The Customer Abuse Crisis: Why Every Organisation Must Act Now

The customer abuse crisis has reached epidemic proportions. According to a landmark ILO-Gallup global survey, 23% of employed people worldwide, nearly 750 million workers have experienced violence and harassment at work. 88% of Australian retail employees have been verbally and even physically abused in the last year (Retail Association & SDA Survey, 2024). Customer or client violence now represents 40% of all workplace violence incidents globally (NIOSH, 2025).

We are witnessing what researchers are calling a "pandemic of violence" against frontline workers that crosses every sector boundary, and it demands immediate action.

LEADERSHIP

Leadership is the first line of defence. A leadership driven approach to unacceptable customer conduct is critical when you consider that 80% of retail workers report feeling at high risk from psychosocial hazards, with customer aggression ranking as the second-highest workplace hazard after inadequate staffing.

Leaders have a duty to protect the safety and well-being of their team members. This requires active involvement, clear communication, and consistent support.

Leaders must ensure:

• There are well-defined policies and procedures to safeguard the team

• The team are provided with training and coaching to handle difficult situations

• Every incident of customer aggression is recorded, reported, and followed up with a structured debrief

• They are accessible and prepared to step in when a situation escalates.

Too often, frontline employees are left to manage aggression alone while leaders remain removed from the reality of day-to-day interactions. The research shows this isolation is deadly - 37% of customer service workers are considering leaving their jobs due to aggressive customer behaviour, with 49% of retail workers intending to resign.
Leaders must be skilled in de-escalation techniques, ready to support their teams in real-time, and visible in their commitment to ensuring a safe working environment. A policy without leadership backing is meaningless, and too often, this training is left to the frontline while leaders remain untrained and unprepared.

TEAM MEMBERS 

While every team member has a responsibility to respond professionally to customer interactions, this does not mean tolerating abuse. Managing difficult interactions requires composure, confidence, and skill, but even the most experienced service professionals will struggle when faced with unacceptable customer conduct.

The research validates what I have observed in conversations with thousands of frontline workers: 26% of those experiencing abuse have taken an average of eight days' sick leave as a result. Many employees feel unprepared and unsupported when confronted with aggressive behaviour. Whether working in a hospital, or retail store, providing a service should never come at the cost of personal safety or well-being.

The expectation must be that team members:

• Are aware of the organisation's unacceptable customer conduct policy

• Are able to establish and maintain boundaries

• Understand when and how to escalate a situation

• Trust that their organisation will back them when a line is crossed.

Team members must be equipped with the tools and support they need to handle these situations.

CUSTOMERS

Customers have a right to expect good service, but they do not have the right to abuse, threaten or intimidate employees. Organisations in both the commercial and government sectors have a responsibility to make this expectation clear.

Research from multiple sectors shows that customer abuse is becoming the norm rather than the exception. When things go wrong, customers have every right to express dissatisfaction, but they are responsible for doing so in a way that does not infringe on the rights, safety or well-being of employees.

Service workers across all sectors are not there to absorb aggression or tolerate mistreatment. Organisations must ensure that:

• Customers are made aware of acceptable and unacceptable conduct

• Policies on aggressive behaviour are clearly communicated and enforced across all touchpoints.

THE SECTOR-WIDE SOLUTION

Managing customer behaviour is not solely the duty of the team member, nor is it a problem unique to any single industry. With almost eight out of ten customer-facing workers at high risk of harm from psychosocial hazards, organisations across all sectors need robust and fully socialised policies both internally and externally, supportive leaders, strategies for making customers aware of their conduct responsibilities, clear boundaries and consequences for customers, and confident team members who feel comfortable managing the behaviour they face.

I recently worked with a very proactive client on launching their unacceptable customer conduct policy, starting exactly where it should - with leadership training. Given the success of the training and how beneficial the leaders felt it would be for the team, it was then offered organisation-wide.

After delivery of multiple sessions across the organisation, there is still a waiting list for this training. This demand is not surprising. This training is desperately needed given the escalation of unacceptable customer behaviour. The scale of this crisis is now reaching epidemic proportions across every customer-facing sector and it starts with leadership.

Customer aggression has become a workplace safety crisis that transcends industry boundaries. Whether you are in local government, utilities, retail, leisure, events or any other customer-facing role, the time for comprehensive unacceptable customer conduct policies and training is now.