Comments on: Burnout in Customer Service: Tips for Staying Sane

By: Blah 9324

Blah 9324 — Wed, 06 Sep 2023 18:30:22 +0000

Where I work, I have been there longer than most. A lot of good employees have left the company due to burnout, and those that took the leftover positions do their best, but they do not have the experience. Our customer base used to be pretty calm. Pretty much I got yelled at maybe once a month 5 years ago. Now it’s upwards to 5 times a day. The customers have become very verbally abusive. Generally it is not even our fault and their complaints generally result in user error on a computer. But it’s our fault. It’s endless and the more we become a instant gratification society the worse it gets. I roughly know when I am going to start getting burnt out and put in for requests days off in advance to lower that burn out.

By: Damien Holland

Damien Holland — Sat, 15 Jun 2019 02:42:06 +0000

It’s almost as bad as sales insofar as doing a great job is taken for granted because they only pay attention to where you make mistakes. The other thousands of calls where you did great against complicated situations or very upset customers are labeled as ‘meets standards’.
The Employee of the Month is someone who does overtime or the equivalent of two jobs instead of one.

By: Ilia Markov

Ilia Markov — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 13:15:13 +0000

In reply to Andrew Poppen.

Hey Andrew,

I love the “culture of rotating leadership” idea! It sounds a bit similar to something we preach a lot about—a culture of “everyone does support” (https://www.groovehq.com/blog/everyone-does-support).

With something like this in place, not only you can keep frustration low by having more people participate, but members of different teams get to experience how customers feel about the things they work on, making them more engaged in the process.

By: Andrew Poppen

Andrew Poppen — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 20:57:49 +0000

Wonderful article Elen! It’s amazing how important psychology plays a role in customer service…from understanding customer perspectives to keeping people from coming unglued. Admittedly, I am not a CSR but my job is 100% customer service oriented and I’ve been on that razors edge of burnout, or had to coax a teammate off the ledge, more times than I care to remember. A couple of philosophies I live by that may have value to others come to mind. The first one is “If you can laugh, you’ll live”, which simply means to keep a sense of humor about all things all the time. As rotten as our jobs can get on occasion, a good laugh is the best way to add some light into the darkest places. The second philosophy is what I’ll call “Culture of Rotating Leadership”, which is nothing more than finding a healthy work balance among the team. When having to deal with the same aggressive customer all the time, it’s been helpful to spread the ownership of deliverables across the team. This way, no one person on the team is a constant punching bag and everyone on the team is vested in keeping the customer happy. Cheers!!!

By: Sajay Jai Singh

Sajay Jai Singh — Wed, 07 Feb 2018 11:05:29 +0000

Cannot emphasize on how important the Learning Basic Psychology part is. What should be clear to most customer service reps is that every human being is different, and even though we have canned responses to almost all situations, you can’t just type/read them off directly.

I’m reading almost all posts on your blog, great work!

By: Aman Bathla

Aman Bathla — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 04:54:27 +0000

Great article Elen, especially about developing patience. This is contrary to popular belief that hasting or hurrying will help you reach your goals faster. The facts are otherwise. People who take time in deciding what they have to act upon and how end up being more successful in life and also lead a more contented life. Thumbs Up!

By: Lucy Brinks

Lucy Brinks — Tue, 31 Oct 2017 14:33:35 +0000

Great article! Thanks!