Service employees and customer phone rage: An empirical analysis

Purpose: In an era in which two-thirds of interactions between firms and customers occur by telephone communications, the impact of customer telephone rage on employees' service-related attitudes and beliefs is worthy of study. Telephone or "phone rage" involves occurrences of employee- or firm-oriented injurious speech, aggression, anger, or antagonism that customers undertake during customer-firm telephone interactions. The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual model of the direct and indirect links between perceived customer phone rage and employee-customer rapport, functional quality delivery, customer service orientation, retaliation intentions, negative word of mouth, and affective commitment. Design/methodology/approach: To test the developed hypotheses, the author deemed a self-administered postal survey the most appropriate data collection method. In total, 257 fully completed questionnaires were received and analyzed via structural equation modeling. Findings: Of the eight hypothesized associations between phone rage and employee-customer rapport, functional quality delivery, customer service orientation, retaliation intentions, negative word of mouth, and affective commitment, seven are found to be significant. Three previously accepted associations are also found to be significant. Originality/value: This study contributes in a number of ways. First, the paper develops a conceptual model that depicts service-related dynamics, perceived customer rage, and employees' behavioral intentions. Second, this study also contributes methodologically through operationalizing, pretesting, applying, and testing a seven-item scale of the level of perceived customer phone rage, from the perspective of the recipient (the employee). The third contribution of the study centers on the empirical insights gained. The study provides empirical evidence in support of the wider application of Huefner and Hunt's extension of Hirschman's framework.