Can 'humanisation' reduce customer aggression?

Overview

As a direct response to increasing customer aggression, employee associations (unions) are implementing measures to keep frontline team members safe. One such tactic was an ‘under-name-badge’ message (“I’m someone’s daughter”, “I’m someone’s dad”). Concerningly, there is a dearth of research into the effect of such messaging.

Does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘someone’s daughter/son’ mitigate aggression? Alternatively, does alerting an aggressive customer to the fact the frontline team member is ‘a local/attends a local school, or college’ mitigate aggression?

This research will examine consumers responses to such messaging.

Research activities

This project will involve qualitative and quantitative research methods, including experiments.

Outcomes

To understand the impact of such messaging and inform industry.

Skills and experience

Student must meet the necessary benchmarks for entry into a MPhil or PhD.

Keywords

• messaging
• moral messaging
• retail
• customer aggression
• safety
• WHS
• service

Contact

Contact the supervisor for more information.