Customer support is not an easy job.
Agents must be patient, positive, and available at all times. The constant pressure of what meets customer needs, handling dissatisfaction, and working long hours often leads to what is known as burnout.
What is a burnout?
Burnout is a set of symptoms that derives from a chronic and persistent stress condition, associated with the work context.
Burnout occurs when employees face an enormous amount of stress that is not communicated and managed properly. Eventually they begin to feel apathy towards their work.
Why are we talking about the support team's own burnout?
The support team is the one who is most in contact with customers and their problems, so they often hear complaints and frustrations from customers who are often dissatisfied or stressed.
Stress that must be managed well precisely because the support team is the one that more than any other interfaces with customers.
The effects that burnout has on our mental and physical health can have serious consequences for your business that should not be underestimated.
What are the 3 most common reasons for burnout in the support team?
1. Unfair treatment
Working in a peaceful environment allows you to work more efficiently and avoid burnout.
If employees have the opportunity to have schedules, they will certainly feel more motivated to do better and better. Flexibility should be a priority nowadays.
Also, in case you are still using a traditional phone system, take into account that you have less streamlined and more cumbersome processes. Furthermore, their use is not at all simple and generates frustration and anger.
This is why you should consider moving to a cloud solution, such as Voxloud. This way, your agents can work from where they will have full freedom.
2. Lack of clarity of role
If agents don't have clear directions on what to do and what activities to do exactly, they will work male and feel confused and dissatisfied.
Also, make sure your employees align with your company's vision. To be determined and satisfied, agents must know the business objective and truly believe in it, otherwise, they will truly lose their dignity.
3. Lack of managerial support
Your employees are definitely top-notch professionals who can handle customer relationships on their own. However, what you shouldn't miss is support. Compliment them on their assigned goals. Give them feedback on the work done, you will see that in this way they will feel compelled to do more and more.
If employees don't grow up and renew to repeat the same mistakes, they will become frustrated and may feel helpless.
Keep in mind that mistakes that are not checked and discussed to be fixed become a bad habit.
Support team burnout symptoms
Burnout is dangerous not only for individuals, but also for the company because the performance of companies as well as damage the corporate image towards customers who have had negative experiences.
What are the 5 symptoms of employee burnout?
1. Physical problems
Support team anxiety has a major impact on mental health. Here the psychologists speak of fatigue followed by insomnia, anxiety, loss of appetite and even severe depression.
Employees may seem bored or indifferent to their work. They may lose motivation, get to work too late, or leave too soon.
2. Pessimistic approach
Do you have that agent who constantly smiles? But suddenly, that happy person lost the spark.
Sure, everyone can have a bad day. But if someone starts complaining about minor issues or expressing dissatisfaction too often, it could be cause for distress.
3. Isolation
Agents who wish to be anywhere other than their workplace will naturally stop conversing with colleagues. They can also turn away from customers and lose the will to provide support. This negatively affects customer satisfaction.
4. Negligence
It is difficult to focus properly with physical symptoms, such as constant headache, fatigue, or pain. Your agents may start making major mistakes in minor tasks and even in important tasks
How to avoid support team burnout?
Rather than solving burnout when the agent is already at its peak, it's best to avoid it all happening at the same time.
We have collected 2 tips on how to act to prevent it.
1. Incentive your employees
If your employee performs well, you are the one who should reward him and show recognition. Rewarding good work has been shown to lead to greater employee satisfaction, less employee abandonment, and reduces the risk of burnout.
Consider giving incentives to call center agents. The key to success is identifying the behavior that has the greatest impact on your bottom line. Then, find a way to recognize the best results.
While cash prizes are always welcome, incentives don't necessarily have to involve money. You can customize it and offer a reward that suits your employees' personal tastes.
Working in a peaceful environment allows you to work more efficiently and avoid burnout.
If employees have the opportunity to have schedules, they will certainly feel more motivated to do better and better. Flexibility should be a priority nowadays.
Also, in case you are still using a traditional phone system, take into account that you have less streamlined and more cumbersome processes. Furthermore, their use is not at all simple and generates frustration and anger.
This is why you should consider moving to a cloud solution, such as Voxloud. This way, your agents can work from where they will have full freedom.
2. Lack of clarity of role
If agents don't have clear directions on what to do and what activities to do exactly, they will work male and feel confused and dissatisfied.
Also, make sure your employees align with your company's vision. To be determined and satisfied, agents must know the business objective and truly believe in it, otherwise, they will truly lose their dignity.
3. Lack of managerial support
Your employees are definitely top-notch professionals who can handle customer relationships on their own. However, what you shouldn't miss is support. Compliment them on their assigned goals. Give them feedback on the work done, you will see that in this way they will feel compelled to do more and more.
If employees don't grow up and renew to repeat the same mistakes, they will become frustrated and may feel helpless.
Keep in mind that mistakes that are not checked and discussed to be fixed become a bad habit.
Support team burnout symptoms
Burnout is dangerous not only for individuals, but also for the company because the performance of companies as well as damage the corporate image towards customers who have had negative experiences.
What are the 5 symptoms of employee burnout?
1. Physical problems
Support team anxiety has a major impact on mental health. Here the psychologists speak of fatigue followed by insomnia, anxiety, loss of appetite and even severe depression.
Employees may seem bored or indifferent to their work. They may lose motivation, get to work too late, or leave too soon.
2. Pessimistic approach
Do you have that agent who constantly smiles? But suddenly, that happy person lost the spark.
Sure, everyone can have a bad day. But if someone starts complaining about minor issues or expressing dissatisfaction too often, it could be cause for distress.
3. Isolation
Agents who wish to be anywhere other than their workplace will naturally stop conversing with colleagues. They can also turn away from customers and lose the will to provide support. This negatively affects customer satisfaction.
4. Negligence
It is difficult to focus properly with physical symptoms, such as constant headache, fatigue, or pain. Your agents may start making major mistakes in minor tasks and even in important tasks
How to avoid support team burnout?
Rather than solving burnout when the agent is already at its peak, it's best to avoid it all happening at the same time.
We have collected 2 tips on how to act to prevent it.
1. Incentive your employees
If your employee performs well, you are the one who should reward him and show recognition. Rewarding good work has been shown to lead to greater employee satisfaction, less employee abandonment, and reduces the risk of burnout.
Consider giving incentives to call center agents. The key to success is identifying the behavior that has the greatest impact on your bottom line. Then, find a way to recognize the best results.
While cash prizes are always welcome, incentives don't necessarily have to involve money. You can customize it and offer a reward that suits your employees' personal tastes.
For example, if an agent likes to read, offer a coupon at the bookstore. If an employee likes movies, offer a free Netflix membership.
2. Improve support team training
What can you do to improve a company? Focus on training your employees so they can be more and more productive.
This is a subject that is often overlooked but staff training is very important.
It enhances team formation by trying to encourage teamwork. Improve communication and problem-solving skills, get better employee engagement, better retention and greater employee satisfaction. Hence, better customer service.
But always remember that training without the aid of efficient tools will not lead you to satisfactory results. This is why the cloud phone system is the perfect solution that combines efficiency with flexibility.
How can a cloud phone system help the support team and reduce the risk of burnout?
Through the training of the support team. In fact, with a cloud phone system you can record calls and use them for training programs to understand how to manage customers and make them happy.
In addition, a cloud phone system has features that allow the support team to manage both customers and their requests more easily and quickly.
Think, for example, of the integrations with CRMs, with address books and finally the very simplicity with which voxloud was created that does not waste time and therefore you can manage customer requests calmly and focus.
Best regards,
Leonardo Coppola
