Ten Proven Ways to Combat Contact Center Burnout

Many years ago, I was working for an IT services organization, heading their marketing function. I was pulled into multiple meetings in that organization, and I was endlessly walking in and out of meetings every day.

There was a week where I could not even find time to respond to my emails as I was in back-to-back meetings throughout the week. I realized that fatigue was setting in, and I wasn’t really enjoying my work at the organization. Things were moving towards burnout.

My well-wishers advised me to take a break, but that didn’t sound right to me. So, I thought deeply about what I was going through, and I understood that I needed to address the underlying issues and remove them.

While I enjoyed my work, I didn’t like the way things were moving.

I understood the biggest problem was the number of meetings I was attending.

The very first decision I took was that I would not attend any unplanned meetings. Unless I receive a meeting request and I agree to attend it, I won’t participate in any meeting.

The second decision I made was that I wouldn’t attend meetings where there was no clearly defined agenda.

The third decision I took was that I would not be a part of any meetings beyond the timelines specified.

With these decisions, I drastically reduced the number of meetings I was a part of, and I started to focus on my work objectives, which was enjoyable.

We were able to work magic as a team and helped grow the company manifold in the few years I worked with them.

This anecdote explains how work fatigue sets in, which turns into burnout.

I was heading a function in this organization, which allowed me to make these decisions and act on them.

Imagine the plight of an agent who undergoes stress due to various factors like dealing with angry and frustrated customers for hours, with no breaks, and constant pressure to meet targets.

This stress builds up over time and can result in what’s called contact center burnout – a condition that affects mental, emotional, and physical health.

What Causes Burnout in a Contact Center?

There are varied reasons. Leaving aside exceptional reasons, I am listing the common ones that are prevalent across contact centers. 

• Managing high customer call volumes with minimal breaks.
• Handling angry and frustrated customers while maintaining professionalism.
• Handling repetitive tasks makes your work monotonous.
• Pressure to meet stringent performance metrics, like average handling time (AHT), first call resolution (FCR), customer satisfaction (CSAT) levels, and net promoter scores (NPS).
• Inadequate training, feedback, or managerial assistance.
• Noise, rigid schedules, or limited personal time.

How Do You Address Contact Center Burnout?

Here are ten proven ways to address the burnout.

1. Flexible Scheduling

How many single parents work as agents in your organization? How many agents are taking care of sick and aging parents? These are personal situations that need addressing.

A little bit of emotional support from the organization and flexible scheduling to accommodate agent responsibilities will go a long way in keeping your agents happy. They can swap shifts or choose work hours that would work for their situation.

This would certainly reduce the stress and improve the work-life balance.

2. Automate Repetitive Tasks

Imagine having to answer questions like, how do I change my password? Can you let me know the last five transactions on my card? What is the bill due date? What are the available payment options on my credit card?

This can become repetitive and boring, which will make the agent’s work uninteresting. However, all of these queries can be automated, which a bot or an FAQ page can handle. This would free up the agent’s time to address complex queries.

3. Regular Training and Upskilling

What happens when a customer asks something for which you do not know the answer? You deflect that call to either your supervisor or a colleague who has the know-how to respond to the query.

If this happens once or twice a day, it is manageable. If it happens repeatedly, then it would frustrate and overwhelm the agents, making them stressed.

Regular training and small modules of micro training will keep your agents updated and empower them to resolve customer queries easily.

4. Encourage Breaks

Let us assume you are on back-to-back calls with customers from the time you log in till you exit – this would be taxing for anyone.

As an organization, you should encourage agents to take breaks. To begin with, you can force your agents to take a 10-minute break every two hours. This would allow them to stretch a bit and keep them refreshed.

5. Recognize and Reward

Recognition and rewards are the ones that keep the agents motivated. What if one of your agents is going beyond the call of duty compared to others?

You will have to recognize and reward such contributions. You can institute multiple reward programs like star of the week, employee of the month, highest revenue contributor, and process guru, among others.

Your agents will feel motivated, and there will be healthy competition.

6. Support Each Other

Build a supportive culture where agents feel fine to go to their supervisor and managers for scenarios they find difficult to handle.

Besides, conduct a weekly session with agents where they talk about their high points and low points. This would act as a huge learning session for all the agents, and this would also add to the FAQs that all agents can access.

7. Promote Wellness

How about declaring one of the weekdays as a wellness day? Something like “Wellness Wednesday,” where you get your agents to do a few fitness challenges and meditation, would go a long way in helping them not feel stressed.

Besides, counseling and other wellness sessions can be offered as a part of employee assistance programs. This will rejuvenate your agents and make them feel more energetic and mentally refreshed.

8. Provide Career Growth Paths

What if you have been working in an organization as an agent for the past three years? What is your next step, and do you see any growth happening for you in the organization?

Do you have visibility on your growth path? Do you know when you will be promoted to team lead or QA role? Has the organization defined the milestones you need to achieve before you can move up the ladder? 

Define all of these, and it will make the lives of your agents and the organization easier.

9. Don’t Fret Over Metrics

Imagine your supervisor insists on you keeping your AHT low on every call. If there is any discrepancy in AHT from the defined objectives, you are pulled up and warned. That would be a pressure cooker situation for you to work at.

Instead, organizations should focus on relatable metrics like whether the queries are resolved within defined SLAs and whether CSAT scores are on the expected lines in addition to AHT. You should not fret over a single metric and measure the performance of your agents based on that.

10. Invest in Technology

Imagine if you, as an agent, have to access five different screens before you can resolve a customer query. It tends to take more time, and the likelihood of you making mistakes becomes higher.

You should invest in omnichannel capabilities and integrate your platform with the internal IT systems so that you get one view of your customers. You should be able to access all the relevant customer information from a single channel or interface.

This will empower your agents to provide faster resolutions and keep your customers happy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) officially recognized burnout as an occupational phenomenon in 2019, highlighting an issue that has long affected contact centers.

This is a serious issue that results in unhappy employees, high attrition rates, and a demotivated workforce – all of these leading to below-par customer experiences.

However, with the right technology and a supportive culture, you should be able to deliver high-quality service while maintaining a healthy work-life balance.