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Behavioral Sciences
Customer mistreatment is a reflection of poor customer behaviors, which include speaking loudly, verbal abuse, making unfair demands, skipping a queue, and other disrespectful behaviors. Customer mistreatment may be an unavoidable issue for the hospitality industry.
- customer mistreatment
- emotional exhaustion
- turnover intention
- mindfulness
- hospitality employees
1. Introduction
Customer mistreatment is a reflection of poor customer behaviors [1], which include speaking loudly, verbal abuse, making unfair demands, skipping a queue, and other disrespectful behaviors [2]. Employees who experience customer mistreatment may experience emotional distress [3], emotional exhaustion [4], poor physical health [5], poor job performance [6], and absenteeism [7]. Since employee turnover has received increased attention in the hotel industry [8], we propose that if employees are frequently mistreated by customers, turnover intention and work withdrawal may eventually increase [9]. For example, a customer at a busy hotel restaurant becomes irate due to a delayed order. They raise their voice and make unreasonable demands, causing distress to the server (hospitality employee). This public conflict not only disrupts the dining experience but also affects the server’s emotional well-being and overall job performance, potentially contributing to high turnover rates in the hospitality industry. As a result, the study of negative customer–employee interactions is crucial for the hospitality industry due to their increasing prevalence and negative impacts on employees, as described above, highlighting the need to investigate this issue and even provide solutions for hospitality businesses.
Previous research has found that several internal factors, including organizational factors [8,10], managerial factors [11], and individual personal factors [12], influence employee turnover intention. We argue that external factors play an important role in influencing employee turnover [9]. However, the effects of external factors (e.g., customer mistreatment) on employee turnover intention appear to be understudied.
Customer mistreatment, a type of poor treatment from customers, is regarded as an external source that influences employee emotion, potentially leading to work withdrawal behavior and a greater turnover of employees [9]. Thus, we argue that looking for ways to mitigate the adverse effects of customer mistreatment is worthwhile because customer mistreatment interfering with employee performance is a critical issue for the hotel industry. Mindfulness meditation practices are deliberate acts of attention regulation through the observation of thoughts, emotions, and body states that can be used as adjunctive treatments for anxiety disorders [13]. Previous research has shown that mindfulness can help individuals reduce emotional exhaustion [14,15], improve their quality of life [16], and maintain good habits [17]. Furthermore, mindfulness is gaining traction in the hospitality industry; for example, some hotels provide mindfulness training/advice to both employees and customers [18,19].
2. Customer Mistreatment
Customers and employees frequently interact with one another. However, in the service industry, the frequent occurrence of customer maltreatment towards employees (e.g., speaking loudly, verbal abuse, unfair demands, jumping a queue, and ill-mannered behaviors) remains a source of concern. Furthermore, as one of the key factors influencing employee emotions, customer mistreatment has numerous side effects on employees [4], frequently resulting in strong emotional reactions among employees [25]. Moreover, previous research has shown that customer mistreatment hurts employees’ health [26] and increases their emotional exhaustion [1].
Previous studies have aimed to address the behavioral impact of employees’ unpleasant feelings produced by customer mistreatment. According to Huang et al. (2019) [27], employee sabotage may be a response to customer maltreatment, although Baranik et al. (2017) [1] argue that cognitive rumination may attenuate customer mistreatment and reduce employee sabotage. Social sharing, such as talking to coworkers, is also a popular response to customer mistreatment [4]. Customer mistreatment’s consequences on employees’ jobs and careers have also been studied since customer mistreatment can change employees’ feelings and behavior. For example, relevant research has shown that when customers mistreat hospitality employees, their service performance suffers [28]; prior research has also shown that customer mistreatment negatively impacts restaurant personnel’s service performance [22], lowers service performance among hospitality employees such as tour guides and frontline staff [29], and, even worse, increases employee absenteeism [30].
Employees are not only harmed when customers are mistreating them, but the consequences are likely to last a long time. According to Shi and Wang (2022) [4], negative emotions caused by customer mistreatment may linger even longer the next day. Many moderating and intervention factors have been proposed gradually because employees’ persistent negative emotions are likely to be detrimental to business. Relevant research suggests that both self-esteem and age [6] alleviate the influence of customer mistreatment on self-confidence threat. Overall, we believe that more research into how to effectively lessen the negative influence of consumer mistreatment is required.
Frequent interactions between customers and service employees in the service industry have given rise to an ongoing issue of unfavorable interactions, including behaviors such as speaking loudly, verbal abuse, making unreasonable demands, queue jumping, and ill-mannered conduct. This persistent problem of customer mistreatment has raised significant concerns within the field [4]. It is worth noting that customer mistreatment not only impacts employees’ emotions but also leads to a multitude of adverse consequences for them [4]. As a critical factor influencing employee emotions, it frequently triggers intense emotional responses among them [25]. Furthermore, research has demonstrated that customer mistreatment can have detrimental effects on employees’ health [26] and contribute to heightened emotional exhaustion [1].
Previous research has predominantly concentrated on the behavioral repercussions stemming from employees’ unpleasant emotions derived from customer mistreatment [31,32]. While Huang et al. (2019) [27] argue that employee sabotage can be a response to customer maltreatment, Baranik et al. (2017) [1] suggest that cognitive rumination might mitigate the effects of customer mistreatment and reduce employee sabotage. Social sharing, such as discussing their experiences with coworkers, is another common response to customer mistreatment [4]. Moreover, the consequences of customer mistreatment on employees’ job performance and career prospects have garnered significant research attention, as it fundamentally alters employees’ emotions and behaviors. For instance, pertinent research has demonstrated that when customers mistreat hospitality employees, it negatively affects their service performance [28]. Similarly, customer mistreatment diminishes the service performance of restaurant staff [22] and leads to decreased service quality in hospitality employees such as tour guides and frontline staff [29]. In more severe cases, consumer incivility has been linked to increased employee absenteeism [30].
Importantly, the repercussions of customer mistreatment on employees are not short-lived; they can persist over an extended period. According to Shi and Wang (2022) [4], negative emotions triggered by customer mistreatment may carry over to the following day [33]. Given the potential harm to businesses, numerous moderating and intervention factors have been proposed. Relevant research suggests that both self-esteem and age may alleviate the effect of customer mistreatment on self-confidence threats [6]. As such, it is essential to conduct additional research to mitigate the negative impact of consumer mistreatment on either employees or businesses.
3. Pressure–State–Response (PSR) Framework
The Pressure–State–Response (PSR) framework is widely employed in the field of ecology [34]. This framework includes three main components: pressure, state, and response [35]. The PSR framework is also a useful tool for explaining a system’s interaction with external influencing factors by way of capturing the dynamic changes and primary reasoning of events. For example, when people feel pressure from outside factors (P), it may lead to changes in their state (S) that, in turn, lead to a reaction (R) that attempts to relieve the pressure.
Customer mistreatment, as elucidated by Shin et al. (2021) [36], places considerable stress on employees and depletes their resources, thereby subjecting service workers to significant strain [7]. According to the PSR framework, customer mistreatment can be regarded as an external force exerting pressure on employees. Emotional exhaustion, which is characterized as stress-induced depletion [37], represents a state of both physical and mental fatigue resulting from a deficiency in energy and resources.
Within the PSR framework, emotional exhaustion is treated as a state component for employees subjected to the pressure of customer mistreatment. Previous research has explored various response factors, including behavioral and revisit intentions [38,39]. In our study, we have chosen employee turnover intention as the response factor. In Figure 1, we present the conceptual framework that we used to elucidate the connections among these factors. In the framework, customer mistreatment is the pressure factor, emotional exhaustion is the state factor, turnover intention is the response factor, and mindfulness is the moderating factor. After deciding to use this framework for the present study, we proposed several pivotal hypotheses for further investigation.
Figure 1. The conceptual framework.
Relevant research indicates that interpersonal mistreatment correlates with nurses’ emotional exhaustion [40]; customer mistreatment can deplete employees’ energy and affect their emotions [41], and customer mistreatment contributes to cell phone service workers’ emotional exhaustion [1]. In the service industry, which encompasses sectors such as retail, healthcare, insurance, food services, finance, and higher education, customer mistreatment leads to emotional exhaustion among employees. Moreover, customer mistreatment exacerbates employees’ emotional exhaustion as it subjects them to persistent stressors and depletes their emotional resources [42], leading to heightened emotional fatigue and a reduced capacity to cope with workplace demands [43]. Therefore, according to the PSR framework, external pressure (P) can influence the system’s state (S). We believe that when customers mistreat hospitality workers, their emotions change, resulting in emotional exhaustion.
Emotional exhaustion has been found to enhance turnover intention in a variety of fields. Cho et al. (2014) [20] showed that airline staff sometimes resign due to emotional exhaustion. McKenna and Jeske (2020) [44] found that nurses with extreme emotional exhaustion are more likely to leave the profession. Alola et al. (2019) [21] discovered that emotional exhaustion influences hotel employees’ intentions to leave. Thus, emotional exhaustion or burnout may predict turnover intention [45]. Additionally, employees experiencing emotional exhaustion are more likely to contemplate leaving their current job [46] due to decreased job satisfaction and diminished emotional resources, leading to heightened turnover intention [47]. Consequently, according to the PSR framework, the change in a system’s state (S) may trigger a behavior reaction (R).
Previous research has shown that customer mistreatment causes employee absenteeism [7], work withdrawal [9], and even turnover intention. Diefendorff et al. (2019) [48] also stated that staff in call center services have a high intention to leave due to being on the receiving end of poor client treatment frequently. Furthermore, customer mistreatment can increase employees’ turnover intention by creating a stressful and hostile work environment [49]. The accumulated emotional toll from mistreatment can lead employees to seek alternative employment opportunities for relief [50].
4. The Mediation of Emotional Exhaustion
According to the PSR framework, the state factor (emotional exhaustion) can serve as a link between the pressure factor (customer mistreatment) and the response factor (turnover intention). In addition, emotional exhaustion may mediate the links between customer mistreatment and job satisfaction [48], job demands and instigated workplace incivility [51], and workplace ostracism and interpersonal deviance [52]. Furthermore, employees’ emotional exhaustion may serve as a crucial mediator in the relationship between customer mistreatment and turnover intention. When mistreated by customers, employees often experience heightened emotional exhaustion [53], prompting them to consider leaving their jobs in search of relief from these emotionally draining interactions [54].
5. The Moderation of Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a deliberate and nonjudgmental focus on the present moment [55]. To regulate attention, mindfulness meditation involves observing thoughts, emotions, and body states [56]. Mindfulness may provide people with a sense of control and a pleasant affective consequence because it involves conscious awareness, non-subjective judgment, and present moment focus [56]. Individuals with high-level mindfulness might recover from negative emotions more quickly due to their ability to recognize reality without becoming confused [57]. Furthermore, relevant research has shown that mindfulness positively affects psychological distress [58], experience [59], and long-term sustainable behavior [57].
Previous research has shown that employee emotional exhaustion may be mitigated by mindfulness [14,42]. People who practice mindfulness may analyze the current situation before making decisions rather than relying on experience [17], and mindfulness may help to moderate the link between environmental influences and one’s emotional state [60]. Additionally, by utilizing mindfulness, employees may develop better emotional regulation skills [17], helping them cope with mistreatment more effectively and reducing the impact of such experiences on their emotional exhaustion [61].
According to previous studies, tourists who practice mindfulness are more likely to modify their behavior because they may be aware of how their actions affect others [17]; mindfulness can stimulate an individual’s self-regulating activities by reducing stress, likely resulting in fewer defensive responses [62], and mindfulness has been shown to be associated with self-control but not impulsive actions such as physical and verbal aggression [63]. Additionally, practicing mindfulness can enhance employees’ resilience and coping mechanisms, making them less likely to consider leaving their jobs when experiencing emotional exhaustion [64]. Additionally, employees who practice mindfulness can better handle the emotional impact of mistreatment, lowering their intention to leave as they become more resilient and adaptable in facing customer mistreatment [65].
This entry is adapted from the peer-reviewed paper 10.3390/su151914288
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