Abstract
Customer-service training aims to produce staff who are better at dealing with customers. This article examines the social-psychological framework of the customer-server interaction and identifies important factors responsible either for “bad” or “good” relations. Anxiety arising out of negative factors, eg social distance between the participants to the interaction, or an inability to make sense of or to control the hospitality environment, can result in a retreat into “roles” and “stereotyping” which increases the probability of inappropriate responses. Management must find ways to control and simplify the environment while still allowing the staff scope for initiative.