April 9th, 2006

Hello!

Superb customer service is key to make loyal advocates out of your customers.

In this issue:

1. Stress wearing you thin?
2. Fr//ee Magazine of the Month: CRM magazine
3. CustomerServicePoint.com Info

Stress wearing you thin?

It isn’t something that can be avoided no matter how hard you may try. If you have never experienced this, keep reading and some light will be shed in regard to the situation many customer service agents find themselves in after working in a call center after even just a short while.

Let’s start by thinking about the most common type of stress a customer service agent will experience, which is dealing with customers on the phone. It may not seem like something that would or should bring on a lot of stress to someone but think of it this way: Everyone has had to take the time to call their phone company or their power company because something isn’t right. You may be upset about how high the bill is this month, or feel you shouldn’t be responsible for a long distance call you never authorized.

The person answering the call you make is a customer service representative who is acting on behalf of the company you are calling. In the end, the customer service agent is the one who gets the brunt of angry customer calls. And they won’t be dealing with just your one phone call; they will be dealing with angry customers on a daily basis, all day long.

It is simply the nature of the business.

Customer service agents must have thick skin, and learn how to relief stress or deal with this type of stress if they are going to be doing this job for any kind of lengthy period.

In addition to the previous mentioned stress condition of working in a customer service call center, there are many other variables that can add to the stress, and in a big way.

Working schedules usually vary widely from call center to call center, making it impossible for an employee to feel secure in their current schedules because they know it can change anytime.

For a customer service agent who has a family at home that depends on them to be there, this can be very stressful even on a day to day business. Payment is low, and the possibility that your job may be outsourced to a low-wage country is very real.

And not to mention policies and procedures when it comes to what you say on the phone to customers. A lot of times call centers will place strict adherence rules to their scripts, leaving little to no room for flexibility.

What this means to customer service agents is that they have to worry about whether they forgot the littlest of things like saying please or thank you to a customer, as these things can bring negative consequences to an employee. When you know you are constantly scrutinized for your words and actions at all times, who wouldn’t become stressed?

Quotas are another big stress factor in a call center environment.

When up-sells or service levels are a constant pressure, stress is sure to find it’s way into the equation... quickly.

Being a customer service agent is not an easy job to do because of the many demands placed on you as an employee.

Stress Statistics

How to Relief Stress

The first thing to remember is to recognize when the stress hits you. If you can’t do that, it is impossible to deal with it. You won't be able to relief stress.

Once you recognize the reasons for your stress, take the time to figure out the small things you can do to improve your working conditions in regard to the particular issue.

For example, if you are just fed up with angry customers and don’t know if you can handle even one more day in talking to them, do some breathing exercises before work. Get up in the morning, take a nice walk and on the way to work, simply breathe. Before you walk in that door, smile and keep your head up knowing you are ready to face the world and whatever it throws at you for the day.

It doesn’t hurt to keep in mind that it’s just another day and it will be over soon. Taking it one day at a time can save you a lot of grief when trying to deal with stress.

You may have heard this throughout your life, and it definitely plays a factor in handling stressful situations at work too: If you have a problem, don’t just complain about it, find a solution! By no means will you be able to figure out how to get angry customers from calling you, or be able to make the call center you work for change their policies on script adherence no matter how silly you think the script is. But you can take steps to make sure that you handle the factors you can control yourself, and relief stress.

The result will be a less stressful working environment for you.

There are many more strategies to keep stress levels low. One of the best books on the subject I have ever read is "Why make yourself Crazy?" by G. Gaynor McTigue. I love it, because it doesn't throw loads of stress theory at you, but it gives you 300 very practicle, doable strategies to reduce the many stress causes in your life. I highly recommend you check it out!

Fr//ee magazine of the Month

CRM magazine aims to assist senior managers to identify how to maintain and gain profitable customers, generate loyalty and reduce business costs.

Unfortunately, this offer is only available to US professionals. (Not from the US? Check out this list of publications that may be available to you)

Qualify for a fr//ee year subscription to CRM Magazine.

CustomerServicePoint.com Info

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Customer Servings is the newsletter for www.customerservicepoint.com, your resource on improving customer service. The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals.

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If you have any suggestions for subjects you would like to see in future issues, or have comments in general on Customer Servings or Customer Service Point, please contact me.

We welcome your remarks!

(C) 2006, Erwin & Marjan Steneker