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Addressing the hostility faced by front-line staff

With nearly 80% of the UK’s workforce working in customer-facing roles, mounting abuse is affecting staff across every sector – from retail to public services; financial institutions to our public transport networks.

Our research reveals more than half of customer-facing staff have experienced abuse from customers since the start of the pandemic – ranging from verbal abuse such as shouting and abusive language to, in the most extreme cases, physical assaults.

In July 2020 we launched our new campaign: Service with Respect. BBC Breakfast helped highlight this important issue, interviewing our CEO, Jo Causon, about the aims of the initiative.

On 8 December 2021, The Times published an abridged version of this open letter calling for action to tackle the issue of abuse against public-facing workers.

Following many months of campaigning, we have achieved one of the core aims of our Service with Respect campaign: a change in the law to protect customer-facing workers from abuse – find out more here.

View open letter

Ian King Live (April 2022)

BBC Radio 4 Today (Dec 2021)

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What your organisation can do

We know from our research that the majority of staff feel well supported by their employer, but as we continue to face tough business conditions ahead, we urge all organisations not to let this fall by the wayside. We’re asking that organisations across all sectors:

  • support the campaign by displaying the logo and spreading the word on social media
  • adopt a zero tolerance approach to hostility and abuse against your employees
  • hold regular catch ups with your front-line staff and keep close to what is happening in their day – encourage them to report incidents
  • invest in appropriate training and tools for staff to handle the new (and increasingly challenging) duties they are being tasked with, and to deal with potential conflict as it arises

Show your support

Please show your support for this campaign – and the safety and wellbeing of all front-line workers – by displaying the campaign logo on your website.

Please also spread the message on social media using the hashtag #servicewithrespect and tag us @instituteofcs (Twitter) and @Institute of Customer Service Institute (LinkedIn).

Related Posts

Service with Respect coverage:

Service with Respect Day 2023

BBC Breakfast (Oct 2022)

GB News (June 2022)

Ian King Live (Dec 2021)

BBC News Interview (Mar 2021)

BBC Breakfast (Mar 2021)

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