Recent literature in the area of employee–customer interactions suggests that stressful encounters contribute to negative outcomes for service employees. Few studies, however, have focused on the effects of customer‐related social stressors (CSS) on counterproductive work behavior (CWB) among front‐line service employees. The researchers tested a moderated mediation model of the effects of CSS on CWB with the key objective of exploring the mediation effects of emotional exhaustion and the moderating effects of emotional intelligence on this relationship. Based on a sample of 244 call center representatives in China, the research revealed that CSS led to emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, related to CWB for service employees. Furthermore, emotional intelligence acted as a buffer on the effects of CSS on CWB via emotional exhaustion.