Customers want a valuable customer experience to feel like their needs or problems are appreciated. Did you know that 80% of customers feel the experience a company offers is as important as their products and services? Retaining customers is a top priority for organizations, but the mental health of your agents should also be important. If your agents are burnt out or have poor mental health as a result of the job, it is going to negatively affect your customer experience and your organizational goals. Keep reading to learn how the mental health of your agents can impact customer experience and how you can fix it.
Related Post: CX Statistics You Need To Know for 2022.
Agent Burnout
Contact center stress syndrome can be described as agents experiencing chronic stress from factors such as unmanageable expectations or lack of a work-life balance. Some potential signs of contact center stress syndrome include any or all of the below symptoms:
Consistently making the same errors
Constant pessimism
Irritability
Decreased productivity
Depleted energy
Feeling isolated
One great thing that came from the pandemic was the open discussions of mental health in the workplace. Agent burnout has been around for years, yet companies are just now shifting their focus to make the mental health of agents a bigger priority. Customer engagement is continuing to grow year over year which has led 70% of agents to report feeling overwhelmed! Call centers have a high demand, low control environment which means that there is a high demand in the job requirements and low control in the autonomy of your agents’ ability to manage the workload. This type of environment is how agent burnout occurs. There are a variety of reasons for agent burnout, but we have a few main explanations for the cause in organizations:
Repetitive work
In call centers, agents usually have to perform tasks and answer similar questions over and over again each day. This leads to them feeling unmotivated and less stimulated in their work which leaves little room for enjoyment.
Lack of career advancement
While agents have to perform monotonous tasks every day, and there tends to be little motivation in their work, it leads employees to question what more they need to do to move forward in their careers. Lack of career advancement can make agents question their work and can lead to poor mental health and an even more unsatisfactory customer service experience.
We’ve made career development for our customer service agents and other employees a priority, making big bets on great people fast! ! For example, our own CEO, Sam Falletta, started on the phones as an agent, which shows that employees at Incept have multiple opportunities to grow.
Difficult customers
Agents are the initial point of contact for inquiries, so they are often the first to be judged by customers. Agents can be seen as the "bad guys" even when they are doing as much as they can to help the customer, which can lead to an increase in stress and less enjoyment in their work. Did you know that 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress? While great agents have resilience in dealing with angry or difficult customers most days, those constant interactions can lead to depression and feeling overwhelmed by those exchanges.
Work volume
Like it has been stated previously, call centers are high-demand businesses that involve huge volumes of customer inquiries each day. The number of calls per agent greatly depends on the program or client they are serving. Here at Incept, a full-time customer service agent can take upwards of 300 calls in a day, and some of those calls cannot be solved in the first pass. When employees say they have enough time to complete their work, they are 70% less likely to experience high burnout. But, because of the volume of calls and the demand of the job, agents are more likely to feel overwhelmed, stressed, and emotionally and mentally exhausted.
Effects on Business
We all know that happy employees make happy customers, but the same can be said for the inverse:
Call center stress and mental health are serious issues that need to be prioritized going into the new year. Customer support roles are really difficult, and an agent’s wellness can easily be overlooked in such a high-demand environment. Did you know that 55% of agents say that a supportive work environment is the most important thing they need to do their job well? But, what are the effects on your business and your customer experience when agents are not effectively supported and contact center stress syndrome takes hold?
First, the customer lifetime value drops. Did you know 9 out of 10 customers say they're willing to pay more to ensure a good customer experience? But, to have a good customer experience, your company must focus on the agent experience as well. Therefore, spending the time and money ensuring a healthy mental space for your agents is crucial in retaining customers and bringing in new ones.
Next, your company can develop a bad reputation from bad customer service that was caused by agent burnout. Your company’s reputation is a valuable tool to help with organizational success. In the U.S., 90% of customers tell their networks about their service experiences. This reality makes it even more important for businesses to put in the effort to support the mental health of their agents.
Lastly, your company can lose profit from the bad customer service that results from agent burnout. If your team cannot retain current customers or attract new ones, your company will not be able to bring in those new sales. Did you know that companies in the U.S. lose $1.6 trillion because of customers jumping to competitors due to poor customer service? Therefore, if your organization takes into consideration the importance of agent happiness, then customer satisfaction and profits will follow!
Want to learn about the ways to give customer support a human touch? Read more here.
How to Fix Burnout and Create a Better Experience
Your agents are at risk of burnout and poor mental health because of the demand of the job. But, call center stress is not inevitable. The best part about all of this is that companies are taking the mental health of employees more seriously and implementing better practices to help reduce call center stress and increase employee and customer satisfaction. Let’s talk about some valuable ways to help with mental health, burnout, and overall organizational success:
Improve call center training
Employees need to feel comfortable being thrown into taking calls on their own and that only comes with adequate training and practice. Training is not just for new employees, it is for everyone. In a research study, it was discovered that 74% of workers believe a lack of training is their most notable limitation to reaching their full work potential. Once your agents are out of structured training, there can be a fine line between call monitoring and micromanaging, so make sure you keep that in mind.
Direct access to management support
With most agents still working from home, the job can feel a bit isolating, so having a designated person they can reach out to for support and help makes them feel more a part of a team. Also, around 10% of customer service agents need to talk to a subject matter expert or management to get answers for customers. So, having open communication with management in the workplace (in-office or virtual) is crucial to help not only with questions they may have but also with mental health and stress.
Encourage breaks & mental health days
With more employees working virtually, 25% of Americans are struggling to justify time off. But, mental health days and breaks in a virtual work environment are key to helping relieve stress and decrease agency burnout. Providing your agents with flexible scheduling, taking breaks for 30 minutes daily, or walking away from their desk for lunch are great ways to help virtual or in-office employees to alleviate stress and anxiety in the workplace. Another great way to help the mental health of employees is to implement mental health days. For example, some companies have “Flexi Fridays” that help employees to change their schedule around busy times such as childcare, doctor’s appointments, and more.
Learn how to humanize CX strategies in an increasingly virtual workplace.
Reward and recognition
An article stated that nearly 25% of employees feel the most memorable recognition came from a high-level leader. Since the pandemic, InceptGives hands out gift cards to local restaurants in the Canton, OH area to select employees to show their appreciation. It is a great way for management to show employees they care and make employees feel recognized! Employees are excited about being recognized for their hard work along with being able to support a small business. Therefore, celebrating team success can address mental health and call center stress before it even becomes a real issue.
Consider personal external factors
Nearly 60% of people have never discussed mental health at work. Being a call center agent can already be stressful, yet employees also have stress and anxiety in their personal lives as well. So, your company needs to implement a safe, open space to allow employees to speak honestly. Other employees should not jump to conclusions on why an agent’s work is lagging, but rather listen to what is going on in their lives. For example, during the pandemic (and still currently), Incept hired an on-site counselor for employees that needed that safe, open space to discuss their issues in work or in life. By prioritizing your employees and their mental health, your company can get ahead of the curve and have organizational success.
Want to learn about how Incept is dealing with contact center stress syndrome? Listen to this!
Contact centers continue to face an agency burnout crisis because of mental health and factors within the job. A recent study found that 23% of employees reported feeling burned out at work very often or always. To combat agency burnout, we suggest taking the time to go through this information and dig into the improvements you can make for the mental health practices in your organization.