Up and cross-selling to uncivil customers: The dual moderating roles of managerial directives and selling approaches

Abstract

Dealing with customer incivility is a persistent challenge in retail sales, often depleting employees' resources and thereby impairing performance. This study investigates how managerial guidance can assist frontline employees in converting negative encounters into sales opportunities. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory, we investigate how managerial directives and selling approaches shape employee responses to customer incivility, particularly in relation to upselling and cross-selling behaviors. Field studies and experiments show that incivility typically reduces employees' willingness to engage in conflict-solving behavior. However, selling-oriented managerial directives mitigate this effect by encouraging sales closure, whereas customer-oriented directives may exacerbate the strain. Furthermore, our findings highlight the importance of selling approaches: a promotion-focused selling approach enhances cross-selling behavior, while a prevention-focused approach strengthens upselling. These insights offer retail managers practical guidance on managing challenging customer interactions, enabling employees to maintain high performance and capitalize on difficult situations to achieve sales goals.