In 2019, SDA Union of Australia, icare (a government safety agency) and Griffith University issued a joint report on dysfunctional customer behaviour and how it can be reduced. The preventive measures identified by the report were tested in practice with a pilot study in New South Wales and proved to be remarkably effective in reducing cases of abusive customer behaviour in retail and fast-food stores.<\/p>\r\n
Four strategic directions were identified to reduce dysfunctional customer behaviour and its impact on employees:<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 modifications to the customer-service environment,<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 increased workplace support,<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 specialised customer-service training and<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 emotional regulation training for customer facing employees.<\/p>\r\n
For each strategic direction following potential solutions were offered:<\/p>\r\n
1. Workplace modifications<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Wider aisles<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Fewer bottlenecks<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Intuitive layouts to avoid confusion<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Well-marked queues<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Highly visible security cameras<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Sound and lighting<\/p>\r\n
2. Workplace support<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 Employee empowerment and supporting employee autonomy<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 Formalised support and social sharing of incidents<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 Rejection of a \u201ccustomer is always right\u201d ideology<\/p>\r\n
\u00b7 Strategies to communicate a \u2018zero\u2019 tolerance culture<\/p>\r\n
3. Specialized-customer service training<\/p>\r\n
Communication<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Active listening<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Interpersonal skills<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Help-seeking skills<\/p>\r\n
Problem solving skills<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Managing customer anger<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 De-escalation<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Negotiation<\/p>\r\n
4. Emotional regulation training for customer facing employees<\/p>\r\n
Training should embrace a prosocial approach to customers and focus on equipping employees with the skills to master and change their emotional reaction to dysfunctional customer behaviour, including:<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Identifying when customers are struggling to communicate their needs;<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Recognising when customer displays are not personally directed;<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Recognising and responding to emotional displays in themselves and others effectively;<\/p>\r\n
\u2022 Identifying cognitive rumination in self and how to disrupt this behaviour.<\/p>\r\n