5 effective ways to cope with customer support burnout

Customer support is a very challenging line of work. And it can easily lead to customer support burnout. You frequently speak with people when they are most frustrated or vulnerable. They almost always have a question or problem that has to be resolved right away. Stress has an impact on your daily life, bringing a variety of problems ranging from trouble concentrating, and difficulty sleeping to increased frustration or impatience. This has an impact not just on our health and quality of life, but also on how successfully we work with others.

Things have gotten even more difficult since the pandemic. The complexities of needing to work remotely due to COVID-19 safety requirements add to the ordinary day-to-day stress of customer support agents. In this blog post, we’ll take a look at the causes of stress and the culprits of customer support burnout, and what can be done to alleviate the situation.

Why are customer support agents so prone to burnout?

People who have experienced burnout report diverse scenarios. But the resulting emotions are surprisingly similar. They are all affected by burnout as a continual condition of stress at work. This leads to feelings of full fatigue, disengagement, and, in many cases, powerlessness. Many people who are burnt out have trouble going to work every day. The reason is that they believe they have nothing left to give. As their productivity suffers, they frequently see no other option but to work longer hours. But they still struggle to keep up.

Let’s take a look at the reasons:

– Dealing with problems is what customer support is all about. One of the most important responsibilities of customer service is to listen to people’s issues and attempt to find solutions to them. That frequently entails dealing with people who are angry, in a hurry, or frustrated.

– Support agents are hired for their ability to empathize. Great customer service agents are frequently highly empathic. This puts them at risk of taking on some of the emotions of their customers, resulting in compassion fatigue.

– Customer service representatives are highly engaged. At the very least, in customer-centric organizations, the people who interact with customers are concerned about their needs and about doing a good job. Burnout is likely to occur with perfectionist approaches and many customers to deal with.

– The queue is never-ending. It doesn’t matter how quickly you work or how many tickets you resolve. You will never be able to completely solve every single problem out there. A sense of endlessness can result as a result of this situation.

– Customer service, as a job, is frequently underappreciated. A large number of businesses treat their customer care teams as underpaid and under-resourced. And they are not included in business decision-making processes.

5 ways to deal with customer support agents experiencing burnout

Considering root factors

Consider looking deeper into the root factors rather than simply dealing with the symptoms. Encourage your team members to be as specific as possible when describing the causes of their fatigue or frustration. It is possible that not all of the symptoms are related to work. But there may be specific workloads, situations, or persons who are adding to the issue that should be handled first.

Taking breaks

Taking breaks outside of lunchtime may seem like a crazy idea, but it’s possible. Short breaks are entirely fine at the office in some cases. But some may feel guilty for taking a personal break. Or they may not want to draw attention to themselves by doing so. But short breaks can boost our ability to concentrate on our tasks greatly. You can restore your energy and refresh your motivation to work, which has been depleted as a result of burnout, by taking regular breaks.

Providing immediate assistance

Remove some of the work from their load, provide a mental health day or a longer leave period, or simply set aside some time to listen to them. Try to provide them with some time and space. That way you can properly consider what they require in the long run.

Distributing workloads

Agents may not feel they have a voice or that they are unable to speak up in a rigid workplace. This translates into their professional lives, where they are required to implement strict policies. An organization that is short on staff may rely too heavily on their present employees. And it may demand excessive overtime or create onerous working hours to keep everything running. Try understanding how the workload is distributed and reprioritize to change things around.

Using an efficient CRM

Inefficient CRMs might affect the overall well-being of your agents negatively. This means your job is dependent on your computer systems. So, you have to deal with a malfunctioning or difficult system. This can be quite stressful. Waiting for computer systems to work as intended and finding workarounds, among other things, can convert a task that has the potential to be great into something that is a source of frustration.

Customer service professionals have bad days as much as everyone else. It’s critical to take care of your agents and resolve their issues effectively. Desk360 can assist you in adjusting the workload on every agent with strong features. Be sure to check out what Desk360 can do for your support staff today. And start treating your agents with the care that they deserve.