Why bad customer behaviour is rising?
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Sulaiman
- . October 27, 2022
- . Update: November 11, 2022 1:21 am
More and more people are criticising service providers. There are factors at play that could explain why they are receiving the majority of the ire from customers. If you are the representative of the television business who just received a tirade and berating from a woman by the name of Caitlin, you should be aware that she feels awful about “torturing” you.
Caitlin, a resident of Oregon in the US, says, “I was attempting to cancel this contract we’d been dragged into, and it became this big ordeal.” “[The person] was stonewalling me and would not or could not move me up to speak with a manager. She simply kept using these prepared statements. I became so upset that I began cursing at him. She was aware that the agent couldn’t hang up on her due to his training. She claims, “I wouldn’t let him end the call.” It lasted for about two to three hours. I was really enraged. It liberated a part of me that I was unaware of. This poor person was essentially being used as a punching bag by me.
Whether we want to acknowledge it or not, most people have, at least occasionally, mistreated service personnel. We’ve made regrettable comments to customer care agents, flight attendants, cashiers, or baristas, usually as a result of circumstances beyond their control or fault. Despite the fact that customers have always vented their frustrations on service providers, data indicates that these behaviours have increased over the past few years. According to research from the Institute of Customer Service, more than half of employees who interact with customers report an increase in abuse since the pandemic’s beginning.
Read | 9 Annoying Things You Should Stop Saying to Your Boss
Even while there are times when people are truly unkind, poor customer behaviour does not always indicate that a person is a nasty person. According to experts, these eruptions are caused by underlying causes, and the epidemic is one reason why they are getting worse. In order to change the behaviour and give these overworked personnel a break, they contend that it is imperative to understand why individuals lash out at service workers.Even while there are times when people are truly unkind, poor customer behaviour does not always indicate that a person is a nasty person. According to experts, these eruptions are caused by underlying causes, and the epidemic is one reason why they are getting worse. In order to change the behaviour and give these overworked personnel a break, they contend that it is imperative to understand why individuals lash out at service workers.
Reena B. Patel, a psychologist and behaviour analyst with a practise in San Diego, claims that people are typically quite rigid. So when routines change, it might make people anxious and increase agitation. “There is a natural uneasiness that results when things are little awry or don’t go as we expect.” For example, a long line at the coffee shop could have a domino effect, threatening to disrupt the remainder of the day’s plans. People “may not realise that’s what they’re anxious about because it may look like no big problem,” adds Patel. “But that’s what’s occurring internally. Your entire routine is changing as a result of the 45-minute wait when you arrive at a restaurant for breakfast expecting to be seated in 15 minutes.
According to Patel, this turns the situation into a powder keg that can blow easily with little to no warning as pressure builds. “Imagine you go to the grocery shop and discover that you can’t find the goods you usually buy or that the prices have unexpectedly increased. According to Melanie Morrison, a professor of psychology at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, this causes people to feel more frustrated, anxious, and worried. She continues: “Even for normally calm, mild-mannered people, that undercurrent of stress has a propensity to boil over during everyday tasks, like grabbing coffee or a meal.” As a result, a service provider is frequently put in danger; you can find yourself yelling at a waitress who is merely attempting to deliver you pancakes.
However, Morrison asserts that yelling at service personnel in particular rarely happens just because they are in your line of sight.
According to her, “those who are performing those occupations frequently do not have a lot of influence, so they become easier targets.” She claims that the “scapegoat theory” — a psychological term for people’s propensity to find someone to blame — contributes to the understanding of why people lash out at these kinds of workers as opposed to, example, family members or coworkers. Morrison asserts that nobody will “go insane” at work or school. It will probably occur over the phone with a customer service representative, at a discount retailer, or at McDonald’s.
This is due to the fact that it is much simpler to punch down those who are not in service roles and who may feel superior to them. It’s easy to think you’re better than other people, even though we shouldn’t consider one profession to be higher in a hierarchy than another, according to Patel. However, even without the entitlement of a superiority mentality, it can still feel natural to lash out at a complete stranger whose training basically demands that they pay attention to you. According to Caitlin and the employee of the cable provider, “going nuclear felt like there was nothing to lose for me,” she says. “The connection has no social standing. I’m sorry about this.
The stakes are therefore far lower with service workers: blow up at work or home, and you’ll merely have to pick up the pieces afterwards, even if your genuine beef is with your partner or boss. Caitlin, like many of us, was aware that she would never speak to the person on the other end of the call again.
