EMPLOYEE BURNOUT’S IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SERVICE PERCEPTION 1

Employee Burnout’s Impact on Customer Service Perception

Tatum C. Schultz

Missouri Southern State University

HNRS 0400

Dr. Casey Cole

11/16/2021
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Introduction

Work exhaustion and employee burnout has become very frequent in the past few years,

especially in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. This pandemic has made many employees

lose jobs, have to work increased hours, or change jobs or job settings. In addition to work life, it

has impacted all aspects of people’s personal lives, including increased feelings of loss of

control, fear over family members getting sick, changes in family involvement, and changes in

personal welfare (Achenbach, 2020). In general, COVID-19 has drastically changed what the

workplace looks like for hundreds of thousands of people.

In addition to COVID-19, there have been many other events that may be contributing to

employee stress. Some examples of these extra stressful events are inflation, an extremely

polarized political climate, and the toxicity of social media. Social media has arguably always

been a negative influence in people’s lives, but it is more negative now than ever with the

increased usage of it.

Many employees have had to make the transition from working onsite to working from

home. Working from home often can often increase burnout for employees for many reasons,

constantly being able to access the workload, feeling isolated from coworkers, and feeling like

they can’t “get away” from their work. Additionally, these causes can have several other

negative effects on employees. Disease predisposition, psychological fatigue, and altered moods

and behavior can occur. These work-related pressures and stressors can influence company

activity due to consequences linked with absenteeism in the workplace and employee workflow,

decreased productivity and employee engagement that could eventually negatively impact

business growth and performance (Ţîru, L. G., & Opran, C, 2021).

EMPLOYEE BURNOUT’S IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SERVICE PERCEPTION 3

Burnout is positively associated with organizational absenteeism and employee intention

to quit (Çetin, 2020). Employees who suffer from symptoms of burnout tend to demonstrate

higher levels of job disengagement (Rožman Maja, 2019) and are more likely to reserve their

opinions on organizational policies and operations (Avtgis, Thomas-Maddox, Taylor, &

Patterson, 2007).

This study will be investigating the relationship between employee burnout and

customers’ perception of the customer service they received. For the purpose of this study,

burnout is measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory. Maslach (1978) originally defined

burnout as a state of mind that happens to employees who work closely around other people.

Scholars later determined that burnout is not exclusive to the customer service category

(Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) but much of the current burnout literature

remains focused on burnout within customer service centered occupations. Due to the

interpersonal nature of burnout (Maslach, 2003), this study will be specifically addressing the

consequences of burnout for customers who interact with burnt-out employees.

Customer service perceptions are extremely important because customers are the lifeline

of most organizations, and their customer service perceptions have a critical impact on a firm's

success (Ţîru, L. G., & Opran, C, 2021). Due to the majority of other literature being centered

around employee burnout within the customer service sector, I found it appropriate to investigate

the correlation between burnout and customer service. I have hypothesized that employee

burnout will have a negative correlation to customer service perception; higher levels of

employee burnout detected will result in a worse customer service perception.

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Methodology

Overview

A policy capturing method will be used to test the hypothesis for this study, it will be a

within-subject design vignette experiment. This method allows for the analysis of the decisions

participants make in an organized and systematic manner (Aiman-Smith, Scullen, & Barr, 2002;

Atzmüller & Steiner, 2010). In these vignettes, college students will be acting as customers who

receive a service from various on-campus employees. Students will record their perceptions of

the customer service they received from the employees in a survey that will be sent to their

email.

Participants

Participants will be gathered for this study through convenience sampling. An email will

be sent out to all current Missouri Southern State University students who attend class in-person

asking them to participate in the study. Students who only enroll in online classes will not be

asked to participate, as they are assumed to not have as many interactions with on-campus

employees as described in the vignettes. This is a precautionary step taken to try to avoid

affecting the overall results. Participants will be asked to respond to the email with a “Y”

indicating that they would like to participate. A similar study performed at a university in

Germany (Shoshan and Sonnentag, 2018) implemented student participation in their study as a

requirement for students to get their degree. There will be no required participation in this study,

as this could skew overall results, similarly to including the online students.
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Vignettes

The aim for the vignettes used in the study is to be as realistic as possible; the scenes

described in the vignettes involve university employees interacting with students in the

university setting. Colleges often use customer service initiatives to attract prospective students,

resulting in students viewing themselves as customers (Cuthbert, 2010). This assertion makes the

setting of the vignettes extremely relative to this study. In these scenarios, the study participant is

the student and they are approaching a university employee for the employee to perform a

service for them (i.e. ringing the student up at the bookstore). To test the hypothesis, descriptions

of depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion as manipulation cues are included within the

vignettes.

The process of developing the vignettes will be done similarly to other policy-capturing

studies (Rotundo & Sackett, 2002). First, a list will be compiled of depersonalisation and

emotional exhaustion manifestations based on burnout described by Maslach (2001). Next, these

behaviors are combined with one of three university jobs (librarian, food prep worker, and

professor). In each vignette, a university employee is interacting with a student and each shows a

different type of manipulation cue (see appendix for sample vignette). An example of this would

be a professor that is very obviously not invested in interaction with the student and is

impersonal with the student. Thirdly, vignettes will be checked to ensure that general aspects of

each one are consistent with the rest. For example, in every vignette, the student receives the

service they needed from the employee (i.e. the food prep worker giving the student the apple

they asked for), so the outcome of the scenario would not affect students’ customer service

perception.
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When compared with other methods of performing this study, using the vignettes and a

survey afterwards is the best method. The survey can be accessed anywhere and any time during

the two month period that respondents have to take it. This is helpful for if a student were to be

in quarantine and not able to leave the house, they would still be able to provide their survey.

This method will also be likely to generate more respondents than an in-person monitored

experiment. Many college students would much rather take a survey on their own time than have

to show up to a testing site and act out a scripted scenario. While it would be ideal to be able to

observe each situation and interaction in-person, it may make the interactions seem forced and

uncomfortable, and this tension may cause participants to observe this feeling and mistake it for

burnout. This also eliminates the need to have an actor for each scenario that is posing as the

university employee.

Burnout

Since this study will be using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, burnout will be defined

within two out of three of Maslach’s burnout categories: emotional exhaustion and

depersonalisation (Maslach, 1972). The third category, reduced personal accomplishment, will

not be focused on in this study. The reasoning for this is that emotional exhaustion and

depersonalization directly affect the customer service experience, whereas it may not be as

simple for customers to recognize reduced personal accomplishment in an employee without

knowing the employee on a personal level.

In other burnout literature, (Kristensen, T., Borritz, M., Villadsen, E., & Christensen, K,

2005) a whole new scale to measure burnout was developed called the Copenhagen Burnout

Inventory. This scale was developed to give an alternative burnout scale that is more “generic” in
EMPLOYEE BURNOUT’S IMPACT ON CUSTOMER SERVICE PERCEPTION 7

order to measure burnout within employees involved in non-customer service related

occupations. Although this scale is a worthy alternative to the Maslach Burnout Inventory, I

decided to stay with the Maslach Burnout Inventory after comparing the two. This is because the

Maslach Burnout Inventory was specifically designed to measure burnout within employees that

have jobs centered around serving others. In addition, the Maslach Burnout Inventory has been

validated by extensive research within it for over 35 years while the Copenhagen Burnout

Inventory was just developed in 2005. Although the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory may be

more “up to date,” the safer and more accurate method is using the Maslach Burnout Inventory

due to the extensive research done on it.

The first category of burnout tested is emotional exhaustion. This category is often the

most tell-tale sign of burnout, it is characterized by feeling sluggish and completely depleted of

energy due to the demands of workplace responsibilities. An employee that is experiencing

emotional exhaustion would be tired, unable to cope with daily tasks that they typically are

responsible for, and unmotivated. This often causes depression and anxiety in employees, and

can more than likely make them dread coming to work at all.

The next category tested is depersonalization. Depersonalization is characterized by

overall negative attitudes, feelings, and behaviors. When employees are experiencing

depersonalization, they often will attempt to isolate themselves from service customers as much

as they can and maintain a low amount of investment in interaction with said customer. This

attempt at isolating from customers may manifest as irritability or a complete disinterest in the

conversation. The combination of these two will be a low customer service perception, as

customer-service orientated employees are often expected to treat customers with a sense of

respect and politeness.

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This not only affects the customer and the employee involved in the interaction, it also

affects the employee’s coworkers and the general workplace environment. For example, an

employee could come into the workplace with a great attitude and have no complaints

whatsoever. Then, this employee witnesses their coworker who is experiencing emotional

exhaustion or depersonalization being negative about a customer or the workplace. Even if this

employee does not engage with the burnt out employee, they are still in that negative

environment and it will cause tension in the workplace. Employee burnout affects the customer,

the employee, and the entire workplace.

Survey

Once a response is received from a student stating that they would like to participate in

the study, a survey will be sent to the respondent through Google Forms. The respondent will be

informed that their responses are anonymous and will not be attached to their name, and that they

have two months to submit their survey responses. Twelve vignettes will be included in the

Google Form in a random order, and the respondent will be asked to read through each one.

After reading through the vignette, customer service perception was measured on a 5-

point Likert scale (Likert, 1932) where respondents would answer 1-5; 1=strongly disagree and

5=strongly agree for questions relating to each vignette. A sample survey question would be: “I

felt that the librarian felt empowered in her position.” Respondents will be asked questions both

about how they felt about the customer service they received from the employee, and how the

interaction with the employee made them feel. This allows analysis of a wide variety of thoughts

and choices of respondents.

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Statistical Analysis

To evaluate manipulations in the vignettes, I will be conducting a manipulation check.

Roughly half of the sample from the study will be randomly chosen to answer manipulation

check items. Only half of participants will fill out the manipulation check to allow for testing if

answering manipulation check items influenced core results. I will use a 5-point scale PANAS-X

to measure participant anger and hostility after every vignette. Three items from the perceived

customer orientation scale (Groth, 2009) will be used to measure perception of customer service

on a 7-point scale. Cronbach’s alpha will be used on all of these tests to ensure consistency and

validity.

To test the construct validity of the variables within the study, a multilevel confirmatory

factor analysis will be conducted. A two-factor model will test anger and hostility, and

perception of employee service. A separate multilevel confirmatory factor analysis will be

performed to test the construct validity of the manipulation check items. A two-factor model

with one factor composed of manipulation check items of depersonalisation, and one factor

composed of manipulation check items of emotional exhaustion will be tested. To test whether

the manipulations worked as intended, I will conduct a multilevel regression analysis where the

manipulation check items will be reverted on the manipulation cues in the vignettes. The

research hypothesis predicted that depersonalisation cues in the vignette would have a negative

effect on students’ customer service perceptions, these tests will prove that this hypothesis is

correct.
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Discussion

Customer service perception is an extremely important and relevant aspect of business

management to analyze. How customers perceive the quality of the customer service they are

receiving is typically directly related to the overall success or failure of a firm. If a business

analyzes how their customers view the service they receive from them and they are found to be

lacking in customer service, the firm should take the steps necessary to improve this

immediately. Amazon and other major successful retailers ask customers frequently to rate their

experience after each transaction through online surveys.

While customer service perception is key to a business’ success, so is each individual

employee. Employees should be properly trained on making a connection with the customer and

offering them customer service, instead of just being told to offer “good customer service”.

Employees also should receive mental health training. This would help employees deal with

typical stressors in the workplace and teach employees to take care of their mental state so less

employees are dealing with symptoms of burnout in the first place. This could decrease

employee burnout enough for it to be less of a concern in relation to the customer service that

that employees are administering.

Another example of a training that would benefit employees is a training on stress

management. Specifically, employees would be trained on what to do in certain high stress

scenarios. Paired with the trainings, employers can also administer quarterly anonymous surveys

to employees on how they are feeling within the workplace and encourage employees to make

suggestions that would benefit their wellbeing. This would show employees that their employer
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truly cares for their wellbeing, and the employer would receive suggestions that could improve

the way that they do business.

Many businesses have been conditioned over time to focus on the firm as a whole, rather

than looking at each individual piece that makes up the business. As shown in this study, it is

important to focus on the individual. By focusing on each individual employee’s knowledge of

how to administer proper customer service and how to avoid burnout, businesses can improve

the overall function of the workplace. Especially during these trying times, it is necessary for

firms to periodically check on the wellbeing of their employees and ensure that the employees

are maintaining a healthy work-life balance.As without a healthy balance we see the likelihood

for burnout exceeding and the want to work decreasing in time. This can be seen right now as in

hard times for employment are being faced, but yet no one wants to stay for a long period of time

in a job because of the strain that this time is placing on everyone and the overwhelming amount

of work being placed on people, thus leading to an exceedingly large number of burnout within

employees.

On a personal note, I have dealt with employee burnout firsthand because I experienced it

at my previous job. I worked at a department store for two years and I got to a point where I was

experiencing both emotional exhaustion and depersonalization in customer service interactions. I

was working constantly changing shifts (morning and night), working extra hours, and adapting

to all of the changes in policies that came from COVID-19. The environment at my job got

significantly worse after the pandemic started, and I witnessed the majority of my coworkers

going through the same thing as me. During my time there, I never received any formal customer

service training and my team was told to “just offer good customer service.”
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As someone that has been through employee burnout, I wish that I would have received

proper training on customer service and exactly what is expected. I also would have benefited

from mental health training and high stress training, as there were multiple occasions where

customers were injured in the store and I was unclear on what to do. In summary, employers

should ensure that they are training their employees thoroughly to avoid employee burnout and a

lower customer service perception.

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References

Ţîru, Laurenţiu Gabriel, and Cristina Opran. “The Presence of Burnout among Employees from a

Multinational Company in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Social Work

Review / Revista de Asistenta Sociala, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 135–147. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=sih&AN=149558943&site=eds-live.

Nesher Shoshan, Hadar, and Sabine Sonnentag. “The Effects of Employee Burnout on

Customers: An Experimental Approach.” Work & Stress, vol. 34, no. 2, Apr. 2020, pp.

127–147. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/02678373.2019.1577312.

Groth, M., Hennig-Thurau, T., & Walsh, G. (2009). Customer reactions to emotional labor: The

roles of employee acting strategies and customer detection accuracy. Academy of

Management Journal, 52, 958–974.

Maslach, C. (1978). The client role in staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 34, 111–124.

Achenbach, J. (2020). Coronavirus is harming the mental health of tens of millions of people in

U.S., new poll finds. Washington Post.

Kristensen, T., Borritz, M., Villadsen, E., & Christensen, K. (2005). The Copenhagen Burnout

Inventory: A new tool for the assessment of burnout. Work & Stress, 19(3), 192–207.

https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500297720

Çetin, Mehmet, et al. “An Investigation on Employees’ Methods of Coping with Stress in

the COVID-19 Outbreak Process.” Electronic Turkish Studies, vol. 15, no. 6, Oct. 2020,

pp. 323–338. EBSCOhost, doi:10.7827/TurkishStudies.44427.

Maslach, C. (2003). Job burnout: New directions in research and intervention. Current

Directions in Psychological Science, 12, 189–192.

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Rožman Maja, et al. “Occupational Stress, Symptoms of Burnout in the Workplace and

Work Satisfaction of the Age-Diverse Employees.” Organizacija, vol. 52, no. 1, Feb.

2019, pp. 46–52. EBSCOhost, doi:10.2478/orga-2019-0005.

Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands–

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Appendix 1

School librarian displaying depersonalization vignette

You are interacting with the school librarian to see if a book you need for a research

project is available to check out. You walk up to the service desk, and the librarian is sitting at

the desk typing on her computer. You stand for a few moments, and she does not look up.

“Excuse me,” you say to her as she continues typing. She continues typing, then slowly looks up

at you and stares after she’s done. You say to her: “Hello. I am looking for a book titled

Investigating Research Principles by Frank Jones.” She sighs and starts typing again on her

computer without a word. “It looks like we have it in stock; Aisle 34,” she says. You thank her

and she nods and does not respond. You go and find the book in Aisle 34 where she told you it

was located.