11:32a.m. 3 September 2007

If you have been spat on, yelled at or threatened while at work, then chances are you have faced a disgruntled customer.

According to Queensland University of Technology PhD researcher Dominique Keeffe, consumer misbehaviour is fast becoming the norm rather than the exception with customers regularly taking out their frustrations on service employees.

As part of her research to understand what motivates consumers to misbehave, Ms Keeffe is looking for people across Australia who work in the health care and financial service industries to take part in the study.

"The first part of my study looks at consumer misbehaviour from an organisation's perspective," she said.

"I have targeted two very specific industries, the health care industry and financial services industry, and I want to speak with staff in both of these industries about their experiences in dealing with disgruntled customers."

The health care industry takes in doctors, nurses, emergency departments and allied health care workers, while the financial services industry includes banks, financial planners, mortgage brokers and insurance companies.

"Both of these industries have high service levels and require staff to have expert knowledge," she said.

Ms Keeffe, who has already started interviewing service employees, said physical and verbal abuse was, so far, the most prevalent form of retaliation by a customer.

"This is probably because it is easy for someone to lose their temper and lash out verbally," she said.

But Ms Keeffe said there were many examples where a customer's rage had gone beyond an angry rant.

"I have been told by service employees that they have had keys thrown at them, they have been spat on and they have even had death threats," she said.

"One person was confronted with a customer who thrust a non-functioning gun in their face and told they were 'lucky this time'."

Ms Keeffe said the study would initially investigate how an organisation and their staff handled this type of behaviour and also look at what type of impact it was having on staff and the company.

"After focusing on staff experiences with consumer misbehaviour, I will be talking with the consumer to find out what they have done and why.

"I hope my research will present a clearer understanding of what drives consumer misbehaviour so that organisations can be aware of the potential warning signs and take action to prevent it from happening."

If you work in the health care or financial services industries and want to take part in the study email Dominique Keeffe on d.keeffe@qut.edu.au.

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