scripts relevant to specific service interactions.
3. As it was found that the relationship between customer aggression and job stress was weaker in organisations where employees had a ‘collective voice’, employing the study’s scale to facilitate regular monitoring of customer aggression may serve as a tool to capture the shared experience of employees, allowing them to all contribute to the solutions.
4. This scale may also be of particular interest to agencies responsible for developing, implementing, and monitoring public policy promoting and supporting employee wellbeing. It can also contribute to the international calls on governments to provide support through campaigns and policy reforms to mitigate the increasing customer abuse.
Lead researcher
More information
The research article is also available on eprints.