Dousing the flames of agent burnout

Burnout drains away worker productivity and causes feelings of disillusion. It adversely impacts productivity and can lead to higher rates of attrition. It’s insidious and apt to pop up anywhere, if not addressed comprehensively. It’s so widespread, in fact, that many countries are working to combat it.

There aren’t many places where burnout rears its head so quickly or ferociously as in a customer contact center, where emotions run high and agents are subjected to a barrage of customer issues on a daily basis. The sheer volume of customer complaints and rants that your agents must patiently listen to and address can make them more susceptible to burnout than any other employee.

Causes: 

• Long shifts that take a toll on your agents’ health.
• Unrealistic targets that overwork your agents and encourage them to take more tickets than they can handle.
• Lack of proper tools to resolve tickets more efficiently.
• Insufficient training that leaves your agents ill-equipped to handle situations.
• Stringent policies regarding customer interactions can leave agents enervated after every customer interaction.

Effects:

• Emotionally exhausted from the interactions, your agents might not be able to listen and process issues properly, which will adversely impact the quality of your customer service.
• When the stress becomes too much to bear, some agents might vent to their customers.
• The health issues that accompany long shifts at a desk force agents to take extended leaves, leading to a loss of productivity.
• The demanding nature of the job and accompanying burnout can lead to attrition. The last thing you want is to lose out on good agents?

Solutions:

• Establish clear goals: Working aimlessly can get exhausting. Set objectives that focus on maximizing productivity, and emphasizing quality interactions over the number of tickets addressed. This way, your agents can deliver better results without getting too stressed.

• Unload your agents with a tech solution:  During ticket surges, especially after the holiday season and or during product releases, your agents can be get overwhelmed. In this case, automate trivial tasks so that your agents can focus on improving their customer interactions. Employing gamification in the workplace does make customer service more enjoyable—just like playing a game.
• Listen to feedback from your agents: Discover the root causes of burnout by discussing it with your agents. Whether you’re doing one-on-one sessions or group meetings, what your agents have to say is incredibly valuable for learning what is troubling them and what kind of solution works best for them.

Whatever the issues are, they can be overcome. Think of yourself as the employee help desk, and you’ll go far.