Customer Service Representatives

Customer service representatives deal with dozens and dozens of calls every day. When frustrated clients call into correct their accounts, they may perceive your CSR as a powerful antagonist. However, bear in mind that customer service representatives are merely business conduits. In all likelihood, they are bound by the rules of their company (to put you on hold, deny your billing request, and so forth).

If you're running a customer call center, you should be mindful of the emotional attitudes of your service representatives. After all, if they can't maintain even dispositions in the face of angry calls, they'll be less likely to deliver good customer care. Moreover, a negative attitude can spread quickly through the phone bank, infecting other operators like a virus.

Improving Conditions for Your Customer Service Representatives

The key to getting great performance from your representatives is to empathize with them and to give them a certain degree of freedom to handle their callers. After all, operators who receive a lot of heightened emotional energy from their callers need to metabolize those emotions somehow. You can assist this metabolic process by encouraging representatives to talk to one another about job stresses.

Small environmental and atmospheric factors can also improve the lot of your representatives. For instance, you might consider moving your operators' desks farther apart, improving lighting and air circulation in the office, and instituting afternoon breaks. Remember that just because you work your representatives harder doesn't mean that you will necessarily get more productivity out of them.