STUDY SHOWS NEGATIVE IMPACT OF ABUSIVE, UNRULY CUSTOMERS

Retailers face long-term costs when it comes to employee morale and engagement.

According to a recently released report from Perceptyx, 53% of all workers who deal directly with the public have encountered customers who are verbally abusive, threatening or unruly in the past six months.

The consulting firm surveyed 21,000 frontline employees about their experiences at work, including employees in healthcare, foodservice, education, retail, transportation and more.

The results showed that of the customer-facing workforce, retail workers “are the most likely to encounter unruly customers, with 61% of them having dealt with a recent incident, followed by those in information and then finance and insurance.

More than a third have been required to stay in a situation with a customer where they felt physically unsafe.

As a result, 81% feel burned out and 40% say their manager rarely or never checks in on their stress or emotional health,” said Perceptyx.

The study found that 62% of frontline employees feel their well-being is adequately supported by their organizations in these situations.

“There’s a gap between frontline and other employees in perceived support for difficult customer interactions.

That in turn impacts morale, productivity and retention.

Employers can close this gap by ensuring frontline workers have a manager who supports and cares about them and a place to share their own ideas about how to make the workplace safer,” said Emily Killham, senior director and head of the center for workforce transformation at Perceptyx.

Perceptyx found that employees who have faced unruly or abusive customers—compared to those who have not—are:

• 1.3x as likely to be actively looking for a new job 
• 1.9x as likely to disagree they work in a safe environment
• 1.5x as likely to disagree the organization cares about their health and well-being
• 1.5x as likely to disagree they are valued in the organization
• 1.6x as likely to feel uncomfortable speaking up about safety concerns
• 1.8x as likely to say stress from work has harmed their productivity more than three days in the past week
• 2.2x as likely to say stress from work is impacting their physical health.

Interested in reducing the disruption caused by challenging customer encounters?

Join NACS for a webinar, “Creating a Culture of Safety,” on Wednesday, February 19, at 2 p.m. EST to learn about how you can create a culture of safety by fostering an environment where employee well-being, customer safety and operational security are prioritized.

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