The U.S. economy finally shows signs of a strong recovery from the pandemic. Nevertheless, the surging delta variant cases, inflation, and the global supply chain disruption, among other concerns, add considerable uncertainty to the economic outlook. Notably, the hospitality and tourism industry is unlikely to recover any time soon. On the one hand, there is no real sense of recovery until people are traveling for business again. Yet, more companies have postponed the return-to-office plan and let employees continue working from home . On the other hand, the industry is facing an extreme labor shortage that slows down its recovery. A restaurant shut down after the entire staff quit Last week, a burrito chain restaurant in Georgia was forced to shut down because its entire staff quit. The staff put a sign in the front of the restaurant, saying that they had worked seven days a week for a month. They barely had any time off. Eventually, they quit due to being underpaid and a lac
Want your employees to voice suggestions when customers treat them poorly? The double-edged effects of felt trust
"The customer is not always right , but your job is never to show them how they're wrong. Your job is to be professional, courteous, accommodating … even (and especially) under stress." — Steve Dorfman, Driven to Excel When consumers know they are always right, they may breed a sense of superiority or entitlement, expecting the frontline employees to comply with any customer behaviors. A report shows that 98% of service employees had experienced unpleasant customer behaviors; over 50% of employees encountered rude customers at least once a week. In a more recent case , a female customer pulled out a gun and fired shots at Burger King because she felt it took too long to receive the order. In organizational research, consumers' unpleasant behaviors toward the service staff are often referred to as either consumer incivility or consumer mistreatment. Current literature has identified customer mistreatment's negative effects on employees' psychological st