Employees’ Decision Making in the Face of Customers’ Fuzzy Return Requests

Frontline service employees frequently encounter customers’ fuzzy requests, defined as requests that are slightly or somewhat outside company policy but not completely unacceptable or detrimental to the company. Employees’ compliance decisions can profoundly affect customers, organizations, and employees themselves. However, the complex decision process in which service employees engage is largely unexplored. The authors draw from script and...