Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on service quality and value co-creation and co-destruction by unpacking the phenomenon described as “difficult customers”, which has many associated costs for service organizations. The paper examines how frontline service employees make sense of and react to client behaviors that disrupt service processes.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a qualitative study with 128 frontline workers, who were interviewed about their perceptions, explanations and reactions to problem-related customers, using a sensemaking perspective.

Findings

Content analysis revealed 17 themes related to workers' perceptions, explanations and reactions to problem-related customers. Workers classify behaviors of problem-related customers in terms exceeding the single notion of intentionality that dominates the literature, instead referring to the degree of both controllability and malevolence of customers. Service workers choose a wide range of behavioral reactions that have not been studied before.

Research limitations/implications

A convenience sample, although large, limits generalizability. Suggestions for future quantitative research are proposed.

Practical implications

Based on the findings, the authors suggest specific directions related to managerial policy and organizational practices related to training and employee empowerment and service recovery routines.

Originality/value

The study introduces a new theoretical notion of “problem-related customers”, set within a value co-creation context. It presents findings that enable deeper understanding of the emotional and behavioral reactions of frontline workers to service disruptions and offers multiple scholarly contributions, new research directions and managerial insights that can help to improve service recovery and service quality

中文翻译：

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服务人员与“难缠客户”：一线的质量挑战

目的

本文的目的是通过解开被描述为“困难客户”的现象，为服务质量和价值共创和共毁的文献做出贡献，这对服务组织来说有许多相关成本。该论文研究了一线服务员工如何理解扰乱服务流程的客户行为并做出反应。

设计/方法/方法

这是一项定性研究，涉及 128 名一线员工，他们使用意义建构的视角就他们对与问题相关的客户的看法、解释和反应进行了采访。

发现

内容分析揭示了与工人对问题相关客户的看法、解释和反应有关的 17 个主题。工作人员根据超出文献中占主导地位的单一意图概念的术语对与问题相关的客户的行为进行分类，而是指客户的可控性和恶意程度。服务人员会选择以前没有研究过的广泛的行为反应。

研究限制/影响

一个方便的样本虽然很大，但限制了普遍性。提出了对未来定量研究的建议。

实际影响

根据调查结果，作者提出了与培训、员工授权和服务恢复程序相关的管理政策和组织实践相关的具体方向。

原创性/价值

该研究引入了“与问题相关的客户”的新理论概念，设置在价值共创背景下。它提出的发现有助于更深入地了解一线员工对服务中断的情绪和行为反应，并提供多项学术贡献、新的研究方向和管理见解，有助于提高服务恢复和服务质量