Customer aggression

What is customer aggression?

Organisations with customer-facing staff may have to deal with aggressive customers. Work-related violence and aggression includes any incident in which someone is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. 

Aggressive customers tend to be unreasonable and unpredictable. They may make impossible demands, refuse to acknowledge timeframes or accept your process. They may be argumentative, use personal insults or inappropriate comments to get their point across or shout or make threatening gestures. In extreme circumstances, they may even be violent.

Examples of aggressive behaviour include:

• verbal abuse and threats, including threats of self-harm 
• throwing objects
• physical abuse e.g. biting, spitting, hitting, pushing, shoving, tripping, grabbing
• violent acts e.g. armed robbery, sexual assault, attack with a weapon. 

Customer aggression is not just physical abuse. It also includes verbal abuse (e.g. yelling, nasty comments, threats). 

What contributes to customer aggression?

Factors that can contribute to the likelihood of experiencing customer aggression and violence include: 

• cost of products and services
• products and services that are restricted or no longer available 
• limited business hours 
• queues, wait times and limits on the number of customers in stores
• workers lacking information or training on how to respond to customer requests 
• changed procedures 
• not enough workers being available to serve the public
• handling valuable or restricted items
• caring for people who are distressed, confused, afraid, ill or affected by drugs and alcohol
• working in isolation, offsite or in the community
• increased isolation from support.

Workers in some industries are more exposed to aggressive behaviour than others. These industries can include:

• utility workers, e.g. water, gas, telephone and electricity
• retail trade
• health care and social assistance
• rental, hiring and real estate services
• public order, safety and regulatory services
• financial and insurance services
• education and training
• accommodation and food services
• transport, postal and warehousing.

Who is responsible for managing customer aggression?

Customer aggression and violence is the same as any other workplace hazard, which means both employers and workers have obligations to manage it.

In general, employers must provide workers with:

• a safe physical and online working environment
• safe work systems and procedures to prevent and respond to violence and aggression, such as procedures for working alone or at night
• a workplace policy which sets out how the workplace will prevent and respond to violence and aggression, including acceptable standards of behaviour of all workers, customers and clients
• information, training and supervision, such as how to use equipment like duress alarms, what to do during an incident, how to report incidents and how to access support services following an incident.

Workers must take reasonable care of their own health and safety in the workplace, and the health and safety of others who may be affected by their actions. They must also cooperate with reasonable instructions from their employer. 

What to do if a customer is aggressive or violent in your workplace

Customer aggression may be motivated by precipitating factors that have little to do with the individual worker serving them; nonetheless, for the worker, this aggression can feel personal, making it difficult to respond to in the moment. 

How you respond to customer aggression or violence depends on the nature and severity of the incident. Here is some general guidance:

At the time of an incident

Workers should be trained in what to do during a violent or aggressive incident:

• Try to stay calm by taking some deep breaths and keep your voice measured and steady.
• Use verbal de-escalation and distraction techniques, e.g.
  • Listen to what the customer is saying and try to understand their concerns. 
  • Ask questions but avoid interrupting. 
  • Be empathetic. 
  • Offer solutions if you can. If you have limited options, don’t overpromise. 
• Seek support from other workers including managers. 
• Ask the aggressor to leave the premises or disconnect them from a phone call.
• Ask the aggressor whether there is another time or day that they would like to have this conversation once they are contributing respectfully (i.e. reschedule the interaction)
• Activate alarms or alert security personnel or police.
• Retreat to a safe location.

Immediately after an incident

Immediately after a violent or aggressive incident, you should:

• ensure everyone is safe
• provide or organise first aid or urgent medical attention where necessary
• provide or offer individual support where required, including psychological support to the victim and other workers
• report what happened, who was affected and who was involved to management or human resources
• report any ‘notifiable incidents’ to the work health and safety authority in your jurisdiction. 

If a customer is aggressive towards you at work, try to stay calm. If you can’t solve their problem, ask a manager or work colleague for help. If the person becomes violent, contact security or the police, and get to safety if you can. 

You can find more information about managing customer aggression in the resources below.