As a current retail associate at Walmart, I’ve noticed many interactions between customers and employees that were not positive. Ever since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, interactions between employees and customers have revealed a decline in kindness and patience and increased incivility towards each other. Businesses should be allowed to enforce “conduct rules” to establish a more positive environment for employees and customers.
Impact on Employees
Enforcing conduct rules would have a positive impact on employees. Employees work long hours, ensuring a work establishment is running smoothly. While doing so, they encounter themselves dealing with rude customers and as a current employee, I can tell you firsthand that I´ve dealt with rude customers almost every shift. When I used to work at Chick-fil-A, I had a customer completely cuss me out due to a slight misunderstanding–I was only 16 at the time. With rude customers, they can get wrathful over the smallest inconvenience. For instance on “Customer Rage Episodes”, a 17-year-old Dunkin Donuts employee was treated for first-degree burns after she was doused with 180-degree coffee by a 57-year-old man who was angry about having to pay sales tax on his purchase–Unbelievable, right? Employees are risking their lives trying to handle crazy customers and crazy situations. “Impatient, rude, and abrupt behavior is not only exhausting but unsustainable for workers’ emotional health and well-being”.
Many can argue that customers have reasons to show their frustrations towards others. The transition to remote during the pandemic has resulted in face-to-face interaction decline. They also speak briefly on how overall challenges (including polarization, war, the underlying stress of inflation, supply chain issues, or looming economic uncertainty) are another factor for pushing people to their limits leading to an increase in “burnout.” But even with all of the reasoning, it still does not give customers the right to treat us employees like we´re not human.
Impact on Customers
As much as enforcing rules would have an impact on employees, it would also equally have an impact on customers. Although employees are required to stay professional while being on the clock, some tend to fail and become disrespectful to others–especially toward customers. As said before, the transition during the pandemic has caused a face-to-face interaction decline causing them to indicate impatient, rude, and abrupt behaviors. According to Khan, disrespectful behaviors from employees include bullying, harassment, discrimination, and verbal abuse.
Employees should be held accountable for their actions and behaviors as they can have a major effect on the business. Customers expect a shopping experience with positive customer service but instead, some encounter an employee who has an attitude toward something as simple as not wanting to be to work. Understandably, employees can be stressed out from other issues going on in the workplace or even personal reasons but it still does not make it right for them to take it out on innocent customers who are just seeking assistance. Enforcing conduct rules would remind employees about the expectations that are required to be followed to run a smooth business.
Impacts o Overall Business
The most important reason for enforcing conduct rules is that it has an impact on the overall business environment. A major problem that businesses seem to face is theft. Approximately $94.5 billion was lost nationwide in 2021 due to shoplifting. Having to witness customers ¨attempt¨ to steal just has me thinking, ¨what is the real reason why people do this stuff and what do they get out of it?¨
Researchers conclude that shoplifting is “by far” the most universal and unwholesome form of deviant behavior and with the number of thefts that have happened across the country, businesses become determined to decrease the number. Most businesses took action by locking up expensive items and certain general merchandise items–health and beauty aids or HBA– in cages with buttons to push to get employees’ attention. I believe that this tactic has decreased the theft rate but has encountered other issues—one is that privacy is harder to preserve. Most customers feel uncomfortable having to tell a stranger to grab a personal item (such as hygiene products) because they believe that they feel a sense of judgment coming from the employee. Another issue is that customers have to wait for an employee to open up the cages for them. As a Walmart associate, I feel bad whenever a customer asks me to open one of the cages for them and I can´t because I don´t have a key so I would have to page someone else who has a key, and half of the time we don´t know who has the key because only two or three people have keys to the cages. Customers sometimes have to wait 20-30 minutes for an associate to open the cage–sometimes even longer having the customers irritated. Although some have issues with the locked cages, others have begun to adapt to the strategy to reduce the shoplifting rate.
Conclusion
In conclusion, what I’ve noticed throughout working as a retail associate at Walmart shows the urgent need for companies to address the decline in employee-customer interactions. This decline in kindness and patience among employees and customers not only jeopardizes individual well-being but also undermines the overall work environment.
By holding both employees and customers accountable for their actions and behaviors, businesses can create a more positive and productive atmosphere. From safeguarding employees’ emotional health to enhancing the customer experience and addressing issues like theft, enforcing conduct rules is essential for promoting a culture of respect that benefits everyone involved.
