Causes of Stress in Customer Service that Companies Need to Address

Customer service is one of the main keys that a business needs to have. Many businesses provide omnichannel customer service, which is using multiple channels to connect with their customers.

The higher the number of requests coming from customers will be directly proportional to the need for customer support. Not infrequently the things handled by customer service are trivial issues from many customers. This makes a number of employees experience boredom, stress, and loss of focus at work.

Causes of Customer Service Experiencing Stress

When a customer calls customer service, they come in unhappy because they have a problem. For this reason, the interactions that occur between customers and customer service are negative.

Even though they are already experts in the field of customer service, they can still potentially experience stress. This is usually triggered by fatigue so the situation needs to be corrected due to the causes of stress experienced by customer service as follows.

1. Lack of training and product knowledge

A business that is already growing fast is usually also busier. Not infrequently there is product or service information that is not conveyed properly to customers. This is often triggered by a lack of updates from the company's internal team regarding promos and product updates so that customer service does not serve customers optimally.

2. Work facilities are less than optimal

The company's infrastructure system support must also be carried out optimally so that customers do not wait long to get customer service. This makes the customer feel even more uncomfortable so they take out their frustration on the agent.

The customer service agent who handles it will also get a negative response. If this happens continuously due to infrastructure limitations, agents will feel underappreciated and not motivated to continue providing the best service for customers

3. Lack of creativity

The main role of a customer service agent is to provide assistance and help customers solve problems. This results in agents often performing the same task over and over again. It is natural for agents to feel bored and face demotivation due to the limited development of creativity when carrying out their daily work.

4. High work pressure

Customer service is also the busiest department. From start to finish, they have to deal with customers who are dissatisfied with product service. Not a few customers give vent to their emotions, causing a heavy mental and emotional burden.

Unfavorable infrastructure systems also often limit the amount of available resources. Customer service agents are divided into several groups to be able to handle complaints 24 hours a day. In this situation, adding manpower is not a solution.

This should be overcome by providing automation of the several stages of service required. Chat bots or the use of omnichannel technology can help facilitate service availability in a relatively quicker time in order to reduce pressure on customer service agents.

5. Inappropriate compensation

Customer service jobs are not high paying jobs. Most companies still apply substandard remuneration standards for customer service. With a large and draining portion of work, this will exacerbate a stressful situation if customer service does not receive appropriate compensation.

Companies should not forget that customer service agents also have a life outside the office. His personal and family life also has to be taken care of after completing his duties at the office. However, stressful situations in the workplace often take a toll on their health and personal life, leaving the family unattended.

6. Limited career development

In addition to the monotonous work, career advancement opportunities for customer service workers are also limited. In addition to salary compensation that is not up to standard, the benefits provided for this position are also less.

If agents are not motivated in their work, they will have a hard time achieving career success. This of course can be a factor that triggers boredom, especially for fresh graduates who are still eager to develop their careers.

7. Solid deadlines

In addition to providing optimal service to customers, each agent must also meet the number of complaints in the queue. After finishing handling complaints, there are other customers who are already in line to file other complaints.

Customer service agents are also given a deadline to handle complaints every day. In addition, there are also administrative tasks that must be carried out apart from the main work of interacting with customers. This causes high deadlines that make stress even higher.

Those are some of the things that cause stress in customer service. As the front line of interaction from a business to customers, conduct periodic evaluations of customer service. Make sure they get the best support so they can respond to customer complaints and handle business needs optimally.