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My 5-Day Mantra to Prevent Workplace Burnout

Dealing with workplace burnout is all about mind over matter. To overcome workplace burnout and function effectively at work, you need to have a way to see beyond all the stress and pressure. I wish I had super human powers that could make me immune from stress but as it turned out I was just as human as the next guy and highly susceptible to burnout. During my first few months working in a call center, my 5-day energy level would look something like the illustration below :

But I was not willing to let workplace burnout beat me. Over time, I learned to develop a system I call my 5-Day Motivation Mantra which helped me a lot in overcoming everyday stress at work and beating workplace burnout. This was the same 5-day mantra I taught my team later on as a sup. It’s not rocket science. In fact, it’s so simple I bet y’all can quickly learn this mantra in as little as two minutes. The best part is this mantra actually works!

My 5-Day Mantra to Prevent Workplace Burnout

DAY ONE

Normally, after two days rest, I’d feel refreshed and fully charged and coming to work on Day One should be no problem.

DAY TWO

Day two is when my energy level starts going down and the week starts to get challenging. To overcome these obstacles, I start Day Two with Goal Setting basically reminding myself where I’m currently at and where I need to be by week’s end. I motivate myself with the thought that every bonus and cash incentive I make will go a long way towards paying for my mom’s medication and chemotherapy. Whenever you’re feeling low, just think of your goals and why you’re doing what you’re doing and this should give you that much needed boost. Oh, by the way, after five years treatment, mom was declared cancer-free in 2015!

DAY THREE

It had been a rough week so far but thankfully I’ve made it to the middle of the work week! On Day Three, I tell myself “After today, it’s all downhill from here!”

DAY FOUR

By day four, my energy level is already running low but I know I have one more day to go. I take a deep breath and tell myself: “Day Four! One day more!”

DAY FIVE

This is it pancit! Finally I made it to day five! LAST DAY! LAST DAY! WOOHOO!!!

REPEAT MANTRA NEXT WEEK

Like everything else that’s redundant in our work as call center agents, I repeat this mantra every week without fail and I will attest that this mantra worked like a charm for me during the six years I was with the industry. My primary goal back then was to complete mom’s chemotherapy and when mom was finally declared cancer-free after five years of treatment, I had completed my goal and after that I decided to move on to other interests. Nonetheless, I will be forever grateful to the call center industry for being instrumental in completing mom’s treatment. Sharing these helpful tips and information is my small way of paying it forward to the industry that helped me so much.

Have a great week!

RELATED ARTICLE:
Dealing With Burnout in the Workplace

Dealing with Burnout in the Workplace

Photo credits ABS-CBN News

Trending news about Sarah Geronimo’s burnout made me think to myself: “If a superstar like Sarah who practically has everything can still feel so empty and burned out, how much more ordinary call center reps?” Often I am amazed how agents can go through 8 hours of stress and pressure every shift and still find the energy after shift to go to the gym or drink a few bottles of beer while singing on the videoke to their heart’s content. And then I realized agents do these after shift activities to blow off steam. This is their way of dealing with burnout in the workplace.

What is Workplace Burnout

Mayo Clinic defines workplace burnout as a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress in the workplace. Burnout is so much more than mere stress. Burnout is actually an accumulation of stress, boredom and a general sense of being trapped in a situation without purpose or direction. Workplace burnout usually results in feelings of sadness, fatigue, depression, lack of focus, a loss of self-confidence in their capability to perform their work and an overall decline in their performance. Left unchecked, workplace burnout can eventually lead to chronic absenteeism and high attrition rates.

Common Causes of Burnout in the Workplace

Bad Managers

A bad manager who engages in aggressive behavior against an employee can create negative emotions and constant stress in the employee that can lead to loss of motivation and enthusiasm towards work. Likewise, a manager who does not have the guts to fight for his team and chooses simply to protect himself inspires no motivation for his team.

Unrealistic Work Commitments

Imposing unrealistic work goals on employees coupled with lack of resources and management support to fulfill those goals can create constant pressure and stress that in the long run will lead to mental and physical exhaustion as employees drive themselves up the wall trying to deliver their unrealistic targets.

Apathy

When employees sense that management is generally all about making profit and totally insensitive and apathetic to their needs, this creates a reciprocal “I don’t care” attitude among employees.

Redundant Tasks

Doing the same redundant task every shift and the impression that the work is no longer intellectually stimulating leads to a feeling of being hopelessly trapped in a boring task and the desire to find other more challenging jobs or at least try anything new. This is why it is important to allow team members who excel to take on more responsibilities such as assigning them as Subject Matter Experts or even groom them to be future sups. Career pathing motivates other team members to excel and provides a challenge that should make their jobs much more interesting.

Employee Characteristics

The ability to effectively manage stress at home and in the workplace determines how bad burnout will affect an employee’s performance. Employees who have anger issues, not sociable or are prone to aggressive behavior will not be able to handle constant stress very well. Patience, maturity, optimism, friendliness and the ability to accept criticism are characteristics that can help employees manage stress and burnout better.

Symptoms of Burnout in the Workplace

Recognizing the early signs of burnout is the best way to catch burnout before it gets any worse. Here are the most common symptoms of a burnout:

Exhaustion

A clear sign of burnout is when you feel tired all the time, even after just waking up from several hours of sleep. You would feel emotionally, physically and mentally drained and having no energy to work.

Lack of Motivation

When you practically have to drag yourself to work every day and have lost all enthusiasm about everything.

Pessimism

Suddenly you are disillusioned with everything and nothing you do matters much anymore. You become cynical and full of negativity.

Inability to Focus

Your inability to concentrate on your work leads to lower performance which leads to even more frustration at work.

Poor Interpersonal Interaction

You either become withdrawn avoiding interaction with co-workers, friends and even family members or you tend to argue a lot and get ticked off easily.

Deteriorating Health and Personal Hygiene

You don’t pay as much attention anymore to your own physical grooming and personal hygiene and indulge more into unhealthy habits such as eating too much, excessive smoking, alcoholism and even drug abuse.

Depression and Unhappiness

You feel unhappy with work and family life and generally dissatisfied with yourself.

Dealing with Burnout in the Workplace

After recognizing the symptoms of burnout, the next best step is to deal with it. Different people have different ways of dealing with burnout in the workplace. Some try to look for a solution from the bottom of a beer bottle. Some find peace trekking and nature tripping. Others direct their aggressive energy lifting weights or punching bags. Some go food tripping or shopping. Some find relief simply having fun with friends. Others turn to the Bible. Still others go to extremes finding solace in drugs and other vices. Some direct their pent up aggression and frustration towards family members. The Good Book says judge not and you will not be judged so I will not even venture saying which solution is good and which is not so good. My suggestion is we need to recognize that workplace burnout is an occupational sickness that may require professional intervention in extreme cases. Check your HMO if they cover such services. Consult with your HR department if they have programs that address workplace burnout and its underlying causes. I would rather look for an effective long-term way of dealing with burnout in the workplace rather than a temporary quick fix which may only worsen an already bad situation. More importantly, I also suggest we look into ourselves and find any worthwhile  activity or vocation that can give us a new sense of purpose and avoid the sense of emptiness.

Burnout in the workplace adversely affects both employees and management alike. Deteriorating metrics caused by burnout will eventually reflect negatively on the site’s overall performance which in turn can result into penalties or worse. As such, it makes good business sense to recognize the symptoms and start dealing with burnout in the workplace as early as possible before it gets out of hand.

RELATED ARTICLE:
Motivation Mantra to Prevent Workplace Burnout

An Ode to The Call Center Rep

I dread every time day turns into dusk
I know very soon I have to do the same redundant task
All throughout the day I toss in bed
But wake up still feeling like a zombie from the Walking Dead
By eleven I eat dinner which is technically my breakfast
Just like me, my tummy needs to adjust
With a quick prayer I step into the darkness outside
Hoping no harm befalls me as I catch my ride

Logging in just in the nick of time
I checked the monitor and gasped “God! 250 callers on the line!”
“TOOOOT!” goes the headset and even before I could greet the customer “Hi!”
“Get me your freakin’ supervisor!” I pressed mute and sighed “Oh my!”
“It’s gonna be another long shift…” I whispered real quick
Another long night in what so far had been an eternally long week
Bio-break! Bio-break! OMG I need to go to the john
But sup warned me “No unauthorized AUX or else you're done!”

Stress, fatigue, hypertension, depression and obesity
Those HMO cards eventually will come in really handy
‘Tis ironic that while work can really make me sick
I cannot miss work otherwise I get termed real quick
And as if all that stress is not enough
Sup warns me, “Your stats! Pull them up!”
Often I wondered how others do that
Receiving irate calls yet getting no DSAT

And then there’s this power tripping fraternity
who feel they’re heaven’s gift to humanity
Strutting around the floor flirting and doing as they please
Like demigods that us mere mortals have to appease
Tough luck should you be unfortunate enough to earn their ire
For certain they’ll concoct a plot to get you fired
And like fools they conjure up team activities to motivate
In a vain attempt to control their high attrition rate

Many times have I swore I cannot take this bullshit anymore
I’m done being nice to customers who keep calling me a whore
I’m tired of constantly being under the threat of termination
Or of waking up after dusk but still feeling the exhaustion
Many times have I told myself I will quit today
Only to be stopped by the thought of the bills I need to pay
And just like a line from a song I heard this eve
You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave.

- original poem by Jaime ''daddy jim" Lim

Survival Tips for Call Center Newbies

Most call centers require at least 6 months on operations before newbies become tenured call center agents and enjoy benefits only tenured agents are entitled to. More importantly, only work experiences 6 months and up are worth adding on a resume as anything less really won’t count as work experience. That being said, unless call center newbies plan to be like grasshoppers jumping from one account to another, it is paramount that call center newbies learn survival tips to ensure they will last at least 6 months or hopefully much longer on the job and become tenured agents. This article presents some practical survival tips for call center newbies that can help them survive and maybe even thrive in the call center industry.

Survival Tips for Call Center Newbies

There are a myriad of pitfalls call center newbies should watch out for if they hope to survive their first six months. To simplify, we have grouped these pitfalls into 3 general categories which we will call 3M for Management, Metrics and Myself.

Management

Management laid out guidelines for every one to follow and expects 100% compliance. Infractions are all recorded on an agent’s profile and, depending on the severity of the infraction, management can impose penalties ranging from verbal warning for light offenses up to immediate endorsement to HR for severe offenses such as fraud and other ZTP (Zero Tolerance Policy) violations. As call center newbies, it would be best to avoid getting on management’s bad side. Be wary that during the first six months, newbies are being assessed whether they would be an asset or a liability to the account and management will not think twice letting go of liabilities. One reason we see call centers continuously hiring newbies is because they are also continuously firing bad eggs. Even light offenses can get newbies in a bad spot since verbal warnings can quickly escalate into written warnings all the way up to a final warning if a newbie’s bad behavior such as absenteeism, tardiness, non-adherence to schedules and other infractions are not corrected. And you guys already know what comes after the final warning so you don’t want to go there! Supervisors have a responsibility to weed out the bad eggs and ensure only newbies with the right work attitude make it past 6 months and become tenured agents. As a sup, I have very little patience for newbies who habitually go AWOL and I would not wait 6 months before letting them go. I go by the rule that says 3 strikes you’re out! I don’t have the energy to waste on newbies who don’t have the energy to come to work. Survival tip #1 for call center newbies: BEHAVE!

Metrics

In practically all call centers metrics is king! Metrics or Key Performance Indicators (KPI) measure a call center agent’s performance as far as call efficiency and providing excellent customer experience is concerned. Meeting or exceeding metrics determines whether the site keeps the account or closes shop. This is why management expects every one, newbies and tenured alike, to do their share in hitting the site metrics every month. Call center newbies are usually given a month or two at most to “find their groove” being newbies and all but are expected to be more consistent in hitting their metrics by the third month onwards. Trainors, nesting coaches and sups have done all they could to ensure newbies will perform well on the production floor and continuously monitor their progress. Failing to meet metrics consecutively or failing to show marked improvement in meeting metrics despite all the support they’re getting can spell doom for call center newbies. As a sup, I would go all out supporting and coaching any newbie who shows potential for improvement and is willing to learn, even if doing so gets me into trouble with my managers. Pit stops can’t save bottom performing newbies because pit stops are usually reserved for tenured agents. Bottom line, call center newbies have to perform well within their first 6 months or management will have no choice but to let them go. Newbie survival tip #2: MEET YOUR METRICS!

RELATED ARTICLES:
Understanding Call Center Metrics
Rockstar Call Center Agent Best Practices

Myself

Other than the various behavioral and performance pitfalls call center newbies need to watch out for to survive their first 6 months, there are also personal health, security and interpersonal issues newbies need to be aware of. Newbies also need to watch out for their own personal well being.

Personal Health Issues

Mainly because most offshore call centers work the graveyard shift, call center reps are prone to neurological and other health issues associated with unhealthy sleep patterns such as hypertension and aneurysm. We have written a separate article on Aneurysm and Night Shifts. Read it HERE. Diet also poses a health risk since break skeds run counter to our normal eating schedules i.e. we take our lunch at 2 in the morning when our digestive system normally would be in sleep mode. Obesity is also another health concern mainly because we tend to eat a lot because of the stress and then basically just sit on the job the whole shift. Sure we have a gym but honestly, not too many reps really bother to work out and burn carbs. And there’s also those high-caffeine, high-sugar energy drinks that’s supposed to keep us perky all night and make our hearts beat at 150 bpm . I’m a coffee person but I’m not into those energy drinks mainly because I get my coffee free so there’s really no sense paying extra for my caffeine-fix. Yeah right, I’m a coffee chugging cheapskate! And I would also stay away from those cup noodles because I fear what the effects of ingesting dissolved plastics will eventually have on the body. Working in a call center is usually stressful and some reps have used this as an excuse to turn to excessive smoking, alcoholism and sadly even drug abuse to relieve stress. Call center newbies are expected to be in tip top shape to be able to report to work every shift and take calls efficiently. As we mentioned earlier, attendance and metrics are vital to a newbie’s survival. As such, it would be best for newbies to stay healthy and steer clear of things that can adversely affect their health and performance. Newbie tip #3: STAY HEALTHY

Security Issues

In February of 2017, a 24-year-old call center agent walking along the Guadalupe Bridge in Makati on her way to her 5 a.m. shift was robbed at gunpoint and shot in the head. She was not the first victim nor will she be the last. Sadly, call center agents have long been vulnerable to criminal elements preying on these young helpless employees who had to brave the ungodly midnight hours to report for work. Speeding and drunk driving add even more risk to an already risky commute to work. Call center newbies should be street savvy and find the safest way to get to work. Walking alone along a dark alley at 2 a.m. is NOT safe. Use common sense to reduce your exposure to risk. Ride sharing with team mates is definitely one of the safest ways to commute these days. Never fall asleep in a public commute. Try to vary your routine or use alternate routes whenever possible since bad guys have a habit of stalking and studying their prey before attacking. It would also be a good idea if you can leave home a few hours early while it is still much safer to commute and then get some shut eyes in the sleeping quarters. Not only will you be safer, you also don’t have to worry about being late for your shift. Wearing flashy clothes and jewelry and displaying your gadgets while you’re on the road makes you a tempting target so don’t. Remember, you’re on your way to work and not attending a fashion event. And just in case you do find yourself face-to-face with the bad guy, DO NOT RESIST UNLESS YOU ARE CAPABLE OF FIGHTING BACK. These bad guys aren’t stupid. They know robbery is bailable but murder is not and they would try to avoid shooting anybody in the head as much as they can but they will shoot if forced to do so. Don’t give these perps the excuse to hurt you. If the perp is only after your bling, go ahead and give it to him. No amount of bling or gadget is worth getting shot for. Newbie survival tip #4: BE VIGILANT AND STREET SAVVY WHEN ON THE ROAD

Interpersonal Issues

Call center newbies joining a team are pretty much like neophytes joining a fraternity. That being said, newbies should avoid throwing their weight around if they intend to survive their first 6 months with their new team. It is paramount that newbies first try their best to impress their new team and prove that they are worth keeping on the team. Since they are still under assessment, newbies should use positive interpersonal skills to try and be on everybody’s good side because for one, newbies will definitely need a lot of help from their team mates “learning the ropes” during the first few months and secondly, it’s going to be up to the sup with the concurrence of the team if they would want to keep them newbies on the team. Throwing tantrums, acting like spoiled brats, frequent absences and tardiness, dragging the team stats down, arguing with team mates, flirting around, showing off and generally being a first class A-hole are sure-fire ways to get newbies booted out of the team. Call center newbies survival tip #5: BE AN ASSET TO THE TEAM.

Within the first 6 months working in a call center, the newbies should be able to tell whether this is something they would want to do for the long term or not. While it may be true that working in a call center pays well but for some, money isn’t the primary motivation. Within the first few months we can expect to see newbies dropping out of the program until finally only a determined few of the original batch of newbies remain to eventually become tenured agents. There are a lot of challenges and pitfalls call center newbies have to face working in a call center but for the determined few, we hope these survival tips for call center newbies can help overcome these challenges.

Thank you for your time. Have a wonderful shift!

Clarity over Accent

This will be short but blunt. A tweet by Filipino Broadway star Miss Leah Salonga just the other day about a call center rep who left a voice message which Miss Salonga could not understand because the words were “chewed up and garbled trying to sound American” underlines what we have been discussing all along about using a fake accent just to try and sound like a native speaker. For one thing, being a native English speaker is so much more than just accent. Being native involves idioms, phrases, nuances and other characteristics unique to the customer’s particular location. Furthermore, most customers already know they will be speaking with an offshore call center rep and usually would not mind that as long as they can clearly and effectively communicate with the rep and resolve their concern as efficient as possible. Customers can sense a fake accent right from the get go and may even trigger the customer to question the rep’s honesty and integrity. Customers will always appreciate clarity of communication over accent, especially if customers sense the rep is just faking the accent so please lose the fake accent!

Hats off to Miss Salonga, by the way, for being very polite with her tweet. She neither bashed nor said anything degrading against the rep or the call center industry. She merely reminded call center reps to “PLEASE ENUNCIATE! Clarity is everything” like a sup coaching her team. Although there were a lot of positive comments on social media regarding Miss Salonga’s tweet, it disappoints me to see some not so savory remarks. As call center agents, we have a responsibility to continuously improve ourselves and an important part of continuous improvement is the ability to accept constructive criticism like mature adults regardless who makes the criticism. Feedback and constructive criticism from our sups or from customers themselves point out opportunities where we can further improve ourselves so we should always have a healthy attitude towards constructive criticism. The day we stop improving is the day we stop growing professionally. Have a great shift!

RELATED ARTICLES:

Effective Communication Skills

English Language Idioms

Brene Brown Empathy Video

I came across this video by renowned author and research professor BRENE BROWN  several months back and thought it would be appropriate to share Brown’s empathy video with you through this blog. Although there are a number of other videos available on the internet about empathy, Brene Brown’s Empathy video by far is the best one I’ve seen. The video is short yet concise. In the 3 minutes you’d spend watching the video, you would have a much clearer understanding what empathy actually is and why empathy is valuable as far as connecting with people is concerned.

Why Empathy

AER…AER… Ever since Training101, we’ve been taught to Acknowledge, Empathize and Resolve… AER… AER… As a newbie on training, I would go to bed with AER playing in my head. Later on, we were given a couple of canned empathy scripts we were required to say to customers along with a stern warning that failure to “recite” these empathy scripts would earn us an autofail from QA. And usually it’s 3 autofails and you’re out! The end effect here is that we would mechanically “recite” our empathy statement merely for the sake of QA and not necessarily for the customer’s benefit. This defeats the very purpose why we had to empathize. Why is empathy important in the first place? Empathy makes us human. In today’s age of Artificial Intelligence, talking to a live human being is probably the only reason customers still prefer waiting 15 minutes for a call center representative rather than quickly doing business with an automated system. Customers yearn for a human being to connect with and feel how upset and inconvenienced the customer feels with their service and how this connection can help both parties find the best resolution. As terrible as this may sound but the ability to vent out one’s frustration and to hear a human being empathize with their frustration is actually a blessing in disguise for call center representatives because customers cannot vent out their frustrations to a machine and expect to get any empathy. No algorithm has yet been developed to replace human empathy. So please be human when you empathize. Screw those canned empathy scripts! In an ARTICLE written by Katherine Reynolds Lewis for fortune.com, Bruce Temkin of Boston-based customer experience consultancy The Temkin Group stated: “You can’t script empathy. The right way to do it is to teach the agents about why you’re trying to show empathy, what is it, and why is it important. For empathy to be genuine, the agents must have autonomy over how they respond, and choose what course of action to take and what words to say. After all, even the best actor will sound wooden after 10 repetitions of a similar script.”

Brene Brown Empathy Video

In this short 3-minute video, Brene Brown talks about empathy and how it is very different from sympathy. Brene tells us how empathy fuels connection while sympathy drives disconnection. She comes up with 4 qualities of empathy, which are:

Perspective Taking

The ability to take the perspective of another person, or recognize their perspective as their truth.

Staying out of Judgement

Recognizing Emotion in Other People then Communicating That Emotion

Empathy is Feeling WITH People

Brene Brown illustrates empathy like when someone’s in a deep hole and they shout from the bottom, “Help, I’m stuck!” and we look down the hole and say, “Hey, don’t worry I’m climbing down to help you…” Sympathy on the other hand just looks down the hole and says, “Ooh! It’s bad huh?” but does nothing else to help ease the pain. Empathy is a choice and in order to connect with the person, you have to connect with something within yourself that knows the feeling of being in a similar situation. Sympathy simply silver lines the situation to try and make things better but the truth is rarely can a response make something better. What makes something better is human connection.

Effective Empathy over the Phone

The term “empathy’ comes from the German word “infühlung” (from ein “in” + Fühlung “feeling”) first coined in 1858 by German philosopher Rudolf Lotze. Someone who has not actually “experienced” the suffering or sorrow that another is going through cannot have empathy for them, they can however have sympathy. Either way, empathy and sympathy are admirable characteristics. For empathy to be effective, it has to be appropriate to the situation and it has to be sincere. It is much worse to express an empathy statement inappropriately than to not express any empathy at all. I remember one particular call where a woman who was about to give birth called customer service complaining that she was unable to make calls with her phone. The call center rep empathized with a scripted “I understand exactly how you’re feeling right now…” which would have been fine except the rep was male and had never been pregnant so how in Zeus’ name could he “understand exactly how the pregnant woman was feeling right now”? If you cannot avoid being mechanical with your scripted empathy statements, might as well not empathize at all. As call center reps, it is only through the tone of our voice and with the words we use that we can express sincere and appropriate empathy so choose your words well. If you have not experienced a situation that will connect you with your customer, might as well be frank about it and, as the Brene Brown Empathy Video says, just empathize with a sincere “I don’t even know what to say but I’m glad you called me. Let me help you.”

I hope you enjoyed Brene Brown’s Empathy Video as much as I did. More importantly, I hope you learned a lot about what empathy really is and get to apply at work what you learned from this article. If you have friends and family who you feel can also benefit from this article, please SHARE this with them. Thank you once again for sharing a few minutes of your time to visit SUP CALL. Have a wonderful day!

Credits:
fortune.com
butterflyvoyage.wordpress.com
brenebrown.com

Why It Doesn’t Help Being an Irate Customer

Dear Irate Customer

Dear irate customer, I hope you’re having a great day today. I am writing this article in behalf of millions of call center agents and customer service reps, both local and offshore, whose only desire is to provide a happy customer experience for all our customers.

Being angry or irate never resulted into anything good. This is a fact. We’ve seen far too many times how irate driving results into road rage and bad accidents or how disgruntled employees or victims of bullying erupt into rage resulting in workplace violence or school shootings. Just recently, we’ve seen how one irate content marketer’s frustration resulted into tragedy at YouTube HQ. Anger never did nobody no good.

Why It Doesn’t Help Being an Irate Customer

Customer service reps and call center agents are continuously trained to help resolve customer concerns in the most efficient and professional manner. Let me emphasize “professional manner”. Whenever a customer calls in irate and starts cussing and spitting venom at a call center agent, the rep is expected to keep his cool and still perform his task in a professional manner. But being human, most reps can only take so much insult. Even though customer service reps are not allowed to talk back or be rude to the irate customer, the customer cannot expect the rep to just sit down and swallow whatever trash the irate customer dishes out. Here are some reasons why it doesn’t help being an irate customer:

The Mute Button

For call center agents who can no longer digest what the irate customer is saying and needs to blow off steam, the mute button is heaven-sent. Do irate customers really expect customer service reps to sit still smiling as the customer spits out language so foul it can make a sailor blush? Heck no! The rep puts the mute button to good use. Every time the line goes silent, there’s a good chance the rep isn’t exactly singing praises about the irate customer. And it’s no use for the irate customer to tell the rep not to go on mute because most reps are also quite proficient doing sign language with their fingers.

The Ultimatum

Most call centers have a policy against obscene callers and foul-mouthed customers that allows reps to respectfully release a call if the customer refuses to behave even after being warned several times. Obviously, this will only frustrate the irate customer even further and will surely be twice as irate when they call back. Long story short, unless the irate customer stops cussing and calms down, customer service reps will have no choice but to keep releasing the call instead of helping them.

Cussing Ain’t Gonna Help Getting Your Bill Settled

It’s not the call center agent’s fault that their service got interrupted after they missed settling the bill so why do irate customers give customer service reps such a hard time? Customer service reps are trained to help customers with their service NOT to argue or fight with customers. Customer service reps work within company guidelines and although reps would love to go the extra mile with their customers just to create a positive customer experience, reps still have to work within set guidelines. Turning their service back on without settling the bill is not within those guidelines and no amount of profanity can turn their service back on. No call center agent in her right mind would risk losing her job over a customer who keeps calling her a whore.

Why Should I Help You?

Have you ever tried asking anyone for help before? Normally, whenever we ask for help, we usually do it nicely with a smile so that we can have a better chance of getting the help we’re asking for. It’s no different when calling a customer service rep for help. Being nice to your rep usually gets your concerns resolved smoothly and efficiently and everybody goes home happy. But whenever a customer goes beast mode at the onset and starts calling the hapless clueless rep names I dare not even print, how enthusiastic do you think this rep would be to help the irate customer? I bet deep inside this rep is saying, ”Why the heck should I help you?” Perhaps the rep would be more enthusiastic to go ahead and release the call. Again, you’ll never get nothing done being irate.

Everything is on Record

Call center agents use a customer management tool to record and document everything that transpires between the customer and the rep on every call. This is so companies can have a better insight on the customer’s buying pattern as well as service issues. Usually, these recorded interactions provide the basis for any customer incentive or customer loyalty program should the company launch a customer loyalty rewards promotion. This same customer management tool also documents if a customer had been obscene, abusive to customer service reps or an excessive caller and are usually tagged or labeled as PEC (Persistent Excessive Callers) or something similar. This tag remains on the customer’s account and may result into the customer being ineligible for any future promotions the company may offer. Often, being tagged PEC also denies the customer the privilege to be surveyed for CSAT purposes. On rare occasions, recorded calls have been used to prosecute irate customers who persistently make grave threats against the company and their representatives. Often in irate customer sup calls, I would remind the customer that all calls are being recorded and advise the customer to ”refrain from making any further statements that the company might construe as slanderous and/or defamatory”. Sometimes, saying something that makes me sound like a lawyer from Boston Legal can knock some sense into an irate customer and helps them to quiet down. Sometimes, I just wish I can read the Miranda to an irate customer and tell them that anything they say can and will be used against them in a court of law but I’m pretty sure QA will red flag me for that.

The Customer Service Rep is Your BFF

The best person who can help you with your service is the customer service rep. We are your BFF! If you have issues with your product or service, we are accessible 24/7. We understand your concerns. We empathize with you. We have the tools and the know-how to offer solutions to efficiently resolve your concerns. But we can only help you if you work with us in a calm and professional manner. Yelling at us and calling us whores certainly doesn’t fall under being calm and professional. There’s absolutely no need to yell as we use only top of the line headsets and we hear you quite well. Degrading us degrades you as well. Long story short, being irate certainly will not help resolve your concern. So do yourself this favor: Whenever you pick up that phone to call customer service, remember that we are your best friends and BFFs help each other out. Help us help you. We can understand that you’re upset with your service but please do not take your frustration against your BFF. If you feel you’re too upset to call customer service, try to calm down first before picking up the phone. Cussing and being irate won’t do nobody any good.

Companies have safeguards in place to ensure that customers get excellent support whenever they call customer service. Customers have surveys such as CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) and WTR (Willingness To Recommend) they can use to rate how well they felt customer service took care of them. Today, the buzzword is Customer Experience or CX which takes customer satisfaction to a much higher level. Customers also have social media such as Facebook and Twitter to share feedback about their experience with a company. With all these tools available to them to ensure they get excellent customer service, customers really have no need to be irate and cuss and yell. Call center agents would rather help customers and get kudos for a job well done rather than be forced to release an irate customer without being able to help.

So dear irate customer, there’s really no point getting irate with your customer service rep. We are here to help you so please help us help you. Have a great day!

Best Ways to Handle Customers Who Ask Where You’re Located

“Where You At?”

This question sounds frighteningly familiar to practically every offshore customer service rep and, depending on your site’s policy regarding divulging your location, most would just gingerly say either “We’re offshore” or “I’m sorry we’re not allowed to tell you our location” and then wait whether the customer will go ahead and work with you or ask to be connected with somebody else or worse, ask for a sup.
I’m perfectly ok with “We’re offshore” in fact I use this quite often, but the “I’m sorry I can’t tell you where I’m at” spiel is just a bunch of BS like trouble just waiting to happen. How in the world do you think your customers can put their trust and confidence in you if you cannot even be honest enough to tell them where you’re located? If your site still has a Zero Tolerance Policy against telling customers your location, then I feel sorry for you and your site. Offshoring as a business practice had been going on since the late 80’s and most customers are already aware they will be speaking with an offshore rep even before they pick up the phone. In fact, most customers don’t seem to mind they’re speaking with an offshore customer service rep as long as they can both be on the same page and get the issue resolved efficiently.

”I’m Offshore”

Way back 2009 when I was a newbie handling hotel reservations, the account had a zero tolerance policy against telling customers where we’re at. It was a terminable offense to do so. I found this policy so frustrating considering most customers would always ask where I’m at since they will be making payments to book reservations using sensitive personal data such as socials as well as credit card info and I can certainly empathize with their concern. Telling customers we cannot divulge where we’re at usually results in customer asking to be transferred or just canceling the reservation. But the policy said nothing about saying I was offshore, so I found me a loophole and whenever a customer would ask where I’m at I would confidently and matter-of-factly state “I’m actually offshore AND we use the same SAFE AND SECURE payment system our US offices use. Which of our properties would you like me to help you with today?” Note that I used AND instead of BUT because I felt saying BUT at this crucial point makes me sound defensive and I don’t want to sound defensive when there is nothing to be defensive about. I immediately transition to going ahead with the transaction giving customer the impression that “Hey! I’m already here to help you. You can trust me. Let’s go ahead and do this!” Initially, my sup would warn me that I am bordering on ZTP with the “offshore” spiel I was using; QA would red flag me often for using a spiel that they have not approved. But that’s about as far as they can go unless they update their policy. Eventually, they allowed the “offshore” spiel especially after they saw it was working and customers were not asking to be transferred. Persistence does pay off!

Best Ways to Handle Customers Who Ask Where You’re Located

Talk Their Language

The first 10 seconds of the call will determine whether the customer will go ahead and do business with you or ask to be transferred. Your opening spiel should answer the customer’s question: “Should I go ahead and do business with this rep?” It will be helpful to learn to speak like a native English speaker and to speak it with confidence. Speaking like a native helps create an impression that you are on the same page with your customer. On the flipside, sounding tentative or insincere will create doubt in the customer’s mind, especially if processing payment is part of the transaction. Talking like a native alone should already be enough reason to convince your customer to continue the transaction with you.
RELATED ARTICLE: English Language Idioms

Reassure Customer about Personal Data Security

Today, more than ever, customers are increasingly becoming concerned about data breach and the security of their personal information. Personal data security is paramount in every customer’s mind. It isn’t so hard to understand why customers would have second thoughts about providing their personal data to a total stranger half-way across the globe. Using a confident tone, provide the customer your site’s commitment and strict adherence to personal data security. The sooner you reassure the customers about personal data security, the sooner they will trust you enough to do business with you.

Be Competent and Efficient

Customers value their time and expect customer service reps to respect that. Customers hate wasting time having to repeat information they have already provided. Any hint of incompetence and inefficiency within the first few minutes of the call will usually trigger the customer to ask for somebody else. Practice active listening and efficiency on every call.

Play By Ear

Not everyone who asks you where you're at has hostile intentions. Some are probably just curious while others may actually be just trying to start a friendly conversation. I remember one particular call from an elderly gentleman who asked where I'm at. Turns out the elderly gentleman used to be a Marine stationed in Subic Bay just North of Manila and he had fond memories of his stay in the Philippines. So, you really can never tell. Just play by ear and see where the conversation goes. Rule of thumb, let the customer initiate any conversation about where you're at.

Do Not Insist

You can’t win them all. Sadly, even today there are folks who still think people in third world countries wear grass skirts and live in caves or that offshoring took their jobs away. No amount of English communication skill or empathy can overcome this bias and convince these folks to do business with an offshore rep. There’s no point changing their perspective so don’t argue and don't insist. Simply follow your site’s policy regarding returning a customer back to the queue and politely release the customer.

If every call we get were easy calls, our shift would be so boring. Difficult calls and difficult customers challenge us to be better and push us to think outside the box. There is nothing more satisfying than receiving positive feedback from customers who proved difficult at the onset but eventually ended the call on a happy note. Next time a customer asks you where you’re located, use that as an opportunity to impress your customer and convince them that you are as good, if not better, than reps on the mainland.

How to Handle an Irate Customer on the Phone

We all get those irate customer calls practically every shift. There’s just no dodging them. For call center agents, an irate customer is almost always the rule rather than the exception. No shift is ever complete without receiving a call or two or three from your favorite irate customer. But if you think about it, the only reason customers call customer service is if they’re upset or unclear about their product or service- either they feel they’re being ripped off due to some discrepancy with their bill or the service or product they bought isn’t working properly. In a way, call center agents should even be thankful for irate customer calls because without irate customers, call centers pretty much would have no need to hire so many customer service reps. Irate customer feedbacks also provide an invaluable insight into what makes customers unhappy so that product and service providers can tweak improvements where necessary. And although it would be nice if they would, don’t expect happy customers to be calling you. No customer in their right mind would waste 15 minutes waiting on queue just to tell customer service how much they love their service. Happy customers can sing praises about their service on online surveys and social media forums but definitely would not bother calling customer service.

But here’s an interesting fact: as mentioned earlier, although most customers who call customer service are already upset or irate about their service, not all irate customers automatically become detractors. There are still a large percentage of these irate customers who eventually end the call on a happy note. In fact, a study by Customer Experience specialist Esteban Kolsky shows that as much as 67% of customer churn (discontinued service) could be avoided if call center agents handled the irate customer properly and resolved the issue during the first interaction. Handled efficiently and properly, irate customer calls are perfect opportunities for call center agents to meet or even exceed customer expectations and turn irate customers into promoters.

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."- Bill Gates

Why Handle an Irate Customer Properly

Customer Experience

One might argue a single detractor from an irate customer shouldn’t matter much, right? Wrong! According to a January 2018 article from superoffice.com, Customer Experience or CX is the new battlefield for customer loyalty where the customer’s perception of how a company treats them affects customer behavior and builds memories and feelings that affect customer loyalty. In other words, if they like your brand and continue to like your brand, customers will do business with you and recommend your brand to others. On the flipside, failing to handle an irate customer properly will result into a bad Customer Experience and negative word of mouth publicity. Statistics show that news of bad customer experience reaches more than twice as many people as news about good service. According to the White House Office of Consumer Affairs, one dissatisfied customer will tell as many as 20 people about their bad experience. According to Walker Info, by the year 2020, Customer Experience or CX will surpass product quality and price as the key brand differentiator. Any company who ignores this trend may wake up one day finding themselves without a single irate customer and no customer either.

Profitability

On average, a loyal customer can be worth as much as 10 times their first purchase. According to the Temkin Group, loyal customers are 5 times as likely to purchase again, 4 times as likely to refer and 7 times as likely to try a new product or service offering from the same company. Now that’s a lot of business from just one loyal customer! As much as 73% of consumers say friendly customer service representatives can make them fall in love with a brand. An American Express study reveals that 58% of consumers are willing to spend more with companies that provide excellent customer service. On the flipside, up to 78% of customers have bailed out or cancelled a purchase due to poor customer service and as much as 67% will switch to another provider. According to Zendesk, 95% of consumers have taken action in one form or another against a brand as a result of bad customer experience and 85% of these consumers have warned others against doing business with the brand. Up to 39% of consumers who had bad customer experience will avoid the brand for as long as 2 years and as much as 58% swear they will never ever do business again with the brand. Today, more than ever, companies are realizing just how much customer happiness can impact revenue and profitability. Bottom line, if companies want to grow their businesses, then they need to ensure customers are happy not just with product quality and pricing but, more importantly, with customer service.

Your Job Depends on How Well You Handle an Irate Customer

This one doesn’t need much explaining. In a nutshell, you don’t expect to last very long in an industry that puts a premium on Customer Experience if you cannot handle an irate customer properly and keep getting detractors and consistently being an outlier. There’s a high probability the account may let you go. A company would rather lose ten bad reps than one loyal customer. Call center agents are expendable; loyal customers are not. It’s just business.

How to Handle an Irate Customer on the Phone

Now that we have emphasized why it is crucially important for businesses to properly handle an irate customer, here are some recommended best practices for call center agents on how to properly handle an irate customer on the phone:

Stay Calm

Relax! It’s not your fault that the customer is irate so stay calm. Staying calm allows you to think more clearly so you can efficiently resolve the issue. More importantly, staying calm prevents your vocal cords from constricting and making you sound like a Smurf (or a Minion if you’ve never watched the Smurfs). You need to project an aura of confidence in your voice so your irate customer will feel confident that you can resolve the issue. The minute irate customers sense fear in your voice, they will eat you alive, so stay calm.

Tone

While it would be nice to maintain a friendly, enthusiastic tone throughout your shift, such a tone might not be appropriate when you handle an irate customer. Likewise, avoid sounding monotonous and disinterested like you don’t care. As a call center agent, you should be able to quickly switch to the appropriate tone as needed. Use a tone that projects empathy and confidence to let your irate customer feel that you understand the situation and are willing to help. Once the issue had been resolved and the atmosphere much friendlier, you can go back to being upbeat with your ex-irate customer while you try and fish for that elusive CSAT ace!

Talk Like a Native Speaker

It tremendously helps a lot easing the tension if the irate customer can speak with someone who talks their language. I don’t mean someone who talks English but rather someone who talks like a native English speaker mainly because the irate customer feels someone who’s native or at least talks like one will be “on the same page” with the customer ergo is in a better position to understand the situation. And I don’t mean talking with a fake accent either because customers can sense your fake accent a mile away and may even further upset an already irate customer so no fake accents please. Your irate customer probably already knows she’s talking with somebody offshore and it really wouldn’t matter to her whether you’re from Manila or Mumbai or Timbuktu as long as you and your customer are on the same page and understand each other.

RELATED ARTICLE: Talk Like a Native Using Common English Idioms

Empathize but Don’t Apologize

It’s would be helpful to empathize and let your irate customer feel that you understand her inconvenience but NEVER APOLOGIZE for something that was not your fault. Why would you apologize if it was not your fault in the first place? Besides, the irate customer called not to hear how sorry you are but to know how you can resolve the issue. I swear I can almost hear a lot of you say, “What? Don’t apologize?”. I know this runs counter to what training101 taught us, right? But let me ask you this: “How often has apologizing to your irate customer ended well for you?” The irate customer doesn’t give a hoot how sorry you are. They called for resolution not apologies. A suggested spiel should go something like this:
“I understand how inconvenient this issue has been for you and I will definitely help resolve this for you right away!”

Do Not Argue

Have you ever had an argument with your parents, your wife or husband, or with your girlfriend or boyfriend perhaps? Do you recall what usually happens when both parties go on the defensive? Usually the argument ends in a stalemate and nobody really wins. Same thing happens when you get defensive with an irate customer. Obviously, the irate customer won’t back down either and an argument erupts which usually leads to a sup call and one very bad customer experience. The best thing to do to avoid a stalemate in an argument with a customer is to not get into an argument at all. Remember that the irate customer is NOT irate at you (at least not yet) so do not take it personally and don’t be defensive. Allow the customer to first vent out her frustration. Don’t talk. Just listen attentively and get all the details why customer is irate. Eventually, your irate customer will run out of steam and should start to calm down. That’s your cue to empathize (but not apologize!) and give your customer the reassurance that you can definitely help resolve the issue. Based on personal experience, I will never ask an irate customer to calm down because doing so will only backfire and blow up in your face. It would be much better to just listen attentively and let her vent out her frustration.

RELATED ARTICLE: Rockstar Call Center Agent Best Practices

Be Efficient

Even before the customer picks up the phone to call customer service, chances are the customer is already upset. Customer waits on the queue for 15 minutes listening over and over to a machine as her frustration grows by each passing minute. She finally gets to speak with a customer service rep she can barely understand who keeps asking her questions and making her repeat herself. Frustrated, she asks to speak with a supervisor. The rep says please wait sup is currently engaged on another call, puts her on hold for about 5 minutes and then the line goes dead. Fuming mad, the irate customer dials customer service again and after another 15 minutes waiting on queue, you get her call. Lucky you! This story is all about what an efficient call is not. Being efficient on a call means there is effective communication between you and the customer so that you both clearly understand each other and customer never has to repeat herself. Efficiency means you are able to accurately resolve the issue as quickly as possible using all the tools at your disposal so that customer can go on with her day and other customers on the queue don’t have to wait too long. Efficiency means never having to place the customer on unnecessary holds and instead keeping the customer engaged. The worst calls I remember taking are calls from really irate customers who had to call again because some other rep had hung up on them and I end up taking the flak.

RELATED ARTICLE: Listening Skill Improvement Tips

First Call Resolution

According to a study done by Customer Experience (CX) specialist Esteban Kolsky, as much as 67% of consumers who discontinued service after they got irate said they would have stayed with the service if only customer service resolved their issue within the first call. This statement alone should be more than enough incentive for companies to emphasize the importance of First Call Resolution and empower call center agents with the necessary resources to ensure FCR on every call. Can you imagine how frustrating it will be for an already irate customer to have to call again and repeat the same information multiple times to resolve the same issue? First Call Resolution demands that we keep the customer engaged on the call while resolving the issue and avoiding any need to transfer the customer or for them to call back about the same concern. If a case needs to be created for the issue, provide customer the ticket number and advice the customer you are creating the case for their own convenience so that they won’t have to call anymore and only need to wait for a call back from the case team as soon as the case is resolved. Provide a reasonable time frame to set customer’s expectation and stick within that time frame. There’s still a fifty-fifty chance a customer may call back after the ticket had already been created but that’s entirely the customer’s choice. Just advice the customer that the case is still in progress and reiterate the timeframe.

These are just a few recommended best practices call center agents can use to properly handle an irate customer. I tried to keep this as short and as simple as possible so you all can easily follow these practices. I also provided some compelling data just to emphasize to you how important it is to properly handle an irate customer. Modesty aside, I have always found it more satisfying to get an ace from an irate customer who believed and worked with me in resolving an issue. I hope you will also find success using these helpful tips.

Credits to the following for providing valuable stats:
https://www.superoffice.com
https://www.providesupport.com

Again, thanks a bunch for dropping by. Have a great shift!

Carry Your Cross and Carry it Well

This Holy Week, let us take the opportunity to ponder over why, in the face of pain and difficulty, we never lose hope and still struggle to get up to do the work we need to do. Why, despite all the hardship and burden, we still persevere and refuse to give up. Why we all have to sacrifice so much for those we hold dear and continue to carry our Cross and to carry it well. 

Should K-12 Grads Get a Job as a Call Center Agent?

Congratulations to the first batch of K-12 graduates! Now that they have finished senior high, these young grads have the option to choose between continuing on with higher education or to go get a job.  One of the main objectives of shifting the Philippine educational curriculum to K-12 is to equip young grads who cannot afford to continue on to college with employable skills to help these grads get a job right away. Although a majority of these K-12 grads will opt to continue on to higher learning, some would probably choose to get a job upon finishing senior high so they can either start providing for their family or save enough money to continue with their education after working a few years. For K-12 grads who will opt to get a job, I pose this question: Should K-12 grads get a job as call center agents? How would these K-12 grads benefit from getting a job as a call center agent? This article aims to clearly answer these questions and help senior high grads make a decision whether getting a job as a call center agent is a good choice.

Why Choose To Get a Job as a Call Center Agent?

Whenever we make a decision, the first thing to consider is “what’s in it for me” or the WIFMs. Usually, after weighing the pros and the cons, we should then be able to decide which path to take. Allow me to present a few WIFMs K-12 grads can get when they opt to get a job as a call center agent:

College Grads Preferred But NOT Required

When the BPO and call center industry started in the Philippines way back in the early 90s, the hiring process for those who wanted to get a job in this sunshine industry was definitely tough requiring applicants to be college or university graduates and licensed practitioners in their respective fields of study. And this was necessary back then because the Philippines needed to put the best people on the job in order to attract more foreign companies to outsource to the Philippines and make the country the top destination for business process outsourcing and call centers. Today, although the hiring process for call center companies still ensures only the most qualified recruits get hired, the educational requirement has eased off a bit to a point where college undergraduates and even high school graduates with the right attitude and set of skills are encouraged to try out. This is mainly because developments in workforce training over the past several years had made training new recruits so sophisticated to a point where even undergraduates can easily understand and follow instructions. A plus factor for K-12 graduates is that they have invested two additional years in senior high mainly for the purpose of providing them with employable skills and work experience so that once they apply to get a job, they stand a much better chance of getting hired even without a college degree.

No Experience? No Problem!

Today, due to the high demand for fresh recruits, most call center companies are putting more emphasis on an applicant’s willingness to learn than on experience. In fact, there are actually some call center companies that prefer applicants who had minimal or no prior work experience simply because it’s easier to mold fresh young minds that are open to new ideas and not bound by old habits and a fixed mindset. K-12 grads already had at least 80 hours On the Job Training as part of their curriculum. On top of this, grads who get a job as call center agents can expect paid classroom-type training specific to their account for at least a month to familiarize them with the account and the different customer relationship management (CRM) tools they will be utilizing plus a couple more weeks nesting on the operations floor to prepare them to take actual calls. New recruits are given ample classroom and live fire experience before they are assigned to their designated teams. Once in a team, further training and coaching are provided by the team leader and newbies usually will buddy up with tenured call center agents for support until they become more proficient on their calls.

Above-average Pay and Benefits

I have always strongly believed that the call center industry is a great equalizer! Of course, getting a good education is important let me stress this fact but it is only in the call center industry where a college undergraduate or even a high school graduate can expect above-average pay, benefits and incentives that undergrads cannot expect to find in any other industry. And that’s a fact! On average, a front-line call center agent makes around PhP 18K-20K a month plus incentives and bonuses. Health benefits, paid training, career growth and other perks (free coffee!) are your proverbial icing on the cake. This was totally unheard of twenty or thirty years ago.  In the days before there were call centers, if you never finished college, it would be difficult to get a decent-paying job, let alone a job that pays above minimum wages and benefits. Today, once you get a job as a call center agent, even without a college degree, you get the same above-average pay and benefits your other team mates get, yes even your team mates who have college degrees. Again, I’m not saying a college degree is not important. All I’m emphasizing here is that the call center industry is a great equalizer.

Career Growth

In a call center, metrics is king! Call centers do not discriminate between graduates or undergrads, male or female, straight or gay, young or old, able-bodied or physically-challenged. As long as a call center agent has the right attitude, skill, proper work ethics, and able to consistently meet the site’s metrics, the agent can look at career growth in the industry and aspire to climb up the career ladder. I have seen call center agents barely a year on the account leap frog over more tenured agents and become supervisors and managers. I had the pleasure of working with a supervisor who worked his way up the ranks despite his physical disability to eventually become Call Center Manager. Personally, at the age of 50, most call center agents would consider me too old and over the hill. But age never stopped me from trying out and eventually becoming a supervisor. I had the privilege of developing at least sixty call center agents under my wing and spawning two new supervisors within my 2-year stint as a sup. Career growth will always be open even for young K-12 grads who have the heart and determination to grow and succeed in the call center industry.
RELATED ARTICLE: Call Center Metrics

Gain Work Experience on a Global Level

Getting a job as a call center agent presents a unique opportunity for K-12 grads to experience what it is like to communicate and do business on a global level using the English language as the medium of communication. The young graduates would not only learn to improve their English communication skill but more importantly, learn the culture, nuances and temperament of their customers- what makes them happy, what upsets them, what to say and what not to say. The ability to communicate effectively in English and the experience gained working with customers overseas will definitely prove most useful should these senior high graduates decide later on to pursue other fields of endeavor, especially if their work requires them to do business with foreign principals or even if they opt to work overseas. On top of improving their communication skills, they also get to test their multi-tasking and IT skills in real world situations especially now that Artificial Intelligence is gradually being integrated into Customer Relations Management tools.

Learn Skills You Probably Won’t Learn in School

The fastest way to develop a skill is to be immersed in that skill eight hours a day. In a call center, senior high grads will be learning a lot of skills that they probably won’t even learn in school. Skills they will learn over time and take with them wherever they go and whatever job they do. Skills like integrity, critical thinking, teamwork, perseverance, proper work ethics, self-discipline, a “never say die” attitude, time management, knowing when to speak and when to just shut up, managing stress, working under pressure, knowing how to take constructive criticism, workplace politics plus a whole lot more. Find me a curriculum in college that teaches these skills and I will enroll!
RELATED ARTICLE: 5 Essential Call Center Skills You Won't Learn in College

Fun! Fun! Fun!

This is the one thing I miss the most after I resigned from my call center job. Despite all the difficulties and stress a call center agent goes thru every shift, the call center, in general, is a fun place. For K-12 graduates, it’s just like being back in your classrooms again only this time, you’re getting paid while having fun! You meet new friends and beautiful people! You join teambuilding activities and competitions! You get rewards and incentives for a job well done! You get to learn and earn! Stress and challenges will always be present in whatever job you choose but you won’t have half as much fun as you will in a call center. Take my word for it. Man, if I was only 30 years younger I’d probably be glamping or mountain climbing or spelunking or pigging out at a seafood buffet or have fun just simply being with the team!

Enough said. I’m pretty sure there are a dozen other reasons why a young senior high grad should go get a job in a call center but if these WIFMs here aren’t enough to convince him, then maybe he should consider other options. A call center job is not for everyone. Let’s be clear with that. Ironic as this may sound, the work is challenging yet monotonous at the same time. And of course, he has to deal with the thought of working nights while everyone at home is asleep and then trying to sleep in the daytime while everyone around the house is up and about. If, after weighing the pros and the cons, our K-12 grad still wants to get a job as a call center agent, great! He can go ahead and check online JOB POSTING SITES or have a friend or family already working in a call center refer him to recruitment. Good luck!

This article was written with K-12 grads in mind but just about anybody interested to get a job as a call center agent can definitely benefit from this. I hope you enjoyed reading this post as much as I enjoyed writing it. Let me know your thoughts by leaving a COMMENT below. That would be nice. It would be even nicer if you can help me SHARE this article so that your friends and their friends can benefit from this article as well.

Thank you for spending time with SUP CALL. Have a wonderful day.

English Language Idioms Call Center Agents Need To Know

Call center agents are tasked with taking care of customer concerns, doing their best to make sure every transaction results in a positive customer experience. For offshore call centers, the expectation obviously is that call center agents can speak English relatively well. For offshore call center hubs like Manila and Mumbai where English is practically the second language, speaking English well shouldn’t be a problem. However, despite this fact, a lot of customers still insist on speaking with someone else or being transferred to a locally-based representative mainly due to one reason: Customers prefer speaking with a native speaking rep. This article will help you converse with your customer like a native speaking call center agent through the appropriate use of English language idioms.

You Don’t Sound Native

Whenever a customer tells you that you don’t sound like a native English speaker, the customer doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t speak English well but rather you’re not familiar with English language idioms and expressions most native English speakers are quite used to. Although having an accent definitely helps, being a native English speaker requires more than just imitating English slang and accent. Customers aren’t dumb and they can certainly see through the farce of using a fake accent. This tends to be irritating and puts a call center agent’s credibility and honesty into question. It is better to speak English in your natural tone and just spice up the conversation with English language idioms your customer is familiar with. Most American customers are already aware about offshoring and outsourcing and that they are actually talking with a call center agent located halfway across the globe. Usually, they won’t mind talking with a call center agent from Manila or Mumbai as long as the call center agent and the customer can effectively communicate on the same wavelength. It is only when the call center agent fails to speak on the same level as the customer that not sounding native becomes an issue. Do not expect the customer to adjust to the call center agent’s English communication level. On the contrary, it is the call center agent’s responsibility to turn his English communication skill up a notch and be familiar with common English idioms and expressions to communicate effectively with the customer like a native English speaker.

What Are English Language Idioms?

The CAMBRIDGE English Dictionary defines idioms as a group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own. MIRRIAM-WEBSTER adds idioms are a form of language peculiar to a people, or to a district, community or class. WIKIPEDIA says an idiom is a common word or phrase with a culturally understood meaning that differs from what its composite words’ denotations would suggest. Taking all these definitions into consideration, we can say that an English language idiom is a form of English speech or expression peculiar to a geographic or cultural group where the words taken together has a completely different meaning from the individual definitions of each word in the phrase. English language idioms are not to be taken literally. For example, the English language idiom “more than one way to skin a cat” may sound rather cruel if taken literally but all it means is “there’s always a way around every problem”. Thankfully, this English idiom has absolutely nothing to do with cats and no cats were harmed (or skinned) in the making of this idiom. While there are English language idioms unique only to certain geographic or cultural groups, there also are idioms common to practically every one. This article will deal mainly with the more common English language idioms that non-native speaking call center agents will find most useful in their every day calls.

Why Learn English Language Idioms?

English language idioms separate native English speakers from other call center agents who basically just know how to speak English. Again, the ability to speak English well is not enough to make one a native English speaker. English language idioms provide color to an otherwise plain and boring English conversation. Call center agents need to learn English language idioms and use them appropriately to be able to converse with their customers like native English speakers. The customer is probably aware she’s talking with a call center agent offshore but she would not mind that fact as long as she is at ease talking with a native sounding speaker. Using English language idioms and sounding native gives customers the impression that you are familiar with their situation and are in a better position to understand and resolve their concern. This is the main reason why customers will usually ask to speak with somebody else when they feel the call center agent handling them does not “talk their language”. The ability to use English language idioms appropriately gives call center agents that much needed advantage to immediately strike rapport with the customer and talk with them more confidently. A word of caution: use English language idioms only when appropriate and make certain you know exactly what each idiom actually means. You do not want to open a “can of worms” using English language idioms inappropriately. Don’t overdo your idioms. Using the wrong idiom at the wrong time is much worse than not using any idiom at all.

How to Learn English Language Idioms

I’m almost certain there must be thousands of English language idioms being used everyday in the English-speaking universe and I will make it clear right now that I will not attempt to discuss each one of these idioms. We will just focus our attention to a handful of common English language idioms that I have used personally and know will be most useful to call center agents. But don’t let me stop you from learning more English language idioms. As I always say: “Never stop learning.” There are a number of ways you can learn English language idioms effectively:

• Search Engines:

  Google the term “English language idioms” and immediately you have well over 7.5 Million search engine results about English language idioms available for your consumption; Searching for “English Idioms for Business” gives you a mind-boggling 33.7 Million search results! Suffice to say, there’s a ton of information on English language idioms available on Google;

• YouTube:

  As of this writing, there are well over 160 thousand videos on YouTube on topics related to English language idioms and English idioms for business;

English Language Idioms YouTube Video

• Movies & Television:

  Every time you watch an English movie or television program, make a conscious effort to note down any English language idiom you hear and try to Google those idioms to know what they actually mean. You might also want to try and emulate how they delivered those idioms. You might want to leave out profanities and other colorful expressions which you are bound to encounter depending on the movie or program you’re watching;

• Your Customers:

  You are on the phone listening to different customers at least 40 hours a week. If that isn’t immersing yourself in English language idioms then I don’t know what is. Make every call a learning experience for you. If you’re allowed to use pen and paper on the operations floor, by all means note down any English language idiom you hear your customer say then Google them later. If you can learn even one or two English idioms per day that would be at least ten new idioms you can add to your arsenal of English language idioms every week.

25 English Language Idioms I Love to Use

As mentioned earlier, since there are practically thousands of English language idioms being used every day, this part of the article will just focus on idioms I have personally used in my conversations with customers. Modesty aside, I had customers tell me they thought I was in the US or something along that line. I take this as a validation that I probably sounded native to them. Of course, I always tell them I’m offshore but they don’t seem to mind that at all. To my customers, what mattered most is we were “on the same page” and we clearly understood each other. I’m sorry I’ve been “beating around the bush” up to this point so I’m not going to delay any longer. Let’s “get the ball rolling”. Here are 25 of the English language idioms I love to use:

• Rule of thumb: a generally accurate guide or principle based on experience
• Go the extra mile: to go beyond what is expected to please a customer
• Call a spade a spade: to be blunt and truthful
• Cost an arm and a leg: very costly or expensive
• Hit the nail on the head: to be accurate or correct
• Bitter pill: to accept an unpleasant situation
• I’m all ears: to listen intently or focus on what the customer is saying
• Best of both worlds: a win-win situation; customer gets all advantages
• Call it a day: to stop working or to end a task
• A silver lining: be optimistic there is still hope
• Hit two birds with one stone: to accomplish two tasks at the same time
• Step up to the plate: to take action when something needs to be done
• The whole nine yards: give the customer everything
• You can say that again: Yes, I totally agree with you
• Straight from the horse’s mouth: to get information from a reliable source
• Ball’s in your court: it’s the customer’s turn to act or make a decision
• Barking up the wrong tree: blame the wrong person or look at the wrong place
• In a pickle: to be in a difficult situation
• Between a rock and a hard place: to be faced with two equally difficult choices
• In the same boat: an empathy statement meaning you’ve been there yourself
• Be on the same page: to understand each other
• Let’s shake on that: to reach an agreement with the customer
• Get the green light: get approval for a customer’s request
• I got you covered: to take care of everything for the customer
• Get the big picture: the general, overall or long-term plan

Additional Resources and Credits

If you had fun with these 25 English language idioms and thirsting for more, I highly recommend these following links where you can find more English language idioms you can use in your calls:

• 20 Essential English Idioms for Sounding Like a Native
• English Language Idioms for Business
• English Language Idioms
• LinguaMarina ESL Video

Thank you for spending time learning how English language idioms can help you. Hope this article empowers you to become a better native English speaker and be more confident conversing with your customers. If you found this article most useful, I would love to see you COMMENT or SHARE.