{"id":329411,"date":"2021-07-20T15:15:17","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T19:15:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/?p=329411"},"modified":"2023-11-08T20:02:28","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T01:02:28","slug":"harvard-business-professor-analyzes-bad-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2021\/07\/harvard-business-professor-analyzes-bad-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Why all the abuse of servers, flight staffs, sales clerks as COVID rules ease?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t
\"Illustration

Customer rage has been an unwelcome feature of post-lockdown life.<\/p>

Oivind Hovland\/Ikon Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t

\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWork & Economy\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t

\n\t\tWhy all the abuse of servers, flight staffs, sales clerks as COVID rules ease?\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t

\n\t\t\tBusinesses need to communicate more with customers and empower workers, expert says\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\t\t

Just months ago, many people were longing to go out to dinner and travel once again or worrying whether a favorite caf\u00e9 or local shopkeeper would be able to survive an entire year of COVID business restrictions.<\/p>\n

Now, news stories<\/a> about angry customers behaving badly over minor inconveniences \u2014 diners berating wait staff over slow service or menu shortages, shoppers upset over hard-to-find items, and airline passengers refusing to comply with flight attendant directives about safety protocols \u2014 have become a near-daily occurrence. The Federal Aviation Administration has more than 3,400 unruly passenger reports<\/a> on file so far for 2021, sparking 555 investigations; by comparison, just 146 investigations were initiated in all of 2019. And a recent poll<\/a> of food service workers found 39 percent were quitting over concerns about hostility or harassment from customers, and 80 percent had either witnessed or experienced such behavior over COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n

Besides the extra hardship for workers, these incidents further add to the challenge facing many service industry businesses struggling to return quickly to pre-pandemic capacity and finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n

Harvard Business School<\/a> Professor Ryan W. Buell<\/a>, who studies the dynamics of business-customer relationships, spoke with the Gazette about why more and more customers suddenly seem to be lashing out and what businesses can do to support their workers.<\/p>\n

Q&A<\/h2>\n

Ryan Buell<\/h3>\n

GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Upset customers are not new to those working in the service industry. But the rash of customers shouting at staff, flouting safety policies or local ordinances, even threatening or becoming violent over trivial matters is decidedly new. What do you think is going on?<\/p>\n

BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> I think there are a few things that are going on. One is we have been pent up in our houses, and we\u2019ve been building expectations about what it will be like when we\u2019re finally out. But the reality is that, from an operational perspective and a public health perspective, we\u2019re not totally out. Things have become safer in some ways, but we still have [COVID] variants. And the problem is also unevenly felt around the world, which is leading to different kinds of constraints.<\/p>\n

One is, there are labor constraints that a lot of these service businesses are facing. It\u2019s difficult to motivate talent to apply and bring them in. And then to retain them is harder, too. Lots of service organizations are facing turnover rates that are higher now than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n

Another is just supply-chain challenges. It\u2019s hard to make sandwiches if you don\u2019t have all the ingredients. And they may not have all the ingredients because supply chains aren\u2019t up and running at their peak capacity. It takes a while to spin these things up. So you\u2019ve got customers who have been looking forward to being back out in the world and so their expectations are high, but [the] capacity to deliver on those expectations isn\u2019t quite where it needs to be.<\/p>\n

Another challenge is different organizations have different policies. Do you need to wear a mask? Do you not need to wear a mask? Customers don\u2019t always know what the terms are when they engage with a company. And what that does, it means that when you walk into the door and you thought one thing and the reality is something different, it creates a lot of awkwardness and can lead to a blow-up. Beyond that, masks and the way we engage with the pandemic has become political, and so people are sometimes using their service encounters as a political platform to show what they think should be the state of the world. Even if you\u2019re well-intending, but now you\u2019re in a room where you\u2019re clearly not engaging the way that everybody else is, that can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. I think we see blow-ups coming from that as well.<\/p>\n\r\n

“There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> While businesses are understandably eager to finally get more customers in the door, some have had major hiccups since reopening. Are some expecting customers to be more flexible or understanding than they ought to be? And what can they do proactively to minimize the likelihood that pandemic-related problems, the delays and shortages, will be felt by their customers?<\/p>\n

BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> Some of my research is on something called operational transparency \u2014 what happens when people can see the hidden work that\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them. And what we know is that even in the best of times, people tend to underestimate the effort and expertise and work and care and thoroughness and coordination that goes into serving them. Now, in more challenging times, the gap can be even bigger. And so, anything they can do to provide customers a window into what\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them can help realign their expectations with the gravity of the situation they\u2019re encountering. We also know that it can help them appreciate and value service more. So a huge prescription here \u2014 half of it is transparency. If they\u2019ve got rules and policies, customers need to know that before<\/em> they walk into the store. They need to know that that\u2019s not the discretion of an individual employee, that it\u2019s the rules of the road for the whole organization. Everyone has to follow it; our employees do and every single customer. Companies, in the name of hospitality, don\u2019t want to jam that message down customers\u2019 throats, but it\u2019s critical if they want to set people up to really thrive in the interaction.<\/p>\n

Beyond policies, if there are constraints that they\u2019re dealing with on the labor side or on the supply side, they need people to understand that they\u2019re not holding back on customers. They\u2019re not making them wait intentionally, they\u2019re doing the best they can. And the earlier they can convey and communicate that information, the better off they are.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.<\/p>\n

The other side of this is what businesses do for their employees. These days, these are, in many cases, new employees. At best, they\u2019ve been retained through the pandemic and they understand, but their training needs to be updated. At worst, they\u2019re brand-new and don\u2019t know and are still coming up to speed. Whatever transparency they need to provide the customers about policies and constraints, they need to doubly communicate that to employees so that everybody understands and everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n\r\n

\n
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t

Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p>

Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t
\"Ryan<\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/figure>\r\n\n

GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What can business owners and managers do to support and protect their staff members from mistreatment without turning away business, as some have, or alienating the desirable, cooperative customers?<\/p>\n

BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> What successful leaders are doing now more than they\u2019ve ever done is they\u2019re checking in a lot more with their teams and making sure they have what they need, making sure that they\u2019re OK, and making sure that they feel appreciated for the work that they\u2019re doing. More fundamentally, though, there are three things they need to make sure that individuals have if they want to stave off burnout, if they want to set them up to be successful. The first is they need capability: They need the knowledge, skills, abilities, information, resources, processes to get the job done. Really focus on trying to make their systems robust to help people come up to speed as quickly as possible, know what the resource constraints are, and understand what they can do to address or remediate those resource constraints.<\/p>\n

The second thing people absolutely need is motivation. They need to feel like the work they\u2019re doing matters. They need to feel like it\u2019s important, and they need to feel like it\u2019s making a positive difference. Which means that businesses need to really celebrate the successes. Think about the way that we thought about grocery store employees in the early days of the pandemic: These were heroes who were putting their lives on the line to make our lives possible, to give us the food we needed to survive. That\u2019s gone away, that has evaporated. And if anything, it\u2019s flopped in the other direction. And so, we have to find ways to help people understand the value they\u2019re creating, and really celebrate it so that they\u2019re built up, so in those moments when the [emotional] reservoir gets drawn down, it\u2019s getting drawn down on a deeper reservoir.<\/p>\n

They want to separate people from the problem as much as possible. Have quick and easy ways to be able to pivot in a manager who presumably has more discretion, so the moment something goes wrong, the frontline [employees have] a ripcord to be able to get away from that situation.<\/p>\n

The third thing that\u2019s really important is they need to give them a little bit of discretion so that in those moments when something bad has happened, they have the tools to address that challenge and gap. Here\u2019s the thing: If they have an upset customer and can turn it around for them, and by the end, they\u2019re thanking you, that is a triumph. That is going to make people feel successful and empowered. And so, if you have capability, you have motivation, and you\u2019ve got this discretion, that\u2019s a really powerful triad of things that can help not just stave off burnout, but really help employees thrive in these moments of constraint.<\/p>\n

Interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan W. 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ease?","subheading":"Businesses need to communicate more with customers and empower workers, expert says","centeredImage":true,"className":"is-style-full-width-text-below","mediaHeight":1685,"mediaWidth":2500,"backgroundFixed":false,"backgroundTone":"light","coloredBackground":false,"displayOverlay":true,"fadeInText":false,"isAmbient":false,"mediaLength":"","mediaPosition":"","posterText":"","titleAbove":false,"useUncroppedImage":false,"lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Illustration of a dragon coming out of person's mouth.\" height=\"1685\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/00018711_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Customer rage has been an unwelcome feature of post-lockdown life.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Oivind Hovland\/Ikon Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Illustration of a dragon coming out of person's mouth.\" height=\"1685\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/00018711_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Customer rage has been an unwelcome feature of post-lockdown life.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Oivind Hovland\/Ikon Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n"],"rendered":"<header\n\tclass=\"wp-block-harvard-gazette-article-header alignfull article-header is-style-full-width-text-below centered-image\"\n\tstyle=\" \"\n>\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img alt=\"Illustration of a dragon coming out of person's mouth.\" height=\"1685\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/00018711_2500.jpg\" width=\"2500\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Customer rage has been an unwelcome feature of post-lockdown life.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Oivind Hovland\/Ikon Images<\/p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\t<div class=\"article-header__content\">\n\t\t\t<a\n\t\t\tclass=\"article-header__category\"\n\t\t\thref=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/business-economy\/\"\n\t\t>\n\t\t\tWork & Economy\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\n\t\t<h1 class=\"article-header__title wp-block-heading \">\n\t\tWhy all the abuse of servers, flight staffs, sales clerks as COVID rules ease?\t<\/h1>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t<div class=\"article-header__meta\">\n\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-post-author\">\n\t\t\t<address class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"author wp-block-post-author__name\">\n\t\tChristina Pazzanese\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"wp-block-post-author__byline\">\n\t\t\tHarvard Staff Writer\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/address>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t<time class=\"article-header__date\" datetime=\"2021-07-20\">\n\t\t\tJuly 20, 2021\t\t<\/time>\n\n\t\t<span class=\"article-header__reading-time\">\n\t\t\t9 min read\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"article-header__subheading wp-block-heading\">\n\t\t\tBusinesses need to communicate more with customers and empower workers, expert says\t\t<\/h2>\n\t\t\n<\/header>\n"},"2":{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"templateLock":false,"metadata":{"name":"Article content"},"align":"wide","layout":{"type":"constrained","justifyContent":"center"},"tagName":"div","lock":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t<p>Just months ago, many people were longing to go out to dinner and travel once again or worrying whether a favorite caf\u00e9 or local shopkeeper would be able to survive an entire year of COVID business restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Now, news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/14\/us\/apt-cape-cod-restaurant-workers-covid.html\">stories<\/a> about angry customers behaving badly over minor inconveniences \u2014 diners berating wait staff over slow service or menu shortages, shoppers upset over hard-to-find items, and airline passengers refusing to comply with flight attendant directives about safety protocols \u2014 have become a near-daily occurrence. The Federal Aviation Administration has more than 3,400 unruly passenger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/data_research\/passengers_cargo\/unruly_passengers\/\">reports<\/a> on file so far for 2021, sparking 555 investigations; by comparison, just 146 investigations were initiated in all of 2019. And a <a href=\"https:\/\/onefairwage.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/OFW_WageShortage_F.pdf\">recent poll<\/a> of food service workers found 39 percent were quitting over concerns about hostility or harassment from customers, and 80 percent had either witnessed or experienced such behavior over COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the extra hardship for workers, these incidents further add to the challenge facing many service industry businesses struggling to return quickly to pre-pandemic capacity and finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Harvard Business School<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=320524\">Ryan W. Buell<\/a>, who studies the dynamics of business-customer relationships, spoke with the Gazette about why more and more customers suddenly seem to be lashing out and what businesses can do to support their workers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q&A<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ryan Buell<\/h3>\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Upset customers are not new to those working in the service industry. But the rash of customers shouting at staff, flouting safety policies or local ordinances, even threatening or becoming violent over trivial matters is decidedly new. What do you think is going on?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> I think there are a few things that are going on. One is we have been pent up in our houses, and we\u2019ve been building expectations about what it will be like when we\u2019re finally out. But the reality is that, from an operational perspective and a public health perspective, we\u2019re not totally out. Things have become safer in some ways, but we still have [COVID] variants. And the problem is also unevenly felt around the world, which is leading to different kinds of constraints.<\/p>\n<p>One is, there are labor constraints that a lot of these service businesses are facing. It\u2019s difficult to motivate talent to apply and bring them in. And then to retain them is harder, too. Lots of service organizations are facing turnover rates that are higher now than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Another is just supply-chain challenges. It\u2019s hard to make sandwiches if you don\u2019t have all the ingredients. And they may not have all the ingredients because supply chains aren\u2019t up and running at their peak capacity. It takes a while to spin these things up. So you\u2019ve got customers who have been looking forward to being back out in the world and so their expectations are high, but [the] capacity to deliver on those expectations isn\u2019t quite where it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge is different organizations have different policies. Do you need to wear a mask? Do you not need to wear a mask? Customers don\u2019t always know what the terms are when they engage with a company. And what that does, it means that when you walk into the door and you thought one thing and the reality is something different, it creates a lot of awkwardness and can lead to a blow-up. Beyond that, masks and the way we engage with the pandemic has become political, and so people are sometimes using their service encounters as a political platform to show what they think should be the state of the world. Even if you\u2019re well-intending, but now you\u2019re in a room where you\u2019re clearly not engaging the way that everybody else is, that can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. I think we see blow-ups coming from that as well.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n\t\t<p>Just months ago, many people were longing to go out to dinner and travel once again or worrying whether a favorite caf\u00e9 or local shopkeeper would be able to survive an entire year of COVID business restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Now, news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/14\/us\/apt-cape-cod-restaurant-workers-covid.html\">stories<\/a> about angry customers behaving badly over minor inconveniences \u2014 diners berating wait staff over slow service or menu shortages, shoppers upset over hard-to-find items, and airline passengers refusing to comply with flight attendant directives about safety protocols \u2014 have become a near-daily occurrence. The Federal Aviation Administration has more than 3,400 unruly passenger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/data_research\/passengers_cargo\/unruly_passengers\/\">reports<\/a> on file so far for 2021, sparking 555 investigations; by comparison, just 146 investigations were initiated in all of 2019. And a <a href=\"https:\/\/onefairwage.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/OFW_WageShortage_F.pdf\">recent poll<\/a> of food service workers found 39 percent were quitting over concerns about hostility or harassment from customers, and 80 percent had either witnessed or experienced such behavior over COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the extra hardship for workers, these incidents further add to the challenge facing many service industry businesses struggling to return quickly to pre-pandemic capacity and finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Harvard Business School<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=320524\">Ryan W. Buell<\/a>, who studies the dynamics of business-customer relationships, spoke with the Gazette about why more and more customers suddenly seem to be lashing out and what businesses can do to support their workers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q&A<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ryan Buell<\/h3>\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Upset customers are not new to those working in the service industry. But the rash of customers shouting at staff, flouting safety policies or local ordinances, even threatening or becoming violent over trivial matters is decidedly new. What do you think is going on?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> I think there are a few things that are going on. One is we have been pent up in our houses, and we\u2019ve been building expectations about what it will be like when we\u2019re finally out. But the reality is that, from an operational perspective and a public health perspective, we\u2019re not totally out. Things have become safer in some ways, but we still have [COVID] variants. And the problem is also unevenly felt around the world, which is leading to different kinds of constraints.<\/p>\n<p>One is, there are labor constraints that a lot of these service businesses are facing. It\u2019s difficult to motivate talent to apply and bring them in. And then to retain them is harder, too. Lots of service organizations are facing turnover rates that are higher now than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Another is just supply-chain challenges. It\u2019s hard to make sandwiches if you don\u2019t have all the ingredients. And they may not have all the ingredients because supply chains aren\u2019t up and running at their peak capacity. It takes a while to spin these things up. So you\u2019ve got customers who have been looking forward to being back out in the world and so their expectations are high, but [the] capacity to deliver on those expectations isn\u2019t quite where it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge is different organizations have different policies. Do you need to wear a mask? Do you not need to wear a mask? Customers don\u2019t always know what the terms are when they engage with a company. And what that does, it means that when you walk into the door and you thought one thing and the reality is something different, it creates a lot of awkwardness and can lead to a blow-up. Beyond that, masks and the way we engage with the pandemic has become political, and so people are sometimes using their service encounters as a political platform to show what they think should be the state of the world. Even if you\u2019re well-intending, but now you\u2019re in a room where you\u2019re clearly not engaging the way that everybody else is, that can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. I think we see blow-ups coming from that as well.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n\t\t<p>Just months ago, many people were longing to go out to dinner and travel once again or worrying whether a favorite caf\u00e9 or local shopkeeper would be able to survive an entire year of COVID business restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Now, news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/14\/us\/apt-cape-cod-restaurant-workers-covid.html\">stories<\/a> about angry customers behaving badly over minor inconveniences \u2014 diners berating wait staff over slow service or menu shortages, shoppers upset over hard-to-find items, and airline passengers refusing to comply with flight attendant directives about safety protocols \u2014 have become a near-daily occurrence. The Federal Aviation Administration has more than 3,400 unruly passenger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/data_research\/passengers_cargo\/unruly_passengers\/\">reports<\/a> on file so far for 2021, sparking 555 investigations; by comparison, just 146 investigations were initiated in all of 2019. And a <a href=\"https:\/\/onefairwage.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/OFW_WageShortage_F.pdf\">recent poll<\/a> of food service workers found 39 percent were quitting over concerns about hostility or harassment from customers, and 80 percent had either witnessed or experienced such behavior over COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the extra hardship for workers, these incidents further add to the challenge facing many service industry businesses struggling to return quickly to pre-pandemic capacity and finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Harvard Business School<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=320524\">Ryan W. Buell<\/a>, who studies the dynamics of business-customer relationships, spoke with the Gazette about why more and more customers suddenly seem to be lashing out and what businesses can do to support their workers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q&A<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ryan Buell<\/h3>\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Upset customers are not new to those working in the service industry. But the rash of customers shouting at staff, flouting safety policies or local ordinances, even threatening or becoming violent over trivial matters is decidedly new. What do you think is going on?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> I think there are a few things that are going on. One is we have been pent up in our houses, and we\u2019ve been building expectations about what it will be like when we\u2019re finally out. But the reality is that, from an operational perspective and a public health perspective, we\u2019re not totally out. Things have become safer in some ways, but we still have [COVID] variants. And the problem is also unevenly felt around the world, which is leading to different kinds of constraints.<\/p>\n<p>One is, there are labor constraints that a lot of these service businesses are facing. It\u2019s difficult to motivate talent to apply and bring them in. And then to retain them is harder, too. Lots of service organizations are facing turnover rates that are higher now than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Another is just supply-chain challenges. It\u2019s hard to make sandwiches if you don\u2019t have all the ingredients. And they may not have all the ingredients because supply chains aren\u2019t up and running at their peak capacity. It takes a while to spin these things up. So you\u2019ve got customers who have been looking forward to being back out in the world and so their expectations are high, but [the] capacity to deliver on those expectations isn\u2019t quite where it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge is different organizations have different policies. Do you need to wear a mask? Do you not need to wear a mask? Customers don\u2019t always know what the terms are when they engage with a company. And what that does, it means that when you walk into the door and you thought one thing and the reality is something different, it creates a lot of awkwardness and can lead to a blow-up. Beyond that, masks and the way we engage with the pandemic has become political, and so people are sometimes using their service encounters as a political platform to show what they think should be the state of the world. Even if you\u2019re well-intending, but now you\u2019re in a room where you\u2019re clearly not engaging the way that everybody else is, that can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. I think we see blow-ups coming from that as well.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/quote","attrs":{"value":"","citation":null,"textAlign":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p>\"There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.\"<\/p>\n","innerContent":["<p>\"There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.\"<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"<p>\"There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.\"<\/p>\n"}],"innerHTML":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><\/blockquote>","innerContent":["<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">","<\/blockquote>"],"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\"There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> While businesses are understandably eager to finally get more customers in the door, some have had major hiccups since reopening. Are some expecting customers to be more flexible or understanding than they ought to be? And what can they do proactively to minimize the likelihood that pandemic-related problems, the delays and shortages, will be felt by their customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> Some of my research is on something called operational transparency \u2014 what happens when people can see the hidden work that\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them. And what we know is that even in the best of times, people tend to underestimate the effort and expertise and work and care and thoroughness and coordination that goes into serving them. Now, in more challenging times, the gap can be even bigger. And so, anything they can do to provide customers a window into what\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them can help realign their expectations with the gravity of the situation they\u2019re encountering. We also know that it can help them appreciate and value service more. So a huge prescription here \u2014 half of it is transparency. If they\u2019ve got rules and policies, customers need to know that <em>before<\/em> they walk into the store. They need to know that that\u2019s not the discretion of an individual employee, that it\u2019s the rules of the road for the whole organization. Everyone has to follow it; our employees do and every single customer. Companies, in the name of hospitality, don\u2019t want to jam that message down customers\u2019 throats, but it\u2019s critical if they want to set people up to really thrive in the interaction.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond policies, if there are constraints that they\u2019re dealing with on the labor side or on the supply side, they need people to understand that they\u2019re not holding back on customers. They\u2019re not making them wait intentionally, they\u2019re doing the best they can. And the earlier they can convey and communicate that information, the better off they are.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of this is what businesses do for their employees. These days, these are, in many cases, new employees. At best, they\u2019ve been retained through the pandemic and they understand, but their training needs to be updated. At worst, they\u2019re brand-new and don\u2019t know and are still coming up to speed. Whatever transparency they need to provide the customers about policies and constraints, they need to doubly communicate that to employees so that everybody understands and everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> While businesses are understandably eager to finally get more customers in the door, some have had major hiccups since reopening. Are some expecting customers to be more flexible or understanding than they ought to be? And what can they do proactively to minimize the likelihood that pandemic-related problems, the delays and shortages, will be felt by their customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> Some of my research is on something called operational transparency \u2014 what happens when people can see the hidden work that\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them. And what we know is that even in the best of times, people tend to underestimate the effort and expertise and work and care and thoroughness and coordination that goes into serving them. Now, in more challenging times, the gap can be even bigger. And so, anything they can do to provide customers a window into what\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them can help realign their expectations with the gravity of the situation they\u2019re encountering. We also know that it can help them appreciate and value service more. So a huge prescription here \u2014 half of it is transparency. If they\u2019ve got rules and policies, customers need to know that <em>before<\/em> they walk into the store. They need to know that that\u2019s not the discretion of an individual employee, that it\u2019s the rules of the road for the whole organization. Everyone has to follow it; our employees do and every single customer. Companies, in the name of hospitality, don\u2019t want to jam that message down customers\u2019 throats, but it\u2019s critical if they want to set people up to really thrive in the interaction.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond policies, if there are constraints that they\u2019re dealing with on the labor side or on the supply side, they need people to understand that they\u2019re not holding back on customers. They\u2019re not making them wait intentionally, they\u2019re doing the best they can. And the earlier they can convey and communicate that information, the better off they are.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of this is what businesses do for their employees. These days, these are, in many cases, new employees. At best, they\u2019ve been retained through the pandemic and they understand, but their training needs to be updated. At worst, they\u2019re brand-new and don\u2019t know and are still coming up to speed. Whatever transparency they need to provide the customers about policies and constraints, they need to doubly communicate that to employees so that everybody understands and everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> While businesses are understandably eager to finally get more customers in the door, some have had major hiccups since reopening. Are some expecting customers to be more flexible or understanding than they ought to be? And what can they do proactively to minimize the likelihood that pandemic-related problems, the delays and shortages, will be felt by their customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> Some of my research is on something called operational transparency \u2014 what happens when people can see the hidden work that\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them. And what we know is that even in the best of times, people tend to underestimate the effort and expertise and work and care and thoroughness and coordination that goes into serving them. Now, in more challenging times, the gap can be even bigger. And so, anything they can do to provide customers a window into what\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them can help realign their expectations with the gravity of the situation they\u2019re encountering. We also know that it can help them appreciate and value service more. So a huge prescription here \u2014 half of it is transparency. If they\u2019ve got rules and policies, customers need to know that <em>before<\/em> they walk into the store. They need to know that that\u2019s not the discretion of an individual employee, that it\u2019s the rules of the road for the whole organization. Everyone has to follow it; our employees do and every single customer. Companies, in the name of hospitality, don\u2019t want to jam that message down customers\u2019 throats, but it\u2019s critical if they want to set people up to really thrive in the interaction.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond policies, if there are constraints that they\u2019re dealing with on the labor side or on the supply side, they need people to understand that they\u2019re not holding back on customers. They\u2019re not making them wait intentionally, they\u2019re doing the best they can. And the earlier they can convey and communicate that information, the better off they are.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of this is what businesses do for their employees. These days, these are, in many cases, new employees. At best, they\u2019ve been retained through the pandemic and they understand, but their training needs to be updated. At worst, they\u2019re brand-new and don\u2019t know and are still coming up to speed. Whatever transparency they need to provide the customers about policies and constraints, they need to doubly communicate that to employees so that everybody understands and everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n"},{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figure","align":"wide","className":"wp-block-table","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/columns","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"top","isStackedOnMobile":true,"templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"top","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/group","attrs":{"tagName":"figcaption","className":"wp-element-caption","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"align":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"ariaLabel":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--caption","align":"","content":"Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p>"},{"blockName":"core\/paragraph","attrs":{"className":"wp-element-caption--credit","align":"","content":"Photo by Stu Rosner ","dropCap":false,"placeholder":"","direction":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p>","innerContent":["<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p>"],"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p>"}],"innerHTML":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\"><\/figcaption>","innerContent":["<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption\">","<\/figcaption>"],"rendered":"<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top\">\n\t\t\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top\">\n\t\t\t","\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"},{"blockName":"core\/column","attrs":{"verticalAlignment":"top","width":"","templateLock":null,"lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"backgroundColor":"","textColor":"","gradient":"","fontSize":"","fontFamily":"","borderColor":"","layout":[],"anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[{"blockName":"core\/image","attrs":{"sizeSlug":"full","align":"none","id":329436,"blob":"","url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg","alt":"Ryan Buell.","caption":null,"lightbox":[],"title":"","href":"","rel":"","linkClass":"","width":"","height":"","aspectRatio":"","scale":"","linkDestination":"","linkTarget":"","lock":[],"metadata":[],"className":"","style":[],"borderColor":"","anchor":""},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t","innerContent":["\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t"],"rendered":"\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t","innerContent":["\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"],"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top media-cluster\">\n\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t\t\t\t","\n\t\t<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n"}],"innerHTML":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">\n<\/figure>","innerContent":["<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide\">","\n<\/figure>"],"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/figure>"},{"blockName":"core\/freeform","attrs":{"content":"","lock":[],"metadata":[]},"innerBlocks":[],"innerHTML":"\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What can business owners and managers do to support and protect their staff members from mistreatment without turning away business, as some have, or alienating the desirable, cooperative customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> What successful leaders are doing now more than they\u2019ve ever done is they\u2019re checking in a lot more with their teams and making sure they have what they need, making sure that they\u2019re OK, and making sure that they feel appreciated for the work that they\u2019re doing. More fundamentally, though, there are three things they need to make sure that individuals have if they want to stave off burnout, if they want to set them up to be successful. The first is they need capability: They need the knowledge, skills, abilities, information, resources, processes to get the job done. Really focus on trying to make their systems robust to help people come up to speed as quickly as possible, know what the resource constraints are, and understand what they can do to address or remediate those resource constraints.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing people absolutely need is motivation. They need to feel like the work they\u2019re doing matters. They need to feel like it\u2019s important, and they need to feel like it\u2019s making a positive difference. Which means that businesses need to really celebrate the successes. Think about the way that we thought about grocery store employees in the early days of the pandemic: These were heroes who were putting their lives on the line to make our lives possible, to give us the food we needed to survive. That\u2019s gone away, that has evaporated. And if anything, it\u2019s flopped in the other direction. And so, we have to find ways to help people understand the value they\u2019re creating, and really celebrate it so that they\u2019re built up, so in those moments when the [emotional] reservoir gets drawn down, it\u2019s getting drawn down on a deeper reservoir.<\/p>\n<p>They want to separate people from the problem as much as possible. Have quick and easy ways to be able to pivot in a manager who presumably has more discretion, so the moment something goes wrong, the frontline [employees have] a ripcord to be able to get away from that situation.<\/p>\n<p>The third thing that\u2019s really important is they need to give them a little bit of discretion so that in those moments when something bad has happened, they have the tools to address that challenge and gap. Here\u2019s the thing: If they have an upset customer and can turn it around for them, and by the end, they\u2019re thanking you, that is a triumph. That is going to make people feel successful and empowered. And so, if you have capability, you have motivation, and you\u2019ve got this discretion, that\u2019s a really powerful triad of things that can help not just stave off burnout, but really help employees thrive in these moments of constraint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","innerContent":["\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What can business owners and managers do to support and protect their staff members from mistreatment without turning away business, as some have, or alienating the desirable, cooperative customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> What successful leaders are doing now more than they\u2019ve ever done is they\u2019re checking in a lot more with their teams and making sure they have what they need, making sure that they\u2019re OK, and making sure that they feel appreciated for the work that they\u2019re doing. More fundamentally, though, there are three things they need to make sure that individuals have if they want to stave off burnout, if they want to set them up to be successful. The first is they need capability: They need the knowledge, skills, abilities, information, resources, processes to get the job done. Really focus on trying to make their systems robust to help people come up to speed as quickly as possible, know what the resource constraints are, and understand what they can do to address or remediate those resource constraints.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing people absolutely need is motivation. They need to feel like the work they\u2019re doing matters. They need to feel like it\u2019s important, and they need to feel like it\u2019s making a positive difference. Which means that businesses need to really celebrate the successes. Think about the way that we thought about grocery store employees in the early days of the pandemic: These were heroes who were putting their lives on the line to make our lives possible, to give us the food we needed to survive. That\u2019s gone away, that has evaporated. And if anything, it\u2019s flopped in the other direction. And so, we have to find ways to help people understand the value they\u2019re creating, and really celebrate it so that they\u2019re built up, so in those moments when the [emotional] reservoir gets drawn down, it\u2019s getting drawn down on a deeper reservoir.<\/p>\n<p>They want to separate people from the problem as much as possible. Have quick and easy ways to be able to pivot in a manager who presumably has more discretion, so the moment something goes wrong, the frontline [employees have] a ripcord to be able to get away from that situation.<\/p>\n<p>The third thing that\u2019s really important is they need to give them a little bit of discretion so that in those moments when something bad has happened, they have the tools to address that challenge and gap. Here\u2019s the thing: If they have an upset customer and can turn it around for them, and by the end, they\u2019re thanking you, that is a triumph. That is going to make people feel successful and empowered. And so, if you have capability, you have motivation, and you\u2019ve got this discretion, that\u2019s a really powerful triad of things that can help not just stave off burnout, but really help employees thrive in these moments of constraint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n"],"rendered":"\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What can business owners and managers do to support and protect their staff members from mistreatment without turning away business, as some have, or alienating the desirable, cooperative customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> What successful leaders are doing now more than they\u2019ve ever done is they\u2019re checking in a lot more with their teams and making sure they have what they need, making sure that they\u2019re OK, and making sure that they feel appreciated for the work that they\u2019re doing. More fundamentally, though, there are three things they need to make sure that individuals have if they want to stave off burnout, if they want to set them up to be successful. The first is they need capability: They need the knowledge, skills, abilities, information, resources, processes to get the job done. Really focus on trying to make their systems robust to help people come up to speed as quickly as possible, know what the resource constraints are, and understand what they can do to address or remediate those resource constraints.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing people absolutely need is motivation. They need to feel like the work they\u2019re doing matters. They need to feel like it\u2019s important, and they need to feel like it\u2019s making a positive difference. Which means that businesses need to really celebrate the successes. Think about the way that we thought about grocery store employees in the early days of the pandemic: These were heroes who were putting their lives on the line to make our lives possible, to give us the food we needed to survive. That\u2019s gone away, that has evaporated. And if anything, it\u2019s flopped in the other direction. And so, we have to find ways to help people understand the value they\u2019re creating, and really celebrate it so that they\u2019re built up, so in those moments when the [emotional] reservoir gets drawn down, it\u2019s getting drawn down on a deeper reservoir.<\/p>\n<p>They want to separate people from the problem as much as possible. Have quick and easy ways to be able to pivot in a manager who presumably has more discretion, so the moment something goes wrong, the frontline [employees have] a ripcord to be able to get away from that situation.<\/p>\n<p>The third thing that\u2019s really important is they need to give them a little bit of discretion so that in those moments when something bad has happened, they have the tools to address that challenge and gap. Here\u2019s the thing: If they have an upset customer and can turn it around for them, and by the end, they\u2019re thanking you, that is a triumph. That is going to make people feel successful and empowered. And so, if you have capability, you have motivation, and you\u2019ve got this discretion, that\u2019s a really powerful triad of things that can help not just stave off burnout, but really help employees thrive in these moments of constraint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n"}],"innerHTML":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n\n<\/div>\n","innerContent":["\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide\">\n\n","\r\n","\r\n","\r\n","\r\n","\n\n<\/div>\n"],"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide has-global-padding is-content-justification-center is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n\n\n\t\t<p>Just months ago, many people were longing to go out to dinner and travel once again or worrying whether a favorite caf\u00e9 or local shopkeeper would be able to survive an entire year of COVID business restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>Now, news <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2021\/07\/14\/us\/apt-cape-cod-restaurant-workers-covid.html\">stories<\/a> about angry customers behaving badly over minor inconveniences \u2014 diners berating wait staff over slow service or menu shortages, shoppers upset over hard-to-find items, and airline passengers refusing to comply with flight attendant directives about safety protocols \u2014 have become a near-daily occurrence. The Federal Aviation Administration has more than 3,400 unruly passenger <a href=\"https:\/\/www.faa.gov\/data_research\/passengers_cargo\/unruly_passengers\/\">reports<\/a> on file so far for 2021, sparking 555 investigations; by comparison, just 146 investigations were initiated in all of 2019. And a <a href=\"https:\/\/onefairwage.site\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/OFW_WageShortage_F.pdf\">recent poll<\/a> of food service workers found 39 percent were quitting over concerns about hostility or harassment from customers, and 80 percent had either witnessed or experienced such behavior over COVID safety protocols.<\/p>\n<p>Besides the extra hardship for workers, these incidents further add to the challenge facing many service industry businesses struggling to return quickly to pre-pandemic capacity and finding it difficult to recruit and retain staff.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/Pages\/default.aspx\">Harvard Business School<\/a> Professor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hbs.edu\/faculty\/Pages\/profile.aspx?facId=320524\">Ryan W. Buell<\/a>, who studies the dynamics of business-customer relationships, spoke with the Gazette about why more and more customers suddenly seem to be lashing out and what businesses can do to support their workers.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Q&A<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ryan Buell<\/h3>\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong>Upset customers are not new to those working in the service industry. But the rash of customers shouting at staff, flouting safety policies or local ordinances, even threatening or becoming violent over trivial matters is decidedly new. What do you think is going on?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> I think there are a few things that are going on. One is we have been pent up in our houses, and we\u2019ve been building expectations about what it will be like when we\u2019re finally out. But the reality is that, from an operational perspective and a public health perspective, we\u2019re not totally out. Things have become safer in some ways, but we still have [COVID] variants. And the problem is also unevenly felt around the world, which is leading to different kinds of constraints.<\/p>\n<p>One is, there are labor constraints that a lot of these service businesses are facing. It\u2019s difficult to motivate talent to apply and bring them in. And then to retain them is harder, too. Lots of service organizations are facing turnover rates that are higher now than they were pre-pandemic.<\/p>\n<p>Another is just supply-chain challenges. It\u2019s hard to make sandwiches if you don\u2019t have all the ingredients. And they may not have all the ingredients because supply chains aren\u2019t up and running at their peak capacity. It takes a while to spin these things up. So you\u2019ve got customers who have been looking forward to being back out in the world and so their expectations are high, but [the] capacity to deliver on those expectations isn\u2019t quite where it needs to be.<\/p>\n<p>Another challenge is different organizations have different policies. Do you need to wear a mask? Do you not need to wear a mask? Customers don\u2019t always know what the terms are when they engage with a company. And what that does, it means that when you walk into the door and you thought one thing and the reality is something different, it creates a lot of awkwardness and can lead to a blow-up. Beyond that, masks and the way we engage with the pandemic has become political, and so people are sometimes using their service encounters as a political platform to show what they think should be the state of the world. Even if you\u2019re well-intending, but now you\u2019re in a room where you\u2019re clearly not engaging the way that everybody else is, that can make people feel deeply uncomfortable. I think we see blow-ups coming from that as well.<\/p>\n\r\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\"There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.\"<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\r\n\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> While businesses are understandably eager to finally get more customers in the door, some have had major hiccups since reopening. Are some expecting customers to be more flexible or understanding than they ought to be? And what can they do proactively to minimize the likelihood that pandemic-related problems, the delays and shortages, will be felt by their customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> Some of my research is on something called operational transparency \u2014 what happens when people can see the hidden work that\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them. And what we know is that even in the best of times, people tend to underestimate the effort and expertise and work and care and thoroughness and coordination that goes into serving them. Now, in more challenging times, the gap can be even bigger. And so, anything they can do to provide customers a window into what\u2019s going on behind the scenes to serve them can help realign their expectations with the gravity of the situation they\u2019re encountering. We also know that it can help them appreciate and value service more. So a huge prescription here \u2014 half of it is transparency. If they\u2019ve got rules and policies, customers need to know that <em>before<\/em> they walk into the store. They need to know that that\u2019s not the discretion of an individual employee, that it\u2019s the rules of the road for the whole organization. Everyone has to follow it; our employees do and every single customer. Companies, in the name of hospitality, don\u2019t want to jam that message down customers\u2019 throats, but it\u2019s critical if they want to set people up to really thrive in the interaction.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond policies, if there are constraints that they\u2019re dealing with on the labor side or on the supply side, they need people to understand that they\u2019re not holding back on customers. They\u2019re not making them wait intentionally, they\u2019re doing the best they can. And the earlier they can convey and communicate that information, the better off they are.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s real trepidation to actually share those kinds of warts and blemishes with customers. But failure to do so means that people are coming in with a set of expectations that businesses can\u2019t meet.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of this is what businesses do for their employees. These days, these are, in many cases, new employees. At best, they\u2019ve been retained through the pandemic and they understand, but their training needs to be updated. At worst, they\u2019re brand-new and don\u2019t know and are still coming up to speed. Whatever transparency they need to provide the customers about policies and constraints, they need to doubly communicate that to employees so that everybody understands and everyone\u2019s on the same page.<\/p>\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-group wp-block-table alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide are-vertically-aligned-top media-cluster is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-28f84493 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"wp-block-group wp-element-caption is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\"><p class=\"wp-element-caption--caption\">Harvard Business School Professor Ryan Buell.<\/p><p class=\"wp-element-caption--credit\">Photo by Stu Rosner <\/p><\/figcaption>\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<div class=\"wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-top is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignnone size-full is-resized\"><img src=\"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/190607-SR-sr-hbs-reunion-spring-19-0891_2500.jpg\" alt=\"Ryan Buell.\" class=\"wp-image-329436\"><\/figure>\n\t\n\t\r\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<\/figure>\r\n\n<p><strong><strong>GAZETTE:<\/strong><\/strong> What can business owners and managers do to support and protect their staff members from mistreatment without turning away business, as some have, or alienating the desirable, cooperative customers?<\/p>\n<p><strong><strong>BUELL:<\/strong><\/strong> What successful leaders are doing now more than they\u2019ve ever done is they\u2019re checking in a lot more with their teams and making sure they have what they need, making sure that they\u2019re OK, and making sure that they feel appreciated for the work that they\u2019re doing. More fundamentally, though, there are three things they need to make sure that individuals have if they want to stave off burnout, if they want to set them up to be successful. The first is they need capability: They need the knowledge, skills, abilities, information, resources, processes to get the job done. Really focus on trying to make their systems robust to help people come up to speed as quickly as possible, know what the resource constraints are, and understand what they can do to address or remediate those resource constraints.<\/p>\n<p>The second thing people absolutely need is motivation. They need to feel like the work they\u2019re doing matters. They need to feel like it\u2019s important, and they need to feel like it\u2019s making a positive difference. Which means that businesses need to really celebrate the successes. Think about the way that we thought about grocery store employees in the early days of the pandemic: These were heroes who were putting their lives on the line to make our lives possible, to give us the food we needed to survive. That\u2019s gone away, that has evaporated. And if anything, it\u2019s flopped in the other direction. And so, we have to find ways to help people understand the value they\u2019re creating, and really celebrate it so that they\u2019re built up, so in those moments when the [emotional] reservoir gets drawn down, it\u2019s getting drawn down on a deeper reservoir.<\/p>\n<p>They want to separate people from the problem as much as possible. Have quick and easy ways to be able to pivot in a manager who presumably has more discretion, so the moment something goes wrong, the frontline [employees have] a ripcord to be able to get away from that situation.<\/p>\n<p>The third thing that\u2019s really important is they need to give them a little bit of discretion so that in those moments when something bad has happened, they have the tools to address that challenge and gap. Here\u2019s the thing: If they have an upset customer and can turn it around for them, and by the end, they\u2019re thanking you, that is a triumph. That is going to make people feel successful and empowered. And so, if you have capability, you have motivation, and you\u2019ve got this discretion, that\u2019s a really powerful triad of things that can help not just stave off burnout, but really help employees thrive in these moments of constraint.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interview has been edited for clarity and length.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n"}},"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14105,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2007\/11\/scholar-looks-at-abiding-interest-in-the-great-american-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":0},"title":"Scholar looks at abiding interest in the \u2018Great American Novel\u2019","author":"harvardgazette","date":"November 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Literary critics tend to discredit the concept of a \u201cGreat American Novel\u201d as nothing more than media hype \u2014 an arbitrary appellation that has more to do with pipe dreams than merit. And yet, what would-be author hasn\u2019t imagined, when putting pen to paper, what it would feel like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":311038,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2020\/08\/student-data-analytics-group-steps-in-to-fight-covid\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":1},"title":"Using data science for social good","author":"harvardgazette","date":"August 25, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"In April, the Harvard College Data Analytics Group, a student-led nonprofit organization, created 17 COVID-19 response teams that partnered with 16 organizations and municipal governments to tackle elements of the COVID-19 crisis.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Karen Chan and Jerry Huang.","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Karen-and-Jerry-Huang_H_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Karen-and-Jerry-Huang_H_2500.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Karen-and-Jerry-Huang_H_2500.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Karen-and-Jerry-Huang_H_2500.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":207143,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2004\/04\/lawrence-buells-emerson-wins-award\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":2},"title":"Lawrence Buell’s ‘Emerson’ wins award","author":"gazetteimport","date":"April 8, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"The Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies at Western Kentucky University (WKU) has named Lawrence Buell, Powell M. Cabot Professor of American Literature, the recipient of the 2003 Robert Penn Warren-Cleanth Brooks Award for Outstanding Literary Criticism. Buell will receive the award for Emerson (2003, Belknap Press), an assessment of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":200940,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2006\/11\/little-lulu-comes-to-harvard\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":3},"title":"Little Lulu comes to Harvard","author":"gazetteimport","date":"November 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Little Lulu papers have found a home at the Schlesinger Library.","rel":"","context":"In "Campus & Community"","block_context":{"text":"Campus & Community","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/campus-community\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Lulu cartoon","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/11\/16-lulu9-225-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":169756,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2015\/05\/walt-whitmans-war\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":4},"title":"Walt Whitman\u2019s war","author":"harvardgazette","date":"May 6, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"A Harvard panel assesses Walt Whitman\u2019s vivid and pictorial \u2018Drum-Taps,\u2019 a collection of Civil War poems out in print for the first time in 150 years. Professor Elisa New will explore \u201cDrum-Taps\u201d (along with Melville\u2019s war poems) in a new HarvardX online American poetry course, which launches May 8.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/043015_drumtaps_075_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/043015_drumtaps_075_605.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/043015_drumtaps_075_605.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42392,"url":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/story\/2010\/04\/walden-for-the-21st-century\/","url_meta":{"origin":329411,"position":5},"title":"\u2018Walden\u2019 for the 21st century","author":"harvardgazette","date":"April 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In a lecture at the Harvard Divinity School, scholar Lawrence Buell examined the continuing relevance of Thoreau\u2019s \u201cWalden\u201d and the importance of voluntary simplicity.","rel":"","context":"In "Arts & Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Arts & Culture","link":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/section\/arts-humanities\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/032510_thoreau_128.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/032510_thoreau_128.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/032510_thoreau_128.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105622744"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329411"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":329460,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329411\/revisions\/329460"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329411"},{"taxonomy":"format","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gazette-formats?post=329411"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.harvard.edu\/gazette\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=329411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}