Journal of Services Marketing

Emerald Article: Problematic customers and turnover intentions of customer

service employees
Amit Poddar, Ramana Madupalli

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To cite this document: Amit Poddar, Ramana Madupalli, (2012),"Problematic customers and turnover intentions of customer service
employees", Journal of Services Marketing, Vol. 26 Iss: 7 pp. 551 - 559
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Problematic customers and turnover intentions
of customer service employees
Amit Poddar
J. Whitney College of Business, Georgia College and State University, Milledgeville, Georgia, USA, and
Ramana Madupalli
Department of Management and Marketing, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, USA

Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of problematic customer behaviors on customer service employee attitudes and
subsequent turnover intentions from the organization and also the occupation.
Design/methodology/approach Data from five semi-structured depth interviews and 215 quantitative surveys using structured questionnaires
were used to develop and test the theoretical model. Customer service employees working in different call center companies serving American
customers were approached using an established survey panel.
Findings Results using the partial least squares (PLS) methodology showed that problematic customer behaviors drain customer service employees
emotionally. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to job satisfaction, and subsequently, employees turnover intentions. The results also show that
turnover intentions with organization and occupation are positively related to each other.
Research limitations/implications As regards implications, this study provides an understanding of the relationship between problematic
customer behaviors and employees turnover intentions. Future researchers can utilize the findings from this study for investigating other consequences
and antecedents of problematic customer behaviors. A limitation of the study is its use of cross-sectional data.
Practical implications This paper provides call center managers with an understanding of the effects of problematic customer behaviors on
employee attitudes. It discusses the need for understanding problematic customers and ways to manage the effects of such experiences.
Originality/value The study investigates an under-researched phenomenon, i.e. problematic customer behaviors. The study provides evidence of the
relationship between problematic customer behaviors and turnover intentions in service employees. This study is also one of very few in marketing to
investigate the relationship between organizational and occupational turnover intentions.

Keywords Problematic customers, Emotional exhaustion, Job satisfaction, Organizational turnover intentions, Occupational turnover intentions,
Employee behaviour, Human resource management

Paper type Research paper

An executive summary for managers and executive
readers can be found at the end of this article.
Introduction
Employee turnover has been one of the most widely
investigated phenomena among academic researchers and
practitioners. In the call center industry, which is the context
of this study, turnover rates are estimated to be in the range of
35 percent to 50 percent every year (Sawyerr et al., 2009).
When competent and well trained employees leave, it is
difficult for organizations to immediately fill those positions
and maintain high organizational performance (Babakus et al.,
1996). Organizations invest significant resources in
replenishing the workforce for effective service delivery and
high turnover rates can directly hurt the bottom lines of
organizations. Also, organizations cannot maintain good
service quality without managing service employees turnover.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0887-6045.htm
Journal of Services Marketing
26/7 (2012) 551 559
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0887-6045]
[DOI 10.1108/08876041211266512]
In recent years, many firms have created global service
delivery models in an attempt to improve service quality and
reduce service costs. Generally firms outsource the service
component of the product to dedicated call centers in
developing countries where high quality manpower is
available at cheaper costs (Budhwar et al., 2009). If call
center organizations are unable to curb such high turnover
rates, the delivery of high quality service and subsequently the
cost advantage of such organizations could be in jeopardy
(e.g. Hurley and Estelami, 2007).
The high turnover rates among customer service employees
(CSE) in call centers are often attributed to the stressful
nature of the work (Sawyerr et al. 2009). As part of the
customer service job, CSEs engage with different types of
customers every day. Some of these customers can be
characterized as problematic (Grandey et al. 2004), who
might be rude and difficult to handle. Anecdotal evidence
from interviewing CSEs suggests that these consumers
sometimes abuse and make unreasonable demands from the
CSEs. Research in marketing emphasizes customer rage as an
issue that is becoming increasingly prevalent in marketing
environments and especially in service settings (Grove et al.
2004; McColl-Kennedy et al. 2009; Patterson et al. 2009).
According to Patterson et al. (2009) around 25 percent of
American workers reported psychological or physical
aggression from customers. It is estimated that about 20
percent of all call center interactions are hostile (Grandey et al.

551
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
2004). Also, many times customers are not only wrong in
their behaviors but are indeed unjust, taking advantage of the
customer is always right notion by making unreasonable
demands in their interactions with service employees (Berry
and Seiders, 2008). Such customers make the CSEs work
more stressful. In view of this, it is surprising to note that not
many researchers have considered problematic customer
behaviors as an important source of CSEs emotional
exhaustion. This is the primary objective of the present
research. This research extends the literature by considering
problematic customer behaviors, namely abusive and
unreasonably demanding behaviors, as determinants of
CSEs emotional exhaustion and subsequently higher
intentions to switch organizations/jobs.
The second objective of this study is to extend our current
understanding about employee turnover. Although the higher
turnover rates among call center CSEs are well documented
in the literature, the answer to the following question is not
answered. Do these CSEs switch from organization to
organization or do they leave the entire occupation?
Occupational turnover is relatively less researched by
marketing authors. Most research focusing on turnover
looks from the organizational perspective, but the
occupational turnover is rather scarcely studied. When
employees are so disgruntled by the job, it is possible that
they might even think of leaving the entire occupation. Our
interviews suggest that not only are CSRs switching the
organizations, but also are constantly thinking about leaving
the occupation too. This kind of turnover is obviously bad for
firms as they have to constantly find and train new employees
who may not be up to par with existing experienced
employees. This constant churn can harm the service levels
offered by firms and thereby lower overall customer
satisfaction. It could even prevent new employees from
being attracted to the industry in the first place, thereby
increasing the cost of hiring. Hence as a second objective, this
study investigates the determinants of occupational turnover
of CSE, mainly the role of problematic customer behaviors on
occupational turnover intentions.
This paper is an attempt to understand this aspect of
turnover in a service environment context. We try and
understand what is driving CSE turnover intentions and the
role that problematic customer behaviors are playing in this.
To our knowledge it is the first paper to look at problematic
customer behaviors and CSEs turnover intentions. Figure 1
presents the proposed theoretical model. The next section
presents the theoretical foundation of the constructs and the
hypotheses. Later methods used to test the model and results
are detailed. Finally the results are discussed in detail with
implications to researchers and practitioners.
Theoretical background
Problematic customer behaviors
Problematic behaviors of customers are considered as the
primary source of dissatisfaction of fellow customers
(Lovelock, 1994). Harris and Reynolds (2003), in their
qualitative investigation on problematic behaviors, used the
term dysfunctional customer behavior, and stated that
problematic behaviors can be classified as all the actions of
customers that disrupt a functional service encounter.
Problematic behaviors of customers are suggested to be
context specific, varying from context to context (Bitner et al.
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Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559
1994). Hence it is safe to infer that problematic behaviors are
different for different industry or interaction contexts.
Research in marketing, although scarcely, has investigated
problematic customer behaviors under different labels in
different industry contexts (Harris and Reynolds, 2003):
deviant customer behavior (Mills and Bonoma, 1979),
aberrant consumer behavior (Fullerton and Punj, 1993;
Babin and Babin, 1996), problem customers (Bitner et al.
1994), inappropriate customers (Strutton et al. 1994),
consumer misbehavior (Fullerton, and Punj, 1997, 2004),
cynical consumers (Helm, 2006) and jay customers
(Lovelock, 1994, 2001).
The reasons for customers being angry or unhappy could be
their dissatisfaction with products or services, or could be that
they are just problematic people using different types of rage
expressions. Patterson et al. (2009) reported that customer
rage has evolved over time due to inadequate handling of
customer complaints and customers assessment of threats to
their basic needs, such as self-esteem and fairness. These rage
expressions could be any or all of the following: physical,
verbal, non-verbal, displaced or at best constructive
expressions (McColl-Kennedy et al. 2009). In this paper, we
primarily consider verbal rage expressions as they are most
relevant to customer service episodes in the call center
industry. So, in this paper we consider two types of behaviors
under the broad title of problematic customer behaviors
abusive behavior and unreasonably demanding behavior.
Abusive behavior includes aspects such as using abusive
language, accusing employees for wrong doing and blaming.
Whereas, unreasonably demanding behavior includes
indulging in demands of transferring to supervisor for no
reason, asking for special discounts multiple times and asking
the CSE to do things against the company policies. In order to
accurately define and measure these behaviors, we used
qualitative interviews with CSEs and subsequently developed
formative measurement scales for empirical testing.
Problematic customer behaviors and emotional
exhaustion
Emotional exhaustion is a state caused by psychological and
emotional demands made on people (Bacharach et al., 1991,
p. 44). It is a specific stress related reaction and refers to a
state of reduced energy caused by extreme emotional
demands made on employees in boundary spanner roles
(Maslach and Jackson, 1982). Emotional exhaustion occurs
when employees face higher levels of demand on time and
energy (Boles et al., 1997). Burnout and mainly emotional
exhaustion has been widely established as an outcome of
customer service personnels boundary spanning nature of the
job (Singh et al., 1994). Research suggests that interactions
with customers require CSEs to manage their emotions
during service encounters (Leidner, 1999). This process of
emotion management, when it happens at regular intervals
gives rise to emotional exhaustion.
In marketing, the existence of emotional exhaustion in front
line employees is attributed to having more customer contacts
than other employees (Etzion, 1984; Singh et al., 1994; Boles
et al., 1997). When CSEs experience aggressive and abusive
customers, their emotional strength will be negatively affected
and hence results in increased levels of emotional exhaustion
(Dallimore et al., 2007). So, it is safe to assume that in service
interactions, especially when customers are problematic,
CSEs need more time and energy to perform efficiently and
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
Figure 1 Conceptual model
hence will be more emotionally exhausted. Hence, we
hypothesize that:
H1. Encounters with abusive customers has a positive
relationship with emotional exhaustion levels of
customer service employees.
H2. Encounters with unreasonably demanding customers
has a positive relationship with emotional exhaustion
levels of customer service employees.
Emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction
The outcomes of higher exhaustion levels are often considered
detrimental to the health of the employees and the
organization. Emotional exhaustion is often attributed with
decreased employee performance (Babakus et al., 1999;
Wright and Bonett, 1997; Cropanzano et al., 2003; Ashill et al.
2009), lower levels of job satisfaction (Lee and Ashforth,
1996; Babakus et al. 1999; Maslach and Jackson, 1982; Singh
et al. 1994; Rutherford et al., 2009), reduced organizational
commitment (Rutherford et al. 2009; Babakus et al. 1999;
Cropanzano et al. 2003) and higher turnover intentions
(Maslach and Jackson, 1982; Singh et al. 1994; Boles et al.
1997; Rutherford et al. 2009).
Job satisfaction is an important measure of employee
attitudes, which explains other organizational variables such
as organizational commitment and turnover intentions. Thus,
in this paper we consider job satisfaction as a full mediator
between emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions
(Babakus et al. 1999). Job satisfaction is an attitude
reflecting how well people like or dislike their job (Spector,
1985). It is defined as a pleasurable or positive emotional
state resulting from the appraisal of ones job or job
experiences (Locke, 1976 p. 1300). When CSEs are
emotionally exhausted, they might feel a sense of frustration
or lack of interest in the job (Babakus et al. 1999, Mulki et al.
2006). This frustration will reflect on their attitude towards
the job, hence dissatisfaction with their job. Hence:
H3. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to job
satisfaction.
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Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559
Job satisfaction and turnover intentions
Turnover intentions or intention to leave, involves an
individuals intention to leave an organization or occupation.
It is commonly modeled as an ultimate outcome variable in
marketing and organization behavior literature (Brashear et al.,
2003). Turnover intentions are a negative outcome to an
organization that may be affected by different job related
variables (Babakus et al. 1999). In marketing literature, the
negative effects of employee job satisfaction on organizational
turnover intentions are unequivocally established, both
theoretically and empirically (Netemeyer et al. 1990; Boles
et al. 1997; Babakus et al. 1999). Although some researchers
suggested a mediating relationship between job satisfaction
and turnover intentions through organizational commitment,
the direct relationship is also well supported in the existing
literature (e.g. Johnston et al., 1990; Babakus et al., 1996;
Boles et al., 1997; Budhwar et al. 2009). Hence we offer the
following confirmatory hypothesis:
H4a. Job satisfaction is negatively related to organizational
turnover intentions.
The turnover intentions research in marketing focuses mainly
on organizational turnover intentions. But when CSEs are
dissatisfied with their job and are associated with excessive
levels of emotional exhaustion, they might not just leave the
organization, but they might even leave the entire occupation.
In this case, the call center based service occupation.
Occupational turnover intentions unlike organizational
turnover intentions are generally less frequent due to
obstacles such as higher accumulated costs within an
occupation, and loss of income (Blau et al., 2003).
Although both types of turnover intentions are highly
correlated to each other, they are two distinct constructs
(Blau, 2000; Blau et al. 2003).
Rhodes and Doerings (1983) work is one of the first to
model occupational turnover intentions as ultimate outcome
of job satisfaction and other job related variables. The
relationship between job satisfaction and occupational
turnover intentions is established in organizational behavior
literature. In medical professionals (Blau, 2000),
intercollegiate coaches (Sagas and Ashley, 2001), criminal
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
justice staff (Wright and Bonett, 1991) and school teachers
(Ladebo, 2005), job satisfaction is found to negatively affect
occupational turnover intentions (Blau, 2000). Similarly, in
customer service occupation, where job satisfaction is a
significant outcome of emotional exhaustion, might lead to
turnover intentions from the occupation. Hence:
H4b. Job satisfaction in negatively related to occupational
turnover intentions.
Evidence from organizational behavior literature, suggests
that organizational and occupational turnover intentions are
highly correlated to each other. But there is no consensus on
the direction of the relationship. While some researchers
hypothesized a bi-directional relationship between
organizational and occupational turnover intentions (e.g.
Randall and Cote, 1991; Morrow, 1993), others modeled
them as two unrelated dependent variables (Blau et al. 2003;
Carmeli, 2005; Blau, 2007). The inconsistencies are largely
because of the complexity of the relationship between the two
types of turnover intentions.
It is noted in the literature that occupational turnover
intention is much more difficult decision than organizational
turnover intention (Blau, 2000). It is easier to look for a job in
a different organization than to develop a completely new
career (Carmeli, 2005). In the context of CSEs, the
occupation is extremely stressful due to its boundary
spanning nature and the need for constant contact with
customers (Singh et al., 1994). When a job is associated with
significant emotional exhaustion, changing organizations may
be viewed as moving from one bad environment to another. In
such cases, CSEs may consider moving the occupations
altogether as the ultimate cure to emotional exhaustion and
job dissatisfaction (Doering and Rhodes, 1989; Blau, 2007).
Hence:
H5. Organizational turnover intention is positively related
to occupational turnover intention.
Methodology and findings
The data for this study comes from surveying 215 CSEs
working in different call centers in India mainly serving
American customers. The data set was collected as part of a
larger study to understand the issue of service imports and its
impact on CSEs. The services of a survey panel company
were utilized to collect the data. The companys reputation
and panel formation standards were checked before finalizing
the panel company. The panel company was provided with a
defined sample frame, call center based CSEs, by the
researchers. The panel company then randomly selected the
1,000 call center professionals to receive the survey. These
1,000 recipients of the survey are part of a large pool of
discontinuous panel members. Three follow up e-mails were
sent at one week intervals. After one month a total of 265
completed surveys were obtained. Care was taken to delete all
surveys which were completed in less than 6 minutes or more
than 20 minutes. Also the IP addresses were checked to
eliminate any responses coming from the same home IP
address. The final acceptance rate is 21.5 percent.
Survey items for four of the six constructs present in the
model were adapted from well-established and
psychometrically valid scales. The scale for emotional
exhaustion (five items) was adapted from Singh et al.
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Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559
(1994). The scale for job satisfaction (four items) was an
adapted version from Churchill et al. (1974). The scales for
measuring both organizational and occupational turnover
intentions were adapted from an established scale on turnover
intentions by Ganesan and Weitz (1996). Formative
indicators were used to measure the other two constructs
namely customer abuse and unreasonable customer demands.
We interviewed five CSEs (each of whom had a minimum of
five years work experience at in the customer service
industry) to understand the issues faced by CSEs. Their
responses were used to generate formative scales for abusive
and unreasonably demanding customer behaviors. All the
constructs, both reflective and formative are measured using
seven-point likert scales ranging from strongly disagree (1) to
strongly agree (7).
The scales were considered valid as they met the criteria
suggested by Nunnally (1978). All the reflective scales were
adaptations from established and psychometrically valid scales
and therefore met the content validity criteria. The remaining
two formative scales were considered valid as they were
generated by interviewing customer service employees who
had multiple years of experience between them and sharing
the scale items back with them.
Once the data was collected we checked further for
reliability and discriminant validity of the constructs before
final usage in the structural model as suggested by Nunnally
(1978) and Fornell and Larcker (1981). The reliability of the
constructs that used reflective measures was checked using
both Cronbachs alpha and composite reliability (CR). All the
constructs passed the reliability test (Cronbachs alpha greater
than 0.70 and CR values greater than 0.80). The complete
scale constructs along with the reliability statistics and
loadings are provided in Table I.
After the data was collected, discriminant analysis was
conducted on the data to ensure that all the constructs were
distinct from each other and items of each construct loaded
exclusively on the underlying construct (Fornell and Larcker,
1981). We did not find any items which were cross loading,
therefore all items were included while conducting the test
suggested for discriminant validity. According to Fornell and
Larcker (1981) discriminant validity exists if the square root
of the average variance extracted (AVE) of a particular
construct is greater than the correlation between that
construct and all other constructs. All the constructs passed
the test (Table II). We were able to use all the original items in
the structural model.
Model tests and results
We tested the structural model by using partial least square
based structural equation modeling (SEM). Covariance based
SEM (LISREL) was not used as LISREL cannot easily
estimate models which have both reflective constructs and
formative constructs in the same model. PLS-SEM on the
other hand can estimate such models very easily. Since our
model contained two formative constructs and four reflective
constructs we felt that PLS was the appropriate technique for
our purpose. We used Smartpls (Ringle et al., 2005) to
estimate our model.
The complete results are summarized in Table III. We find
strong support for all our hypotheses. In H1 and H2 we had
hypothesized that higher levels of problematic customer
behaviors, abusive and unreasonably demanding behaviors,
would likely lead to higher emotional exhaustion in CSEs. We
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs Journal of Services Marketing
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559

Table I Final scale items and measurement properties

Constructs and scale items Weights Alpha CR
Abusive customer behavior (formative measure) NA NA
Some of my customers use abusive language with me 0.72
Some of my customers become abusive when they find that I have an accent 0.66
Some of my customers treat me badly when they learn that I am not based in their home country 0.58
Some of my customers refuse to talk to me when they learn that I am based in a developing country 0.71
Some of the customers blame me rather than the company policies when I am unable to resolve their problems 0.74
Some customers accuse me of stealing their jobs 0.67
Some customers disconnect calls when they hear that the call is being answered from a developing country 0.69
Some customers on hearing that we are based in a developing country demand that we transfer the call to their
home country 0.85
Unreasonaly demanding customer behavior (formative measure) NA NA
Some of my customers demand that I do something for them even when I am not allowed to do so 0.67
Some of my customers demand to talk to my supervisor, even when I explain that I am the person who can solve
their problem 0.82
Some of my customers ask me to give them a special deal, even when I explain that they are not eligible for it 0.84
Some of my customers have unreasonable requests like discounts and freebies 0.53
Some customers want me to offer a better product or service even when they want to pay the lowest price possible 0.56
Some customers keep on making outrageous demands that are not allowed by the terms of their contract 0.77
Emotional exhaustion (reflective measure) 0.90 0.93
Working with customers directly puts too much stress on me 0.80
I feel emotionally drained by the pressure my work puts on me 0.89
I feel frustrated because of working directly with customers 0.86
I feel I work too hard trying to satisfy customers 0.85
I feel burned out from trying to meet top managements expectations 0.83
Job satisfaction (reflective measure) 0.89 0.93
My job gives me a sense of accomplishment 0.77
My job is exciting 0.91
My job is satisfying 0.91
I am really doing something worthwhile in my job 0.90
Organizational turnover intentions (reflective measure) 0.87 0.90
I do not think I will spend all my career with this company 0.76
I intend to leave this company within a short period of time 0.93
I have decided to quit this company 0.92
I am looking at some other jobs now, in the same field 0.59
If I do not get promoted soon, I will look for a job in a different company 0.82
Notes: CR: Composite reliability; Alpha: Cronbach alpha

Table II Discriminant validity: average variance extracted and construct correlations

1 2 3 4 5 6
Abusive customer behavior (1) NA
Unreasonably demanding customer behavior (2) 0.59 NA
Emotional exhaustion (3) 0.33 0.28 0.85
Job satisfaction (4) 2 0.04 20.11 20.23 0.87
Occupational turnover intention (5) 0.05 0.16 0.04 2 0.29 0.82
Organizational turnover intention (6) 0.11 0.11 0.23 2 0.49 0.31 0.81
Notes: Square root (AVE) on the diagonal and construct correlations below the diagonal; AVE of formative indicators is not applicable

find strong support for both hypothesis (H1: b 0:273, also the abuse that they absorb from customers. In H3 we had
t 3:664, sig , 0:05; H2: b 0:183, t 2:100, sig , 0:05). hypothesized about the impact emotional exhaustion would
The strong results suggest that CSEs emotional exhaustion is be having on CSEs job satisfaction. We had hypothesized a
a function of the unreasonable demands put by customer and negative relationship between the constructs and we find

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 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
Table III Summary of results final structural model
Hypothesis
H1: Abusive customer behavior ! Emotional exhaustion
H2: Unreasonably demanding customer behavior ! Emotional exhaustion
H3: Emotional exhaustion ! Job satisfaction
H4a: Job satisfaction ! Organizational turnover intention
H4b: Job satisfaction ! Occupational turnover intention
H5: Organizational turnover intention ! Occupational turnover intention
strong support for such a relationship (H3: b 20:228.
t 3:3045, sig , 0:05). Therefore when CSEs are
emotionally exhausted, the overall job satisfaction will be
decreased.
The next two hypothesis (H4a and H4b) were about the
impact of such reduced job satisfaction would have on
turnover intentions from the organization and the occupation.
We had again hypothesized negative relationships for both the
hypothesis. We find strong support for both hypotheses (H4a:
b 20:200, t 2:472, sig , 0:05 and H4b: b 20:493,
t 9:051, sig , 0:05). A very interesting finding is the high t
value for H4b. It seems when customer service employees are
dissatisfied with their jobs due to abuse, they are apt to show
stronger feelings of turnover intentions from the occupation
as compared to just the organization. It seems that when
CSEs face abusive customers they are likely to want to quit
working in customer service altogether. In the last hypothesis
we had hypothesized that higher turnover intentions with the
firm would be positively related to higher turnover intentions
with the occupation. We find strong support for the findings
(H5: b 0:209, t 2:721, sig , 0:05)
Discussion and implications
The research was aimed at understanding turnover intentions
of CSEs who deal with customers all the time. Specifically we
wanted to understand the antecedents of such intentions. In
our model we had hypothesized that when CSEs experience
abusive and unreasonably demanding behaviors from
customers, they get emotionally drained and thus leading to
reduced levels of job satisfaction and can cause CSEs to
contemplate leaving the organization or even leaving the
occupation forever. We found that all our hypothesized
relationships found strong support. The results from this
study provide significant managerial and theoretical
contributions to existing body of knowledge.
Theoretical implications
This research extends the existing turnover research by
investigating the effects of problematic customer behaviors.
As mentioned earlier, this is one of the first studies to
investigate this phenomenon, and results show that such
problematic customer behaviors are prevalent in real life and
are a significant contributor to variety of job related issues.
Emotional exhaustion is an integral construct in different
conceptual models involving customer service employees.
Results from this paper indicate problematic customer
behaviors have significant effects on emotional exhaustion.
Although, the paper did not consider any moderating effects
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Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559
Original Sample Standard Standard
sample mean deviation error t-stat
(O) (M) (STDEV) (STERR) (|O/STERR|)
0.24 0.27 0.07 0.07 3.66
0.14 0.18 0.07 0.07 2.10
2 0.23 2 0.23 0.07 0.07 3.30
2 0.18 2 0.20 0.07 0.07 2.47
2 0.49 2 0.49 0.05 0.05 9.05
0.22 0.21 0.08 0.08 2.72
of other variables such as customer service training,
demographic variables and emotional intelligence, such
influences cannot be ignored. Extending this research using
these variables as moderators would be a good research
avenue for future researchers. Results and theoretical
construction of this paper indicates that future researchers
should also consider problematic customer interactions in
more detail. For example researchers can investigate different
antecedents of problematic customer interactions. This can
help us understand the reasons behind such bad behaviors.
While some researchers had investigated problematic
customer behaviors and emotional exhaustion (e.g. Grandey
et al. 2004), none have looked at turnover intentions as part of
their model. Turnover has been one of the most widely
studied construct in employee behavior in business to
business research. This research contributes to turnover
research by incorporating the relationship between turnover
intentions from organization and occupation. Employee
turnover has been an important ultimate outcome variable
of many research models involving marketing employees. To
the best of our knowledge this is one of fewest papers in
marketing to look at turnover intentions from both
organization and occupation perspectives. Since most
employee attitude models rely on occupation specific
contexts, the limited emphasis on occupational variables
such as occupational commitment and occupation turnover
leaves a gap in our understanding of the phenomenon. This
again is a very good future avenue of research.
Managerial implications
To practitioners, this research re-emphasizes the importance
and prevalence of problematic customers. Existence of
problematic customers is well known to both call center
managers and academicians alike. The results from this
research provide empirical evidence for the existence of these
problematic customer behaviors and their effects on the
emotional well-being of the customer service employees.
Because of the boundary spanner role of customer service
employees, the job by itself has been considered stressful
(Singh et al. 1994). The results provide further evidence to
practitioners of the extent of the stress and also examine one
set of reasons behind the stress. It is well documented in
literature that higher levels of emotional exhaustion are key
antecedents to low employee performance and other outcome
variables. Call center managers must use this information and
find avenues to reduce the effects of problematic customer
interactions. Some examples of these avenues could include
customer service training, emotional intelligence tests during
recruitment and more employee centric policies.
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
High turnover rates have become a norm in call center
industry with as high as 50 percent turnover rates per year
(Sawyerr et al. 2009). Training new employees demand
significant resources from an organization. So, retaining good
employees is very important to these organizations and the
results from this study indicates that call center companies
must invest in setting proper and just policies about dealing
with problematic customers and hence reducing the
emotional exhaustion in employees. It is possible that having
policies which insist that customers are always right might be
leading to CSEs feeling alienated in the organization and thus
fueling their desire to leave the organization. So, organizations
must find optimal middle ground between being customer
centric and employee centric.
Also, the findings related to occupational turnover
intentions are extremely useful to practitioners. Training
new employees with some call center experience might be
relatively cheaper than training people from completely
different backgrounds. If occupational turnover increases,
call center based service providers will fall short of
experienced professionals and the whole industry might be
affected in the future. If this trend of occupational turnover
intentions continues for a long period of time it can end up
eroding the whole value proposition of these offshore service
providers i.e. high quality services at low cost.
Limitations
Although this research provides significant contributions to
both practitioners and managers alike, it does have some
inherent limitations. The first limitation is the nature of the
data cross-sectional. Because of cross-sectional nature of
the data, research could not determine the real long-term
effects of problematic customer interactions. Second
limitation is the unavailability of some explanatory
moderator variables such as training, and emotional
intelligence. The moderator variables could have explained
the model with more precision. As discussed in the
implications section of the paper, the limitations of this
paper provide important future avenues for researchers in
furthering the knowledge on CSEs and their attitudes.
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About the authors
Dr Amit Poddar (PhD, Georgia State University) is an
Associate Professor of Marketing at the J. Whitney College of
Business, Georgia College and State University. His research
has been published in number of journals, such as Journal of
Business Research, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing,
Journal of Consumer Affairs, Journal of Promotion Management,
and more.
Dr Ramana Madupalli (PhD, Georgia State University) is an
Assistant Professor of Marketing and the Director of Master of
Marketing Research program at the Southern Illinois
University Edwardsville. His research has been published in
number of journals, such as Journal of Business Research,
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Social Science
Quarterly, and more. Ramana Madupalli is the corresponding
author and can be contacted at: rmadupa@siue.edu
 Problematic customers and turnover intentions of CSEs
Amit Poddar and Ramana Madupalli
Executive summary and implications for
managers and executives
This summary has been provided to allow managers and executives
a rapid appreciation of the content of this article. Those with a
particular interest in the topic covered may then read the article in
toto to take advantage of the more comprehensive description of the
research undertaken and its results to get the full benefits of the
material present.
Quite who, and when, first came up with the slogan The
customer is always right is subject to some disagreement but
whoever used it first, and the many who have used it since, are
simply trying to make the customer feel valued. And surely
that is a good goal for any organization. Well, maybe not.
There are some pretty awful customers out there and if an
organization persists in requiring employees to grin and bear
it so to speak, without adequate support, the employee is
likely to leave.
Take call-centers, for example, where turnover rates are
estimated to be in the range of 35 percent to 50 percent every
year. These high rates among customer service employees
(CSEs) in call centers are often attributed to the stressful
nature of the work which involves engaging with different
types of customers every day. Some of those customers are
characterized as problematic and customer rage is an
issue which is becoming increasingly prevalent. Unreasonable
demands, hostility and abuse is often the lot of the employee
as the customer considers the customer is always right
decree gives him or her carte blanche for such unsocial
behavior. In fact some estimates reckon about 20 percent of
all call center interactions are hostile. Is it any wonder there is
such a large number deciding to leave?
Having policies which insist that customers are always right
might result in CSEs feeling alienated in the organization and
fueling their desire to leave. Consequently organizations must
find optimal middle ground between being customer centric
and employee centric.
When competent and well-trained employees leave, it is
difficult for firms to immediately fill those positions and
maintain high organizational performance. Companies invest
significant resources in replenishing the workforce for effective
service delivery and high turnover rates can directly hurt their
bottom line. Also, organizations cannot maintain good service
quality without managing service employees turnover.
In recent years, many firms have created global service
delivery models in an attempt to improve service quality and
reduce costs. Generally firms outsource the service
component of the product to dedicated call centers in
developing countries where high-quality manpower is
available at cheaper costs. If call center organizations are
unable to curb such high turnover rates, the delivery of high-
quality service and subsequently the cost advantage could be
in jeopardy.
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559
Journal of Services Marketing
Volume 26 Number 7 2012 551 559
The reasons for customers being angry or unhappy could be
their dissatisfaction with products or services, or that they are
just problematic people who do not consider the
employees feelings. Also, it has been reported that
customer rage has evolved over time due to inadequate
handling of customer complaints and customers assessment
of threats to their basic needs, such as self-esteem and
fairness.
The primary objective of Amit Poddar and Ramana
Madupallin in Problematic customers and turnover
intentions of customer service employees is to consider
problematic customer behaviors as an important source of
CSEs emotional exhaustion. They focus on abusive and
unreasonably demanding behaviors as determinants of CSEs
emotional exhaustion and subsequent higher intentions to
leave.
Their interviews suggest that not only are CSEs switching
organizations, but also constantly thinking about quitting the
occupation altogether. This kind of turnover is obviously bad
for firms as they have to constantly find and train new
employees who may not be up to par with existing
experienced employees. This constant churn can harm the
service levels offered and thereby lower overall customer
satisfaction. It could even prevent new employees from being
attracted to the industry in the first place, thereby increasing
the cost of hiring.
Because of the boundary-spanner role of CSEs, the job
itself is stressful. The study results provide further evidence of
the extent of the stress. It is well documented in literature that
higher levels of emotional exhaustion are key antecedents to
low employee performance and other outcome variables. Call
center managers must use this information and find avenues
to reduce the effects of problematic customer interactions.
Some examples of these avenues could include customer
service training, emotional intelligence tests during
recruitment and more employee centric policies.
Training new employees demands significant resources so
retaining good employees is very important and call center
companies must invest in setting proper and just policies for
dealing with problematic customers.
Training new employees with some call center experience
might be relatively cheaper than training people from
completely different backgrounds. If occupational turnover
increases, call center based service providers will fall short of
experienced professionals and the whole industry might be
affected. If this trend of occupational turnover intentions
continues for a long period of time it can end up eroding the
whole value proposition of these offshore service providers
i.e. high quality services at low cost.
(A precis of the article Problematic customers and turnover
intentions of customer service employees. Supplied by Marketing
Consultants for Emerald.)