Developing a Typology of Misbehaving Customers: An Observational Study of Airport Travelers

Abstract

The customer is King, or at least that is what we are told. But some Kings choose to misbehave and take advantage over service recoveries, service providers, and organizations. Customer misbehavior can be found as a broad range of intentional or unintentional actions and behaviors and can impact both the service experience of their own, other observing customers, the service provider in question, and whole organizations. In this study we developed a model capable of predicting customer misbehavior, making it possible for service providers and organizations to predict customer misbehavior before the service encounter in order to initiate measures to prevent the misbehavior from happening. We have done this by conducting an observational study of 509 subjects at one of Norway’s busiest airports. We collected data of all subjects through 27 different variables, enabling us to build 4 different models. In addition to building a model predicting misbehavior with 83.6% accuracy, the other models made us aware of factors significantly influencing the probability of misbehavior and the severity of this misbehavior. These findings enabled us to construct a typology consisting of 7 different categories. These are (1) The stressed group member, (2) Female Fury, (3) The Check-In Rager, (4) The Impolite Norwegian, (5) The Sceptic Age Discriminant, (6) The Stressed Bully, and (7) The Impatient White Collar. This typology can help service providers detect potential misbehavers more easily and can help organizations develop strategies and guidelines on how to deal with these types of misbehavers.