3 Ways to Reduce Contact Center Stress

By: CJ Silva

Stress in call centers is a big, and expensive, problem. There is a reason why call centers are often plagued with missing agents and a high turnover rate. Stress can cause a number of deleterious effects to agents on the job, including decreased performance, low job satisfaction, burnout, and a decline in general health.

Obviously, a big part of management's job is to find a way to combat stress. No one likes to see the falling numbers or to essentially hire a new crew on a monthly basis. The poor morale caused by high stress affects everyone, not to mention its affect on the bottom line. Besides being good for business, lowering stress can result in lowered blood pressure, a slower heart rate, reduced muscle tension, and even a stronger immune system.

Changing how you deal with call center stress can change everything entirely. Your agents will be more productive, have more focus, deal better with callers, demonstrate increased memory and energy... they may even start to enjoy coming to work. The key to it all is to train your agents in stress management techniques.

While there are many ways to reduce or mitigate stress which may work just as well for your call center team, here are just three that you might want to start with.

Not Taking Things Personally

It goes without saying that you're going to get some callers who are not especially nice. Many people call in already angry and frustrated and they have no problems with taking it out on whoever had the misfortune to pick up the phone. The impulse in a lot of people is respond in kind, but a well-trained call center agent is polite at all times, especially when the politeness is not reciprocated. It's important to teach your agents to remember that any ire is not directed at them personally, but at whatever problem prompted them to call in the first place. All too many agents feel poorly because they feel they were the recipient of rude behavior, when in fact, they had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Talk  (or Laugh) About It

Solving a problem that started with talking with more talking? It can actually work. One of the best things you can do as a call center manager is to encourage friendships among your agents. If you have a friend or two down there with you, you have someone to talk to after one of those calls. Talking about it helps to get it off your chest without blowing up at some other customer, or letting it build until the only alternative is to quite the job. At the least, another agent can be a good sounding board, but at the best the frustrated agent may gain a new view of the caller.

When the problem is something that can't be rationalized away or resolved, laughing about it, or just laughing in general does a lot to release stress. Anyone who's feeling down can be picked up after a good joke or a silly internet video. You might be surprised what a few seconds of laughter can do for your mood.

Express Gratitude

Irate callers are one of the bad things in the life of a call center agent. But that's not to say there aren't any good things involved in the job, or even beyond the job. Every agent should have a list of things for which they're grateful, especially if those things are related to work at the call center. Most people are at work to do something positive, like make money to get a better house, or pay for the education of their children. Maybe there's a good friend at work, or the call center is in a good location. Some call center software allows agents to work from home and that's something they're thankful for -- whatever it is, make a note of it. Just that simple act can change an agent’s whole perspective.

Stress is an unavoidable factor in the life of a call center agent, but that stress doesn't have to become the dominant factor of life. Taking a few minutes after a particularly trying call to center oneself and find a way to just get some perspective can really change everything. Try the above techniques, and look for others of your own. There's really something for everyone when it comes to relieving stress.

 CJ Silva is VP of Operations at KOVA Corporation. 

Listen & Act In Three Tenses

Diane Morneau, M.Sc. Manager of Communications, Offerings and Knowledge Development Diane worked for several computer manufacturers, in pre- and post-sales’ positions, supporting technological progress and adoption. People-oriented and actively engaged, she assumed teaching, coaching, management and marketing roles. Achieving customer success through teaming, transferring knowledge and finding creative solutions to challenges are her true motivators. Follow Diane on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Do Not Lose Customers Because Of Lack Of Trust

Altimeter's analysts advise that the priority in social strategies has shifted from scaling customer engagement to employee advocacy. As trust has hit an all time low, employee advocacy has become critical to build company success.

"How Organizations Are Winning Trust Through Employee Advocacy"

After a brief review of the 2015 Elderman Trust barometer study revealing the credibility issue, Barb Mosher Zinck talks about the Number One challenge behind employee advocacy: employee engagement. With a clear social policy, the next challenge is supporting employees in the creation of interesting content and in building their personal branding. She shares the examples of NASA and Adobe doing well with advocacy. Employee advocacy makes total sense. Isn't a convinced employee your best sales force? 

9 Ways To Diminish Churn At Your Contact Center

By: CJ Silva

Contact centers are notorious for high churn rates which are not only inconvenient but expensive for companies. The average contact center has an annual churn rate as high as 40%. It is estimated that the total cost of replacing an employee is between $10,000 to $15,000.


The huge churn rate coupled with the high cost of replacement mean it’s well worth it to invest in strategies which will help lower your company’s churn rate. Here are 9 ways you can diminish churn at your contact center:

Hire the Right People

A lower churn rate starts with hiring the right employees from the beginning. Working on the front lines with customers who have difficult problems or are just plain rude is not for everyone. Customer service representatives also have to face stressful and repetitive work days.


You need employees who can handle the demands of the job. Choose people with relevant experience, whether it’s another contact center or a job that required regular contact with customers. Also choose people who have great people skills and are capable of staying calm and polite even in high stress situations. Consider instituting a trial or test for potential new hires to see how they would handle various typical work situations.

Be Flexible

Your employees each have lives of their own. Some may prefer a morning shift that allows them to have the afternoon and evening for their other priorities while others will appreciate a later shift that gives them more time in the morning.


Be flexible and give your employees options so that they can create a schedule comfortable for them. The better they can blend working for you with the rest of their life, the longer they are likely to stay with you.

Prevent Employee Isolation

One of the key reasons for the high churn rate at contact centers has to do with co-workers. Employees either don’t get along with their co-workers or become isolated and fail to bond. This creates for an unpleasant work environment that employees will leave as soon as they get the chance.


Avoid this by building comradery through the creation of small teams—complete with team names and even symbols. Incentivize teams to meet work productivity goals. By putting employees into teams that work together toward goals, you’ll prevent isolation and strengthen bonds between co-workers.

Engage Your Employees

Another major problem in contact centers is boredom. When employees are bored too often, they become less productive. Decrease boredom by giving employees the option to cross-train for several jobs or tasks and switching them from task to task. You could also introduce fun workplace games for downtimes.

Make Employees Feel Valued

Employees who don’t feel that their good work is valued are less likely to continue doing good work. Valuing your employees doesn’t have to mean doling out big cash rewards all the time. It can be as simple as daily praise for particular task that an employee handled well. The important thing is that the praise is personalized to each employee and that it happens regularly. Employees who feel valued by their company are more likely to stay with that company.

Incentivize Exceptional Performance

While cash rewards aren’t always necessary, they definitely don’t hurt. Implementing small scheduled raises which are made contingent on meeting specific, concrete productivity goals is definitely cheaper than the cost of replacing employees on a regular basis.


Provide a clear schedule (such as every 3 to 6 months) as well as clear guidelines so that employees know exactly what they need to do in order to qualify for a raise. You can even provide daily positive feedback to help them track their progress.

Get to Know Your Employees

The best way to treat your employees like people is to get to know them as people. Know what motivates them and what’s going on in their lives—just be careful not to pry where you are not wanted. This can help you create personalized incentive programs and make the workplace feel like a supportive community rather than a daily grind.

Cultivate personal relationships through regular conversations, work lunches, and other informal or semi-formal opportunities to get together and talk about your lives outside of work.

Create a Positive Company Culture

Many of the strategies you have read about will contribute to building a positive company culture. This is important because, at the most fundamental level, your employees need to enjoy the place they work if you hope to keep them with you for the long term.

This doesn’t mean you need to become totally laid back. Set clear expectations about work productivity. But also be sure to include time for employee appreciation and just having a little fun as a team.

Take Advantage of Workforce Management Software

Scheduling games, training sessions, and raises as well as tracking employee productivity and results can be a lot to tackle—especially if you’ve got a million other things on your plate. Make this easier by using workforce management software which allows you to track multiple workplace metrics and schedule different tasks and appointments with ease. You can even use it to measure your churn rate and identify trends as well as potential risk factors so that you can tailor these strategies to suit your needs.

 CJ Silva is VP of Operations at KOVA Corporation.

Do Not Lose Customers By Becoming Irrelevant

Congratulations! Your firm was selected. You have a new customer. At the pace of change, how long will you stay relevant? What do you need to do to remain a trusted supplier to build their future with?

Tony Zambito explains the importance of Staying Relevant In An Era Of Disruption And Elusive Customer Loyalty

In his thought provoking post, Zambito suggests to engage right now with your customers about their future and to participate to disruption. That's how you stay relevant.

As I read the article, my mind was branching out wondering about our C suite reach, if we are talking enough future or are too focused on the present, what opportunities are we missing... I very much enjoyed one insightful statement in the article:

"(Customer) Loyalty is tied to the ability to accomplish and fulfill (Customer) goals." 

Discover other profound reflections and a captivating TED talk by following the above link.

Do Not Lose Customers Over Indifference

Stan Phelps contributed an article to Forbes just recently highlighting two great stories of how addressing indifference can help improve customer retention.

Losing Customer Over Poor Service Lessons? Lessons from TD Bank & Big Ass Fans On Overcoming Indifference
 
Apparently, 68% of customers leave a business relationship because of perceived indifference. Call it impersonal customer service or lack of personalized contact if you will. Indifference can also interfere by being at the client end. You might have been in a situation before where you eat at a restaurant and the experience is average. You decide you won't return but you don't bother expressing your deception. Less than 5% of customers will. There goes 95% of your future business potential.
 
The article shares the example of TD Bank addressing the perceived indifference by reinventing for a day the acronym ATM from "Automated Teller Machine" to "A Thank you Machine".  Videos included in the article show how they surprised their clients, how they rapidly showed or acquired knowledge of their clients to procure them a warm and fuzzy feeling, acquiring loyalty I am sure.

Big Ass Fans put in place a proactive follow up practice to understand their clients beyond the usual simple survey. A Customer Advocacy Manager changed their business through a much closer follow up practice, allowing them to uncover and improve service issues.

Challenged by customers leaving you? Address the indifference, whether it is perceived or real. Follow the link above and get inspired by these great stories.

6 Classic Service Desk Hits That Cloud Is Taking Care Of

  

Diane Morneau, M.Sc. Manager of Communications, Offerings and Knowledge Development Diane worked for several computer manufacturers, in pre- and post-sales’ positions, supporting technological progress and adoption. People-oriented and actively engaged, she assumed teaching, coaching, management and marketing roles. Achieving customer success through teaming, transferring knowledge and finding creative solutions to challenges are her true motivators. Follow Diane on Twitter and LinkedIn.