Call Center Life:
Working at a call center can be like having every minute of your time planned and accounted for by the time police. Many call centers use software that manages peoples time down to the minute. This workforce management software was developed as a way to track and organize the many things employees may need to do during their day. In initial intent was to help design better staffing models for a call center product environment.
What actually developed however was a situation where bathroom breaks are scheduled and no time is given to decompress after tough calls. Can you imagine what it’s like to have people, who you don’t know and didn’t do anything to directly, call you up and yell, complain and accuse you of everything bad that’s ever happened to them? This is an exaggeration of course, but the fact it that “hot calls” or upset customers usually take their frustration with the company out on the call center agent. Unfair, absolutely but typical behavior.
At issue is the fact that although the agent is paid to handle customer service issues, they are NOT paid to take abuse from customers or the business. The problem is around the definition of what exactly constitutes “abuse.” In the business environment of a call center, abuse is determined by the business itself. Many businesses conclude that anything short of vulgar language is not considered abuse. So the call center employee agent has to listen to the invectives thrown at them in the name of good customer service. After such a call, they typically aren’t given the opportunity to relax and refocus before another call is sent to them. The stress continues and drives the high attrition rate in typical call center environments.
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