Surviving in customer service

I've mentioned before that most customer service operations have a major problem with attrition, and recent threads on LinkedIn have talked about a few of the underlying reasons (besides money) that cause people to leave their jobs. Having worked in many pressured environments, I know that one big factor that can cause a lot of people to walk out the door is stress.

Sometimes it's stress because there is always a lot to do, lots of phone calls coming in, lots of follow ups to take care of; but more often than not, the stress from being at the frontline can be the biggest contributor. Being the bearer of bad news, the receiver of customer rantings and abuse (and sometimes their downright bad manners) can all build up to ruin a perfectly good day. Go through it day after day, month after month, and it's easy to see how this can lead to the decision to pack it in.

The fact remains that these pressures will always be part and parcel of the job, and whether it's face to face or telephone/internet service delivery, employees will not be able to change how customers behave; but they can change how they themselves react.

The real key to successfully managing stress in the customer service environment is focus. Contact centers, for instance, are loud and distracting; you are surrounded by people constantly talking, moving around, having conversations, and even mini-meltdowns. Trying to get into the zone and focusing can be difficult, but it can be done.

This has to start the minute you arrive at the office, so it's important that when you walk through that doorway you leave all your non-work related baggage at the step. Being distracted by the kids, the house, the dog, the bills etc. will stop your brain from focusing on the job. A friend of mine used to arrive and then sit at her desk and do a little visualization, and actually imagined each of the things outside of work as little boxes, and she'd visualize arriving at the office and placing each box down on the step outside, and as she laid them on the ground she'd say "this is my worry about the children" and "this is my worry about paying the bills tonight", and then when she was finished with all the boxes of worry, she'd visualize herself walking into the office and sitting at her desk. Remarkably simple, yet very effective.

The next thing is to understand the rhythm of your daily routine. Every job has an ebb and flow, and if you understand this flow and learn to work with it, you'll find your day much easier to handle. In most contact centers there are peaks and valleys in the call volumes, and identifying when these happen and preparing yourself accordingly can be important in maintaining performance levels without stressing out. The message here is to pace yourself.

Many customer service employees go into high gear at the start of their shift, and by the middle point they are exhausted and drained, have probably already lost their patience, and spend the rest of the day watching the clock. This means that when the peak hits you're unprepared, you will make mistakes, and you won't be ready to deal with the "happiness" your customers will bring you.

One trigger for this attitude is the metric of "CPH" or "calls per hour"; a measure of the number of calls per hour the representative takes. Most people will work themselves to the bone taking as many calls every hour to try maintain this number, but if you understand that this number is an average of the TOTAL calls you take in a DAY divided by the number of hours you worked, and take into account that at some hours of the day you'll naturally receive more calls than at others (those peaks we were talking about before), then you'll see that pacing yourself is actually a positive strategy.

Viewing your work day as a long distance marathon, broken into segments of low valleys (where you can throttle back) and high mountains (where you need to gear up), and using your energy according to this rhythm, will ensure you can have the energy when it's needed to perform. The better shape you're in for those mountains means less stress, and that's our overall aim.

Where you're running marathons you find water stations dotted along the course -- these are your scheduled break times; and just like a runner you need to "re-fuel". So when your break time comes along, use it to the fullest. Leave the work environment completely, get outside if possible and stretch, relax your brain, and unwind. Try reading a book or magazine, have a snack or take your lunch, even watching a bit of television can help switch off for a bit. Don't nap, don't talk about work with your colleagues, and absolutely never EVER work through your break as a habit. This short time is your opportunity to prepare for the next segment in your marathon.

Another part of your daily rhythm will involve scheduling; whether it's the time to do your follow ups with customers, make return phone calls, or just doing your paperwork -- and if you have all this under control, it'll be easier for you to keep your cool. Use your Microsoft Outlook to block out your day, and use the Tasks feature to keep track of your things-to-do; or if you're old school, keep a journal book and write your daily task list in it, and then refer to it regularly.

During the day as you're jogging up one of those peaks, you might find a nasty black bear who could threaten to turn your day sour. A customer who's had enough and decides they're going to make your experience with them hell on earth. The customer's issues aside, this presents a challenge for you as a frontliner -- how to keep the customer happy and solve their problem, while taking the brunt of their fury for a problem you probably had nothing directly to do with. It's critical in these situations to do two things.

First is to avoid taking it personally, which sounds harder than it is when you are having your ear chewed off by an angry customer. Therefore it's important for you to find some tricks to remind yourself of this fact during the heat of battle. Whether it's a little post-it note on your computer screen, a picture of your family or parents, or a poster of the perfect beach side setting; anything that you can look to which will help you remember: IT'S NOT ABOUT YOU.

Second is to learn the signals from your body that will alert you to the fact you're ABOUT to lose your cool. It could be that your heart starts to race, your voice might become raised, you're face might redden; there's a bunch of different signals that'll give you a heads up to the fact you're about to have a melt down. Learning what these signs are will help you avoid hitting the wall, and keep the higher levels of stress at bay. When you see or feel these trigger signs, find an alternative to break the cycle. For some people this could be a simple as a stress ball, or standing up from their chair, or even looking out the window. What you're trying to do at this stage is break the escalation cycle, because after the triggers you'll hit a point of no return and things can become very nasty!

If you find the anger still creeping up and your tricks haven't worked so far, then ask the customer if they'd mind you putting them on hold (or if it's face to face, excusing yourself for a moment), and take 30 seconds or a minute to break off and calm yourself down. Don't slam the phone on the desk, or hit the computer screen, or anything violent -- just BREATH. Close your eyes for a few seconds, and count it out. We're trying to bring the stress levels down so you can resume dealing with things.

If that still doesn't work, then it's time to get help from either your supervisor or a colleague. You don't have to win every battle, so asking for help isn't giving up; and it ensures that both you and the customer are better off for the experience. Have someone else take the call so you can re-center yourself and prepare to continue the marathon. Later on, go back through the experience and work out what buttons were pushed to trigger your stress, and learn from the experience for the next time. Get someone to coach you on practicing to deal with the situation so next time you'll be as cool as a cucumber!

Should the situation really get to you and start to make you doubt yourself, take a minute to reflect back through the days and months of your job and actively search out some positive experiences where you really did make a difference to a customer. Maybe read a compliment or note from a customer, or some positive feedback from your supervisor, or an award you received -- anything to remind you of why you're doing what you do, and that you are indeed great at it! Don't let one bad experience bring you down.

Finally, when the working day is done, it's time to do a reverse of the visualization you did when you began the day. Once you've completed all your items on the to-do-list, you've logged out and clocked off, take a few minutes to visualize leaving boxes for the work things you need to do tomorrow, placing them on your desk, and visualize yourself leaving the office feeling light and relieved of them -- then make it a reality and get out of there! Congratulate yourself on another daily marathon done.

Go spend time with your family, your dog, your friends, anything to keep a healthy work/life balance. By taking a look at the bigger picture of your working day, developing some tricks and tools to help you maintain control, and establishing the right kind of focus to deal with the challenges of being in customer service, you're assured of keeping the stress-monkey off your shoulder and bounce back day after day doing the thing you love -- satisfying customers!