Customer responses to frontline employee complaining in retail service environments: The role of perceived impropriety

Substantial research recognizes the importance of understanding employee-customer interactions in order to optimize the customer experience. While most retailing and services research focuses on frontline employees' handling of customer complaints, the present studies take an inverse approach by examining a relatively unexplored phenomenon: customers' perceptions of frontline employee complaining. First, a pilot study confirms two commonly overheard types of employee complaints - complaints about the company and customers. Next, Study 1 provides empirical support for the effects of overhearing employee complaining on relevant customer outcomes and identifies perceived impropriety as the mediating mechanism underlying these effects. The results of Study 2 indicate that soliciting customers' feedback about their experience attenuates the indirect effects of one type of employee complaint - complaints about the company. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and provide practical suggestions to retailers and service providers for reducing the harmful effects of overheard employee complaints.