“The customer is not always right”: why abuse of customer-facing staff must stop

If you talk to anyone working on the frontline — in shops, call centres, hospitals, buses, bars, or airports — you’ll hear the same story: hostility is rising. Over the past two years, the UK has seen a sharp increase in abuse and violence towards people whose job is simply to serve the public. This isn’t just a “retail problem”; it’s a cross-sector issue with human, commercial, and societal costs.

What’s changed — and why it matters

• Incidents are at record levels in retail. The British Retail Consortium’s latest survey reports over 2,000 incidents of violence and abuse every day across UK retail in 2023/24 — more than 50% higher than the previous year and more than four times 2020 levels. Alarmingly, around 70 incidents a day involved a weapon.
• Shoplifting has surged — and abuse often comes with it. Police-recorded shoplifting in England and Wales rose 20% year on year to 530,643 offences in the 12 months to March 2025, the highest since the current recording began. Rising theft drives more confrontations with staff and fuels fear at work.
• Abuse goes beyond retail. In the NHS, 1 in 7 staff (14.38%) experienced physical violence from patients or the public in 2024, up from 2023. Hospitality, transport and other service sectors report similar trends, with the Institute of Customer Service highlighting a widespread rise in hostility.
• People are thinking of walking away. Research linked to the Institute of Customer Service found nearly 40% of customer service workers who’ve experienced abuse have considered quitting, which threatens service quality, morale and retention.

The costs are huge: lost working days, recruitment headaches in already tight labour markets, higher security spend, and the hidden toll on wellbeing and confidence at work.

The policy response is shifting

Policymakers and industry bodies have pushed for stronger protections. The UK Government’s Crime and Policing Bill proposes a new, standalone offence of assaulting a retail worker, carrying up to six months’ imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine, with a presumption of Criminal Behaviour Orders on first conviction. (Scotland already has a specific offence.)

At the same time, industry pressure is mounting to extend protections beyond shops. A coalition of major employers has urged the government to cover all public-facing workers, citing sharp rises in threats, racial abuse and sexual harassment across sectors.

Tech, tactics and tensions on the high street

Retailers are experimenting with new measures — from body-worn cameras to facial recognition pilots aimed at identifying repeat offenders. Sainsbury’s, for example, began an eight-week trial in two stores in August/September 2025. Supporters say such tools can deter violence; critics raise proportionality and privacy concerns. The Information Commissioner has also warned against “wanted” posters of suspected offenders, reminding businesses to handle personal data lawfully.

The point is clear: there’s no silver bullet. Technology can help, but it must sit within a wider prevention-and-support approach.

What organisations can do now

Here’s a practical, people-centred playbook any employer of customer-facing teams can adopt:

1. Adopt (and enforce) a clear zero-abuse policy.
   Publish it at entrances, on till points, on receipts and online. Make it short, visible, and unambiguous: abuse (verbal or physical) will lead to refusal of service and may be reported to the police. Back words with actions so colleagues trust the policy.
2. Design for de-escalation.
   Train teams in early-warning cues and calm-language techniques; give them “permission to pause” (e.g., step away and call a manager) and agree on consistent responses to common flashpoints (age-restricted sales, returns, queue disputes). Pair communication training with scenario drills. Usdaw’s latest survey shows three-quarters of shopworkers reported verbal abuse, and over half were threatened — skills and confidence matter.
3. Engineer safer environments.
   Improve sightlines and lighting; set up safe back-of-house routes; use two-person close procedures at hot spots; position panic alarms where hands naturally fall; consider body-worn video where proportionate and risk-assessed. Re-layout areas tied to disputes (self-checkout, alcohol, high-value items) so staff aren’t isolated.
4. Plan incident management end-to-end.
   Simple reporting, quick triage, and a clear threshold for police escalation. Share CCTV with police lawfully and swiftly; don’t use public “shaming” displays. Record every incident, including near-misses — data drives smarter staffing and layout decisions.
5. Support your people after incidents.
   Offer immediate time-out, paid recovery time for serious incidents, access to counselling/trauma support, and follow-up check-ins. Communicate outcomes (within legal limits) so colleagues see that reports lead to action.
6. Work with neighbours and the local force.
   Join Business Crime Reduction Partnerships, share “ban” data through compliant schemes, and take part in joint operations around known spikes (paydays, evenings, events). When the ONS shows shoplifting at a two-decade high, coordinated prevention pays.
7. Use proportionate tech and measure impact.
   If trialling facial recognition or similar tools, complete a Data Protection Impact Assessment, involve your DPO, consult staff, and measure not just shrinkage but staff perceptions of safety. Keep retention under review — abuse is a churn driver.
8. Lobby with your data.
   Feed anonymised incident stats into industry efforts such as the Institute of Customer Service’s Service with Respect campaign, which has helped push the national debate and policy response.

For leaders: set the tone

People copy what leaders tolerate. Make “respect for colleagues” a visible cultural value — celebrate great service but never at the expense of staff safety. Build guardrails into KPIs so speed and sales targets don’t unintentionally nudge people to take risks (e.g., chasing thieves). Ensure managers know when to back colleagues to walk away from an unsafe interaction.

For the public: let’s reset expectations

Most customers are courteous. But the minority who aren’t affect everyone. It’s time to say, collectively, that abuse is not part of the job. That means accepting reasonable ID checks, stock limits, and queue systems; understanding that frontline staff don’t set prices or policies; and remembering there’s a person on the other side of the counter.

The bottom line

Abuse of customer-facing workers is rising — over 2,000 incidents a day in retail, one in seven NHS staff physically assaulted, and shoplifting at a 20-year high — and it’s bleeding into every sector. The developing legal framework is welcome, but employers can’t wait for statute alone. With clear policies, smarter design, confident training, proportionate tech, and genuine post-incident care, we can protect the people who keep our services running.