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SUMMARY:On the Effects of Customer Anger - Prof. Anat Rafaeli\, Technion\,
  Israel Institute of Technology
DTSTART:20090226T120000Z
DTEND:20090226T140000Z
UID:TALK16961@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Peter Wild
DESCRIPTION:In a series of studies I have examined the effects of encounte
 ring anger expressed by customers on customer-service employees. The effec
 ts include slower and less accurate immediate work performance\, poorer pe
 rformance on various subsequent tasks\, as well as (perhaps expected) effe
 cts on employee negative feelings and fatigue. Even when the anger of the 
 customer is relatively inane\, the studies show detrimental effects\, and 
 even if the employee is not directly responsible for the service\, there a
 re significant effects of customer anger. Minimal encounters with customer
  anger seem to evoke some form of automatic response that limits the menta
 l resources available to employees for other tasks. When customers are rel
 atively more important to the target individuals\, such as VIP or Business
  Class customers\, their anger is particularly costly and damaging to empl
 oyees\, even if the rewards for complying with the customer requests can b
 e significantly greater. The studies also show a cumulative effect of cust
 omer anger\, over employee fatigue and employee ability to handle service 
 requests. Interestingly\, however\, there are cases when customer anger ca
 n create positive effects: this is when one or a few customers are angry p
 erson in the context of generally calm\, polite or non-angry customers.  S
 o customer anger can be viewed as a form of stimulation\, as long as there
  is not too much of it. When there is a lot of it\, which is what employee
 s report tends to happen\, the effects are highly detrimental.
LOCATION:Judge Business School
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