VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Snapping at a call centre worker may reduce the service you get back according to a new study.

UBC researcher David Walker says he was surprised by what they found and thought it would be the opposite.

They found rudeness could mean a significant reduction in service quality.

“We found that the employee’s personality matters in how they respond to customer rudeness or uncivil treatment,” he says.

He says as a customer we are in part responsible for the type of service we get.

“The way we treat service employees can also have a negative impact on the psychological health of service employees. On the managerial side, managers need to make sure they’re creating the right expectations for employees to have in their interactions with customers and also selecting the right people in term of their personality.”