You are having a great day at your call center job. You’ve fielded plenty of calls and turned them around quickly. The salsa contest at lunchtime was fun and you got to taste some incredible homemade delicacies.
Suddenly, you answer the phone and the person at the other end doesn’t even wait for you to say hello before launching into an angry stream of words. Your good mood plummets.
A career in the call center industry can be an emotional roller coaster. Emotional resilience for call center agents is crucial as they face clients with various issues. When you have that much-needed resilience, you can weather the storm of others’ emotional states more easily, allowing you to take on the challenges you face and maintain your equilibrium.
Building Emotional Resilience as a Call Center Agent
Emotional resilience for call center agents may be the most essential skill anyone who works in the industry can develop. It is key for managing your daily interactions and may make all the difference when dealing with customers.
Better Customer Experience
Maintaining emotional resilience as a call center agent is key to smoothly transitioning between customers. A bad interaction shouldn’t affect the next call. By staying resilient and learning how to turn difficult customers into loyal advocates, you can focus on each customer’s needs, allowing you to deploy problem-solving techniques more effectively and increase customer satisfaction.
Decrease Stress
Contact centers can be incredibly stressful work environments, especially if you carry the emotional weight of each interaction. When you’re resilient, on the other hand, you can take a deep breath, set it aside, decrease your stress, and face challenges more effectively. Lower stress means less burnout and a better chance of long-term success in your job.
Protect Your Personal Life
Your personal life is important. When you walk away from the call center each day, you need to be able to shake off that weight and focus on your personal needs. Emotionally resilient call center agents are better positioned to protect their personal lives and energy levels outside work.
Building Emotional Resilience
Here’s the good news: emotional resilience doesn’t just happen. Instead, it’s a skill you can build over time, like self-motivation or problem-solving, to thrive in this fast-paced industry. Try some key strategies to improve your responses to customers and your ability to manage work stress.
How Can You Effectively Handle Upset Customers?
Communication skills are key when dealing with any customer, but they’re particularly critical when dealing with a disgruntled or upset customer.
Active Listening
Listen actively to understand the customer’s concerns. Let them fully share their problems, then ask clarifying questions. This shows empathy and helps keep them calm since they feel like they’re being heard.
Empathy
Empathy is key to working on customer service teams. As a contact center agent, showing customers you understand their challenges builds trust. Even if you can’t solve their issue exactly as they want, empathy helps you navigate conversations effectively. It also allows you to adapt to different types of callers, improving customer satisfaction.
De-Escalation Skills
Learning to de-escalate a frustrated caller is one of the most critical skills you can develop as a call center agent. When you can calm a customer down, you can often reach a more successful outcome. Try:
- Using “I” statements instead of placing blame on the customer
- Keeping an optimistic mindset and using positive language
- Keeping your voice steady and calm
De-escalation also includes active listening and empathy, which are key to improving the customer experience.
Managing Your Stress Response: Dealing with the Aftermath
When a caller loses their temper with you, it can be hard to respond positively. Many callers turn hostile, and agents may handle up to 10 aggressive encounters daily, including insults and cursing. Getting yelled at, cursed at, or mistreated by a caller can induce a stress response that may be difficult to fight back down. However, by taking control of your stress response, you’ll often find it easier to manage stress and maintain a positive mindset.
Take a Minute
Start by taking a minute to calm down before you jump into the next call. Some call center agents have personal rituals that help them set those difficult customers behind them, while others practice deep breathing exercises.
Control the Physical Response
Unclench your jaw, drop your shoulders away from your ears, and relax. Deliberately calming your body can go a long way toward calming your mind and allowing you to de-stress, even after a difficult customer interaction.
Engage in Self-Care
Focus on self-care and wellness outside work. That may mean eating well, getting enough sleep, or keeping up with your exercise routine. Relax and unwind by exploring Tijuana’s diverse activities and vibrant eateries. Self-care is critical to maintaining overall emotional resilience.
How Can You Recognize and Address Burnout in a Call Center?
Burnout is a serious problem in many high-stress workplaces—including call centers. Keep an eye out for common signs of burnout, like:
- Dreading going to work every day
- Decreasing job satisfaction
- Feeling low energy or tired all the time
- Feelings of hopelessness
- Physical symptoms like headaches or stomach aches
Burnout isn’t a normal part of being a working adult, no matter what type of work environment you’re in. If you notice the signs, be proactive—seek support from a therapist. Ask for help from a representative of the Employee Assistance Program if you have one available. Take steps to reduce stress to thrive at work and in life.
Building resilience is not a one-and-done solution. Instead, it’s an ongoing process.
Join Seguros Confie and Build a Stronger, More Resilient Career in Customer Service!
Are you looking for a career as a call center agent where your emotional and physical needs will be supported? At Seguros Confie, we offer tools and training to help call center agents develop their resilience skills to thrive on and off the job. Come work with us in Tijuana to learn why job satisfaction is so important to us.