Research reveals that people of color are accustomed to discrimination in stores and may not always perceive poor customer service.

People from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups tend to rate poor customer service less negatively than white people, according to New peer-reviewed research We co-authored.

Many companies in the service sector, such as banks and airlines, use customer satisfaction surveys so that they can learn how to improve their operations. There is an implicit assumption that the comments provided will accurately reflect the actual quality of the service provided.

comp You might also assume That customers, regardless of their socioeconomic background, will give similar ratings to good service – and that People will recognize Bad or discriminatory service when they are subjected to it.

Our research team wanted to know if this was indeed the case.

In our first study, we recruited nine male small-business owners in Los Angeles to act as “mystery shoppers” to help us compare the treatment of different ethnic groups. They had similar ages, heights, builds, and education. Three were black, three were Hispanic and three were white.

We then sent the men, who were wearing matching shirts and trousers, to a total of 69 banks to request a loan based on identical customer profiles. They also secretly recorded the meetings using a camera attached to their shirt—a method approved by the state attorney general’s office. After each meeting ended, the participants filled out a questionnaire describing the experience, including their level of satisfaction.

Overall, we found that participants, regardless of race or ethnicity, reported similar levels of satisfaction during bank encounters. since the previous search Finding that Hispanic and Black customers experience worse treatment objectively, we wanted to dig deeper into understanding why levels of satisfaction are similar.

We analyzed 26 videos to see if there were objective discrepancies in how we dealt with our mystery shoppers. We found that black and Hispanic participants were given significantly less time than white participants, waited longer to see a bank employee, and experienced other subtle forms of discrimination.

We wanted to see how prevalent these different perceptions of good and bad customer service are for people from underrepresented groups. In two additional studies, we recruited more than 300 people from diverse backgrounds to watch clips of these videos showing positive and negative interactions and assessing encounters. We found that while all groups rated positive scenarios similarly, Hispanic viewers tended to perceive negative experiences in a better light than white viewers.

Research has shown that discrimination in interactions between customers and service sector personnel is often It is difficult to detect and fix. This is particularly challenging when prejudices are subtle and less obvious in insults These are often referred to as microaggressions.

Unfortunately, customers from underrepresented ethnic or racial groups may become indifferent, irritating, or even accept repeated discriminatory service over time. In one-on-one exchanges in places such as bank branches, customers may be less aware of discriminatory service because they are unable to directly compare the service they receive with that of other customers. So relying on customer feedback to detect service failures could be a bad way to fix discriminatory behaviour.

Research has shown Discrimination in financial services has far-reaching implications for underrepresented consumers. They include the inability to obtain a loan or mortgage, accumulate savings, and build wealth. Financial services institutions reputation for distinction It also makes it difficult for these companies to attract employees and customers.

To avoid these problems, we believe managers should find more objective ways to assess discriminatory treatment of underrepresented clients and find ways to improve.

We believe that more research is needed on the underlying assumptions that managers make in tracking, evaluating and eliminating discriminatory behavior – which is, in our view, the ultimate failure of service.

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