Reducing frontline employee directed verbal abuse: A multi-study approach

Abstract

Customer verbal abuse (CVA) directed at frontline employees (FLE) remains a pervasive and escalating challenge for retail and service-based organizations, leading to heightened stress, emotional exhaustion, and increased turnover among staff. While awareness of CVA's detrimental impact has grown, there is a notable gap in empirical research on accessible, cost-effective interventions to address this issue. This study draws on existing self-disclosure, humanness, and social exchange theoretical frameworks to examine the effectiveness of ‘under badges’—small, personal identifiers worn beneath name tags that discreetly share personal information to humanise FLE and reduce customer abuse. Employing a mixed-methods design, Study 1 utilized qualitative interviews with retail employees, revealing that under badges foster customer empathy and are perceived to diminish instances of CVA. Study 2 employed an experimental design with 600 consumers exposed to a simulated negative service encounter, demonstrating that under badges significantly lowered participants' intentions to engage in CVA. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 confirming the reliability and validity of findings. Collectively, this research extends existing theories into a retail-specific, customer misbehavior, employee well-being context, while providing robust evidence that symbolic personal interventions can positively shift customer perceptions and enhance the emotional climate of service interactions. This research advances the conversation on service civility by offering practical, scalable solutions for retail and service organizations aiming to protect their FLE and foster more respectful, human-centered customer interactions.