Call Centre Work...

[neowallace]

Hi Guys

Does anyone out there work in a Call Centre? Do they feel it affects their anxiety symptoms severely when having difficult customers? What do you do at the time to manage your symptoms? What do you do at night to unwind? Any feedback would be appreciated?

Many thanks
Steven.....:)

[Beckybooboo]

Hi,

I used to work in a call centre dealing with customers and inbound/outbound calls for around a year, then have landed myself a new job at Bupa to start the same thing all over.

I used to find that my job could leave me feeling a bit less human, but what you need to do with this is understand that there is a very fair balance between business and pleasure. When you're home, or on your lunch or wherever you are; try and leave the day as it is. You take the call, resolve the situation, do your notes, call ended; on to the next one. When you leave that call centre, leave all of the stresses and the worries behind because if not, you will be ruminating about it when you're outside of the work place.

I wouldn't necessarily say that it affected my anxiety, but it did make me have an adrenaline rush when I would have a difficult/angry customer. The best thing to keep in mind is that it's not your fault personally, that you can help them and through time of being in a call centre this will become like a second nature to you.

I would suggest to speak to your manager and maybe make him aware of your anxiety and just elaborate maybe on your fears and worries, obviously, only if you want too.

I hope you are well!

All the best,
Becky

[neowallace]

Hi Beckybooboo

Many thanks for your kind reply. Everything you have said makes sense and I will try and remember these tips when I start on Monday. I have always blamed my jobs for my anxiety and even my previous G.P suggested getting something else. I am keen to start work and have been doing Call Centre work for 13 years now off and on. Many thanks again for your reply and I will keep you posted on how I get on.

:yesyes:Steven

[NoPoet]

Hi, I work in a call centre and my customer satisfaction scores were the highest on the unit for all three units I've worked on, so anxiety does not affect me when I'm actually on a call - it's in the morning before work, or the day before I go to work after some time off. These are the times when we are free to think... the worst possible thing for an anxious person.

Some tricks to help you at work:

* Make sure you KNOW things, not just your exact job, but the things that go alongside it as well. So if you work on a credit card payment line (for example), make sure you find out other means for customers to make payments, look at the websites etc yourself, ring the call centres to listen to the options menus. You need to think outside the narrow lines of your job description. If you work with technology, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT WORKS - nobody wants to speak to an advisor who has NOT used or bothered to read up on their product(s).

* Think about all the crap service you've received from call centres. Treat every customer as YOU would want to be treated. This means using their names, which will make an EPIC difference to a customer's perception of the call.

* LISTEN. If they have something to say, SHUT UP AND LISTEN. Listen to their complaints WITHOUT challenging them unless they become aggressive or offensive, and even then be assertive rather than aggressive. If a customer is dragging the call on, you are within your rights to say "Mr X, we're going round in circles. I understand what you're saying and I've told you what I can do to help you." If the customer carries on, it is correct to say something like "Mr X, I can't take this call any further as we're just going around in circles. I'm going to end the call now so you can think about what I've suggested, then call us back when you're ready to go head with it."

* Do not judge the customer. They can judge you if they want, but who cares, you're getting paid. You might not agree that their bills show they ring porn lines but it's none of your concern; your concern is to make sure the customer's problem is resolved and that even if you cannot fix it, the customer is clear that you tried and they know and understand what you suggested.

* Sound like you actually give a toss. Talk to the customer politely and considerately. AVOID JARGON - speaking to a customer in call centre slang is purely moronic. Most of your colleagues will not be able to pull their heads out of their butts long enough to do ANY of this and customers will hate talking to them, which leads to confrontation and bad feeling. Ring a Games Workshop store and listen to how they answer. The GW staff sound like they're over the moon you called.

If you are unable to do all of the above, there's no point working in a call centre, or at least you won't enjoy it and you won't get anywhere because the customers and management will find you useless. So there are no excuses, no alternatives, you MUST do everything I have said.

Notice that most of the above tactics are about how you treat to the customer and are not special breathing exercises etc. You SHOULD also do the usual counter-anxiety stuff but if you are going to succeed in a job you NEED to know the job and everything around it. If you are confident that you know your stuff and, just as importantly, you can talk to customers in a manner that they like, you have absolutely no need to worry; what's more, you'll find yourself blasting up to the top of the company's advisor rankings, just because you did the most basic, simple and common-sense things that NOBODY else could be bothered to do -- that's why they will spend all day arguing, getting stressed and dealing with complaints, when you will very rarely find that you cannot deal with a call.

Good luck!

[Beckybooboo]

Hi,

I'm glad that you found my advice useful.

I hope you have a brilliant career in the call centre industry.

All the best,
Becky