Tech Support

Surviving a call center environment, particularly for those folks who have found themselves thrown into the graveyard shift, can be a daunting proposition. There is the constant pressure to perform and the unpredictability that the customer brings to the table, not to mention the myriad of things that an agent needs to remember and keep track of with every call that comes in to meet the quality guidelines. These sorts of jobs have a reputation for being very easy and involving little actual work, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Call centers are high-stress environments, with customers being one of the main reasons for all that pressure. Agents that survive in the long-term will usually be the ones that learn to let anything the customer says simply roll off their shoulders after the call. Early on, it is very easy to take anything bad that the customer says personally and “softer” agents end up being heavily affected by it. As experience settles in, more and more agents simply stop caring what the customer says beyond the call itself. This doesn’t mean they should dismiss the customer’s concerns, but it does mean they should stop letting it have such an impact on them.

Another problem could be the hours of the shift. This is not a concern for most call centers in the Western hemisphere, but there are companies that prefer their phone lines operating at all hours without outsourcing. This means that there are going to be people stuck in a graveyard shift, cutting them off from a lot of things that they may have enjoyed before. One of the oldest ways to survive being in such a shift is to learn to adapt a “nightlife” to the daylight hours. There are alternative forms of entertainment and recreation available during the day that can match what’s available once the sun sets and allows for agents to bond with their fellow agents.

Trackback URL