Burnout is real and dealing with it can be challenging, especially for support agents. Most agents find it hard to express their difficulties out of fear of losing their jobs or being viewed negatively.
Customer service burnout is very intense because it affects your work activities and social life. However, this is not a death sentence, and it can be reversed with proper management.
In this blog, we will discuss the causes of burnout in customer service, its signs, effects and how to overcome it.
What is customer service burnout?
Customer service burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion experienced by support representatives due to work activities.
It results from long-term exposure to high-stress environments, demanding workloads, repetitive tasks, and the requirement to continuously handle or address customer complaints.
A report shows that the turnover rate for support agents has increased by 41% due to burnout.
These conditions force them to leave their jobs in huge numbers as they become increasingly unbearable.
What causes customer service burnout?
Several factors cause emotional exhaustion in workplaces.
Let’s look at the main causes of burnout in customer support.
Unfavorable working environment
A customer service representative experiencing burnout is characterized with poor interpersonal relationships, a lack of support, and excessive pressure.
Here’s how an unfavorable working environment can contribute to burnout:
- Employees find it challenging to deal with issues since they frequently feel alone and unsupported.
- A toxic environment may worsen symptoms of anxiety, despair, and low self-esteem.
- Excessive workloads and unreasonable demands create a sense of devastation.
Lack of recognition
When employees feel undervalued or their efforts go unnoticed, they become emotionally drained.
According to CNBC research, employees are 73% less likely to be burned out when they feel recognized.
As basic as this may sound, recognizing agents for their work positively impacts their productivity.
If recognition is lacking, agents are more likely to feel invisible, reducing their performance and satisfaction rates.
Negative conversations with each other
When conversations become negative, they quickly turn toxic, whether they are colleagues or customers.
This has a direct effect on agents’ productivity rates as well as their ability to resolve or cause conflicts.
These negative conversations damage the relationships between agents and customers or their fellow colleagues.
Over time, it affects agent’s mental ability and awareness leading to burnout in customer service representatives.
Constant exposure to angry customers
Customer care agents are on the front lines, handling complaints and concerns from customers who are often frustrated, angry, or unhappy.
This challenging atmosphere sets the tone for many interactions.
Regularly facing such customers leaves the support agents both physically and emotionally drained.
Without a strong management structure to support them, this constant stress causes customer service burnout.
Heavy workload
Agents become easily overwhelmed when they handle many customer complaints and requests without breaks.
Workloads normally become exceedingly high for workers when businesses try to cut costs or from poor workflow management.
Consequently, the thought of losing jobs, combined with the high work pressure, leads to exhaustion, both physically and mentally.
When this continues for a long time, the agents will definitely suffer from customer service burnout.
Zero growth opportunities
Frustration sets in when a support agent does the same tasks repeatedly without a clearly defined path for growth or personal development.
Doing similar tasks for a long period of time becomes boring, stressful and most support agents experience burnout due to lack of motivation and satisfaction in their roles.
Inadequate staffing
Employee understaffing is one of the major causes of customer service burnout.
The available employees will be forced to work more than required to compensate for the unavailable people.
Employees become more stressed and exhausted. When this happens for a long time, they become burned out.
Burnout in customer service: Spotting the warning signs
Customer service burnout is common in workplaces. A report indicates that 59% of agents in contact centers are at risk of experiencing burnout.
We’ve heard people sending complaints while others have been forced to quit or change careers due to burnout.
The following are some common warning signs of customer service burnout to look out for.
Negative workplace attitude
The negative characters make the office discouraging and toxic, which easily leads to customer service burnout.
This can manifest in different forms, such as when a person highlights their colleagues’ mistakes.
While a colleague needs to learn from their mistakes, exaggerating this affects them, mentally especially when it spreads across the office.
Another negative attitude is speaking ill or spreading rumors about co-workers.
These behaviors create a toxic workplace environment that negatively impacts employees’ performances and attitudes.
Increased absenteeism and lack of focus at work
When members of your support team call in sick, miss important events and isolate themselves frequently, it becomes a clear indication that something is wrong.
Even the most dedicated employees who lack focus may struggle to keep up with everyday tasks due to burnout in customer service.
This can sometimes result from physical and emotional symptoms such as:
- Persistent fatigue
- Headaches
- Feelings of demotivation or being overworked
- Anxiety when dealing with challenging customers
Difficulty meeting deadlines
Burnout can significantly cause a customer support agent’s motivation, energy, and mental capabilities to decline.
You may notice this in a customer support representative who:
- Feels overwhelmed with tasks and is unable to set priorities effectively.
- Makes increased errors, which can impact the quality of work and potentially cause delays.
- Finds that similar tasks require more time and effort.
- Has trouble concentrating on specific tasks due to mental fatigue.
Increased customer complaints
Every business, including top brands, receives negative feedback. However, when complaints are constantly raised against an agent, it is highly likely they are experiencing burnout.
Customer service burnout hinders representatives’ ability to provide excellent service.
Burnout can manifest in several ways:
- The agents might be less concerned about customer satisfaction, resulting in bad customer service.
According to Forbes, 96% of clients will abandon you if you provide poor service.
- The capacity of the customer agent’s critical thinking and problem-solving becomes limited, leading to inadequate solutions to customer concerns.
- They may struggle to relate to and understand their customers’ frustrations, resulting in cold or insensitive reactions.
Reduced agent productivity
Generally, agents who work long shifts often face emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion. If you notice a huge drop in their performance, it could be a sign that they are experiencing burnout.
Customer service burnout from long working hours might reduce their motivation, make them doze off during work hours, delay completing their tasks and more.
Working long hours can lead to:
- Fatigue and poor critical thinking and decision-making abilities.
- Escalated stress levels due to constant exposure to customer demands without adequate breaks.
- Interference with personal time results in a weakened sense of well-being.
Key strategies to deal with customer service burnout
Even though customer service burnout can seriously affect support staff, it can be prevented and managed.
By taking small steps to improve conditions for your staff, you can help them feel more empowered and enable them to provide an excellent customer service experience.
Here are some strategies to help you avoid burnout in the customer service industry:
Set realistic goals and expectations
When goals are attainable, employees are less likely to feel overwhelmed.
Flexibility in adjusting customer service goals based on employee feedback and changing circumstances demonstrates that the organization values their well-being, building trust, and commitment.
Setting realistic goals and expectations helps create a balanced, supportive work environment where customer service teams can thrive.
This approach not only prevents burnout but also enhances overall employee satisfaction, productivity, and retention.
Identify the signs of burnout in customer support
In reference to the World Health Organization (WHO), burnout is a workplace occurrence and does not meet the necessary standards to be considered as a medical condition.
The signs of customer service agent burnout are very clear and hard to miss. Don’t take these signs for granted at any point.
Take action once you start noticing these signs to avoid losses as a result of decreased agent productivity.
Motivate your employees
Support your customer service team by giving them positive feedback for their outstanding contributions.
Support agents work in an emotionally demanding and draining environment where offering them positive feedback and compliments does a lot more good than harm.
Words of positivity and affirmation make the support team more active. It enables support agents to shut off the negativity arising from unhappy customers that easily leads to customer service agent burnout.
Ask for professional support
Trained professionals can easily identify early signs of customer service burnout that managers or team leaders may overlook.
According to APA, 92% of employees stated that it is important for them to work at a company that prioritizes their mental and emotional health.
Support can be offered in various ways, such as:
- Offering counselling services or Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) that provide professional mental health support.
- Holding regular check-ins and one-on-one meetings to discuss employee well-being.
- Conducting team-building exercises that improve communication and promote a sense of unity.
Professional help is important for support team members because:
- Encourage employees to proactively seek assistance
- It provides solutions to reduce stigma
- Normalizes conversation around burnout in customer support
Encourage regular breaks and avoid continuous screen time
Short breaks are a useful tool for taking time off from long-term stressful and tense moments. Employees can take a break from demanding work during this time to recharge.
Thereafter, they can return to their tasks with renewed energy and a clearer mind.
This can lead to more efficient and effective work.
Support team leaders can do the following to ensure their members have time to re-energize:
- Developing policies that encourage regular breaks
- Flexible working hours
- Encourage work-life balance
When employees feel valued and understood, they become highly committed, motivated to work, and loyal to the organization.
Empower agents with knowledge and skills
The aim of empowerment is to ensure your agents have the right skills and proper knowledge to provide quality services.
Conversations shared between customers and the agents will be better because of the increased confidence levels.
Increased performance translates to a positive workplace environment significantly reducing burnout in customer service.
This is possible by:
- Creating a structured program that includes regular training sessions, workshops, access to online courses, and mentorship opportunities.
- Training in stress management, resilience, and emotional awareness equips employees with tools to cope with the demands of their roles.
This enables employees to improve their problem-solving abilities, communication skills, and product knowledge.
In addition, it boosts the support team’s confidence in handling customer issues, reducing stress and frustration.
Utilize customer support tools
Support tools, such as help desk software, have made customer support services easier and more reliable.
They come with modern features that help agents manage their workload effectively with improved customer relations.
Let’s analyze the common features found in customer support tools and their roles:
- Break down tasks into smaller, easier-to-do procedures using task management to resolve issues faster and more efficiently.
- A ticketing system streamlines support operations by converting customer requests to tickets for faster and more reliable resolutions.
- Automate, handle complex and repetitive tasks, generate responses, and improve agent productivity using artificial intelligence (AI) and workflow automation features.
- Respond to customer requests instantaneously through live chat support.
- The contact management system helps employees track customer interactions efficiently.
- An omnichannel support feature to handle customer inquiries from all communication platforms in a single inbox.
This proactive customer service strategy improves customer satisfaction and team performance overall, in addition to preventing burnout in customer service.
Empower your team to prevent customer service agent burnout
Most support agents have been at a point in their careers where they feel burnt out.
Regardless, customers will still need support, and as such, it’s important for a company to always provide proper measures to deal with and prevent burnout in customer service at all costs.
Investing in the health of your customer service staff is an investment in your company’s long-term success.
As a support agent, don’t suffer in silence when you experience any of these symptoms at any point in your career.
With top help desk software such as BoldDesk, agents no longer have to be burdened by the weight of customer service burnout.
We have reliable features such as live chat, omnichannel support, and many more that makes work easier and effective because of its accuracy.
Schedule a live demo or a 15-day free trial to check out these features in action.
You can always contact us if you need any further assistance.
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