“In the customer’s shoes”. Lived experiences of front line service workers and managerial use of identification with customers

The literature on Front Line Service Workers (FLSW) has shown the existence of deep contradictions within their lived experience of interactions with customers. On one side, as stressed by Hochschild, the transmutation of private feelings required by the emotional labor is a source of alienation. On the other side, a body of research showed that interactions with customers are pointed out by service workers as one of the main positive aspects of their job, reducing monotony and providing unmanaged spaces where the discretionary of workers could reach medium-high levels. Moreover, the relationship with customers can be gratifying for FLSW who feel themselves useful. The crucial point is that FLSW are able to perceive the satisfaction of customers because, in many cases, they themselves are customers, sometimes in the same store they are working for. Therefore, in these cases, stepping into the customer’ shoes is almost instinctive for many FLSW. The paper focuses on the identification of FLSW with customers, which plays a central role in their lived working experience and that makes FLSW strongly different from workers employed in manufacturing sectors. Our aim is twofold: 1. On one hand, we will analyse how the identification process can be functionally promoted and used by the managers, as part of the empirical research (specifically direct observation of training classes) highlighted. On this regards, also the recruitment and selection of FLSW has to be taken into account. In fact, FLSW are often selected among (potential) customers as they know the products, they like the brand, they are similar to customers they will encounter and therefore the relations with them is easier. In some cases – for instance in clothing stores (young fashion, sportswear) - they hand the corporate image on. 2. On the other hand, we will compare the cases where the identification of FLSW with customers is easy and almost instinctive with cases where it is less obvious. In particular we will take into consideration the case of betting centers, where the identification between FLSW and customers is rare, and the case of high fashion retail outlets, where identification can be wished by FLSW but hindered by social distance. The research is based on semi-structured interviews with more than 50 FLSW with different roles (sales assistants, with and without specific skills, supervisors, cashiers) and with some training supervisors. Ethnographic observations have been carried out in training classes - for fast food workers and fashion salespersons - and in stores. The field has been accomplished in Italy, involving subjects working for medium/large size stores in different sectors (betting centers, electronic, fast-foods, garments, supermarkets) and sale assistants working for high fashion retail shops in the high-class shopping district in the centre of the Italian city of Milan.