The Effects of Customer Anger Arik Cheshin Rellie

The Effects of Customer Anger Arik Cheshin Rellie Derfler Dorit Efrat Ella Glickson Anat Rafaeli Amir Erez Technion Sharon Lubasch Israel Institute Ella Miron-Spector of Technology Shy Ravid Ravit Rozillio Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net Orit Schwartz 1

“ 30% of British Workers experience encounters with bullies on at least a weekly basis” “ 27% of workers in a representative sample … in Michigan … experienced mistreatment by someone in the workplace. ” Professor Anat Rafaeli - Technion, ISRAEL http: //Anat. Rafaeli. Net 2

Implicit Assumption: Displaying Anger to CSR’s Gets Them to Do More for us … But is this true? Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 3

Effects of Customer Anger on Employee Rewards Organizational (IV*) Customer Complaint Customer Reward (IV**) Policy Role Instructions (DV) Time Dependent Variable Independent Variables Reward (discount, compensation) Organizational policy (service / profit) Anger intensity (High / 4 Low)

Employees Reward Customer Anger

Customer Service Policy Rewards Customer Anger Cost Policy: "It is very important for us to keep company profitability" Service Policy: "It is very important for us to keep customers satisfied"

What Happens to the Employees Who Encounter the Anger Displayed by Customers? Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 7

Emotions Are Tasks that Require Resources Beal and Weiss et al (2005) Weiss and Cropanzano (1996) Episodic Process Model of Affective Influence Affective Events Theory 8

Social Psychology Findings about Individual Emotion Effects Bad Emotions Can Deplete Resources Gross, Richards (1999, 2005) Baumeister (1998) Cookies or Radishes? Active self is a limited resource Concealing bad feelings requires resources Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 9

General Argument: Emotions are Social Influence Agents Hareli, S. & Rafaeli, A. (2008) Research in Organizational Behavior

Available Research is about Effects of Own Emotions! Customer Hostile Emotions Employee’s Resource Depletion Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 11

Customer Contact Center Customer request Employee Task: Handling details. Multiple folders Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 12

Customers Convey Anger/Rudeness Polite Customer My home phone number changed. Need to update it please. My number is 037526654. Thank you very much, George Ashley. Angry – Rude Customer It’s such a nightmare to reach you! Your service is just horrible. Update my home phone to 03 -7526654. George Ashley Hi please note my request to move me to the weekend deal. My password is "Friends". Thank you, Josh. I am sick and tired of your lousy service. Move me to the weekend deal. Password is "Friends". Josh. Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 13

Data Undergraduate Students Training (15 minutes; rules, tools). Practice (6 minutes; no pay). Real Work 15 minutes; up to 40 customers. pay for correct work. Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 14

Task Performance % requests handled correctly N M SD Angry Requests 34 0. 46 0. 10 Affect Free Requests 35 0. 57 0. 12 t = -2. 05, p <. 05 Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 15

Employee Fatigue after Customer Anger Reported exhaustion (1 -7 scale) N M SD Angry Requests 34 3. 52 1. 18 Affect Free Requests 35 2. 77 1. 13 t = 2. 71, p <. 01 Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 16

Another Test … • Auditory anger Recall of details

Anger or Arousal? Performance with Angry and Overly Positive Customer Statement: Angry: “Can you fix my account? I can’t believe your service is so slow and lousy! Neutral: “Please fix my account. There is an extra charge that need to be fixed” Overly Positive: Please fix my account. Your service is always so amazing and superb!”

Could it be Arousal? Performance success rate (cumulative average) Performance with Angry and Overly Enthusiastic Anger – Neutral: p <. 001 Anger – Positive: p <. 01

What Have We Learned? Some One Displays Anger Focal Person Fatigue Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net Performance of Work Tasks 20

Anger of Different Customers? e. g. , VIP vs. Regular Customers? Simulation: Some tasks are more important …valued more ($1. 00 vs. 25 cents) Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 21

Others’ Anger Hurts Ability to Prioritize Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 22

Anger and Cognitive Processing? Memory? Weaker after others’ anger? Recovery? Longer after others’ anger? Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 23

Method Employees Read Transcripts of Hostile / Non-Hostile Customers. Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 24

Others’ Hostility Hostile Affect-Free Customer: I am having reception problems with my phone. Employee: Perhaps you have a problem when you are in an area with no reception? Customer It happens all the time! I need to know your problems? I am in all sorts of areas. Your phones are bad quality; your technicians are lousy. Every time a new problem pops up? Customer I don’t know but I think it happens all the time. I am in all sorts of areas. There should not be such reception problems. It seems to be anywhere I happen to be. Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 25

Measures: Recall of Details When did the person previously call? Last week. Two weeks ago. Three weeks ago Four Weeks ago What was the name of the caller? Eric. George Dan Sam. What hour of service was caller promised? 09: 00 – 10: 00 – 11: 00 – 12: 00 – 13: 00 Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 26

Number of Angry Others Influences Ability to Recall Mean Number of items recalled (1 -9) N M SD 0 angry calls 36 6. 00 1. 17 1 angry call 36 5. 56 1. 40 2 angry calls 36 4. 44 1. 44 3 angry calls 36 4. 14 1. 29 (F(3, 140)=15. 94, p<. 000) Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 27

Recovery of Depleted Employees ? Please wait. I need to recover. I am temporarily depleted from the previous customer http: //Anat. Rafaeli. Net © Rafaeli 2009 28

. . . Need to Press Enter. . . (A Test of Relief Time)

Idle Time (average in seconds) . . . Relief Time in Between Requests. . . Customer Request Number Enthusiasm Neutral Anger

Help! How Long Does Effect of Customer Anger Last? Effects on Problems Not Related to Customer ? Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 31

Resource Depletion Suggests Weaker Performance on Subsequent Tasks Performing Unrelated Task After Another Person’s Hostility • Ten (10) Raven’s matrices; • 8 minutes; • After encounter with anger

Others’ Anger Depletes Focal Person of Resources for Subsequent Task Mean Number of items Solved (1 -8) N M SD Anger Condition 20 4. 7 1. 65 Neutral Condition 21 5. 8 1. 53 t = -2. 22, p <. 05 Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 33

Effects on A Different Task? Creative Thinking Tasks:

Solution to Creative Task

Accurate Performance § Angry § Non-Angry 0. 75 0. 67 Creative Task P= 0. 0001 N=36

What Have We Learned? Performance of Unrelated Tasks Some One Displays Anger Focal Person Fatigue and Resources Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net Performance of Work Tasks 37

A Note… Powerful effects with very benign anger! This must mean … VERY powerful effects with strong anger Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 38

How Do We Manage all of This? Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 39

Turnover / Carryover Issues Slides and Papers Available at http: //Anat. Rafaeli. net 40

Please Visit Me at Technion http: //Anat. Rafaeli. Net