Badge Frontline Employees to Curb Badgering

The studies by researchers at Queensland University of Technology and Tecnológico de Monterrey address the problem of store shoppers verbally abusing frontline employees who carry responsibility for selling to the shoppers and resolving their complaints. The researchers cite prior studies which show how the yelling, insults, threats, and demeaning language undermine job performance and increase employee intention to quit their job.
     The simple technique validated by the current studies to ease the problem is to have each frontline employee wear a badge announcing brief information about the individual. In the studies, this information, which appeared on a label positioned below the badge with the employee’s first name, included text such as “I’m a Daughter,” “I’m a Dad,” and “I’m also a local.”
     The researchers’ explanation for the effect is that the self-disclosure humanizes the employee, which leads customers to treat the employee more respectfully. The employee becomes less likely to be seen by the customer as an inferior status object whose job is confined to fulfilling the customer’s whims and absorbing the customer’s frustrations.
     In some cases, you might want the under-badge message to read, “This is my first week on the job.” Your shoppers should know that your frontline staff are experts. Yet a trio of researchers at University of Bordeaux and KEDGE Business School find a payoff in boldly proclaiming that an inexperienced frontline staff member is, in fact, not yet an expert and will consult with others. If there’s a service failure during the subsequent sales transaction, the customer is more forgiving of both the employee and the retailer and, if the customer has already built an attachment to the retailer, is more likely to return in the future than if the warning of inexperience had not been provided.
     Even with the under-badge technique, we can expect some verbal abuse of frontliners will continue. Studies at University of Edinburgh, University of Sydney, and UNSW Business School indicate that a helpful technique in response to this is to encourage the employee to step away from the workplace after being verbally abused.
     Positive results were for brief breaks. The researchers point out how prolonged absences from the service setting decrease employee performance. There are more uncompleted tasks to be made up, and irritation of other staff disrupts teamwork. However, a short retreat after incivility is different. A little snack can ease exhaustion. Chatting with colleagues can restore perspective.

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Proceed to Protect Your Staff from Insults  

Declare Inexperience to Experience Forgiveness

Retreat Briefly After Incivility 

Anticipate Black Friday Syndrome 

Announce Commonalities with Shoppers