As the Christmas trading period hits its most intense phase, research suggests some technologies designed to protect frontline retail staff may be inadvertently adding to workplace stress, a risk that carries direct consequences for customer service.
A study from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) has found that while traditional surveillance tools such as CCTV can reduce employee stress linked to customer aggression, wearable technologies like safety alert watches can cause more stress to employees who are uncomfortable with technology.
The research, Reducing the Impact of Customer Aggression: Examining the Interaction of Technology, Employee Job Stress and Technology Discomfort, was led by Professor Gary Mortimer and Dr Shasha Wang from the QUT School of Advertising, Marketing & PR and published in the International Journal of Human–Computer Interaction.
Customer Aggression is Reshaping Service
Dealing with aggressive customers has become a significant challenge for frontline retail and service staff, especially during busy shopping periods. A 2023 Australian survey of retail and fast-food workers found that 87 percent had experienced customer abuse, up from 56 percent just two years earlier. The country’s Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Union also reported rising levels of physical abuse, sexual harassment and racially motivated abuse, which have affected nearly a quarter of respondents.
Professor Mortimer said:
“Since the pandemic, we have seen rates of customer aggression increase across the retail and fast food sectors. During the busy Christmas period, customer aggression really peaks, driven by frustration, car park chaos, crowding and busy shopping centers.”
The QUT findings reinforce a February 2025 report from employee experience firm Perceptyx, which highlights the scale of the issue across customer-facing roles. Surveying more than 21,000 frontline employees, Perceptyx found that 53 percent had recently encountered customers who were “verbally abusive, threatening, or unruly”. That climbed to 61 percent among retail workers.
Retail employees exposed to unruly customers were significantly more likely to feel unsafe and disengaged, with 81 per cent reporting burnout and more than half actively looking for a new job.
In response, retailers, unions and industry bodies have invested heavily in safety and surveillance technologies, including CCTV, facial recognition technology, body-worn cameras and wearable duress devices. But do they work?
The QUT study explored how different tools affect how safe and in control frontline workers feel when dealing with customers, and whether those measures actually ease job stress, which plays a big role in staff engagement, retention and the quality of customer interactions.
The research drew on three studies with more than 600 frontline workers across retail and service roles. It confirmed that dealing with aggressive customers clearly increases job stress, but also showed that not all safety measures land the same way with employees, according to Mortimer.
