Consumer Behavior

Many retail associates dealing with angry customers

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March 16, 2023

Over half, 68.5%, of retail workers regularly deal with angry or frustrated customers and one in five deal with unhappy customers each day.

Those are top findings of a Waitwhile study focused on the retail worker experience, from job satisfaction to the rise of incivility in customer-facing roles.

Waitwhile conducted an online survey of 1,000 adults working in retail in the U.S. and asked respondents to describe their experience in customer-facing roles and share their opinions about whether the technology available in their workplace enabled them to provide excellent customer service.

Those polled stated long wait times as the most common source of customer annoyance.

"We've all seen the videos of frontline workers who've been harassed by angry and frustrated customers, and this bad behavior is clearly taking a toll: Waitwhile found that nearly one in two retail employees are unhappy at work," Christoffer Klemming, CEO and co-founder of Waitwhile, said in a press release on the findings. "The high rate of worker dissatisfaction should serve as a wake-up call for retail organizations and our research offers actionable insights for brands seeking to improve customer interactions, as well as the retail work environment overall. Technology has been clearly identified as a key solution for retailers to boost employee morale and productivity. Automation tools that reduce wait times and streamline customer flow improve customer satisfaction while producing much-needed efficiencies that drive positive business results."

Other findings include:

• 74% of frontline retail workers report being bored at work.
• 40% describe feeling anxious at work, with customer satisfaction ranked as the most common cause of stress.
• 40% indicate that they waste time dealing with dated or poorly designed technology at work.
• 54% wish that their organization invested more in maintaining, improving or expanding the technology they have to use at work.