Maintaining an excellent customer support team is crucial for any business. Aside from being the first point of contact during client assistance requests, a good customer service team can retain your customers, cultivate the client base, boost your company’s reputation, and even help increase your sales.
Since customer support does a lot for your business, what have you done to give back and show your utmost appreciation?
The Challenges of Being in Customer Support
Working as a customer service representative can be a challenging job. Often, representatives will be the first in line to face client complaints. Although complaints are not entirely bad for your business, being the person to handle emotional and irate callers can dampen anyone’s spirit. Despite that, they must serve the next caller with a chipper voice and a happy face.
Moreover, being in customer support can also be a thankless job. Consider this: about 66 percent of consumers called customer support to file a complaint in 2020. But no one would ever call customer service to commend the company or rave about a product they received. Most of the time, people call customer service representatives to air out their grievances, find a solution for an issue, or follow up on an existing inquiry.
The lack of appreciation combined with the stress of the job puts 74 percent of representatives at risk for burnout. Burnout is emotional and mental exhaustion related to the work environment. Although you can feel burnout emotionally and mentally, it can manifest into a myriad of physical ailments.
Encouraging Customer Support
With all the hurdles that your customer support team faces, it is understandable why some would lose confidence and motivation. But when you help your team break away from the negative cycle, here are some strategies you can employ to lift their spirits once more:
Host Regular Team-Building Activities
Support staff often work long hours and are away from their families. When they finally go home, their overflowing mailbox, sink, and laundry basket may surprise them.
Give your agents a break from the routine and everyday stress and conduct team-building activities for them. It could help revive their spirits and strengthen their relationship with their co-workers.
Show the Team Your Appreciation
Sometimes, saying thank you for their hard work and a pat on the back goes a long way for stressed-out customer service representatives. Tell them they did a good job during the next company meeting.
You can go the extra mile and let agents know you appreciate the additional time they spent on a client inquiry. Moreover, you can praise them for the increased effort they exerted to help a client out or the extra mile they went through to keep a client happy during their performance review sessions.
When you recognize an employee for doing a good job, they feel appreciated and become more motivated.
Celebrate Staff Achievements
Whether it is ordering a box of pizza every Friday or giving away cafe gift cards for top agents, celebrating staff achievement is important in boosting their morale. A small reward for your staff works wonders on increasing employee happiness and fulfillment.
Try to celebrate team achievements and individual successes to ensure every employee feels seen and appreciated.
Give Feedback to Your Customer Service Agents
Since it can be challenging to find a good representative, it is crucial to know how to hire, train, and retain them. Because of this, you should regularly give feedback to your staff.
Ask for their opinion about an issue, or if you feel they are underperforming, give them suggestions on how they can improve. They may not always listen, but at least you are giving them a chance to do better.
Offer Career Growth Opportunities
Aside from regular staff training, be sure to offer chances for your support staff to grow. It means giving them additional tasks and responsibilities to help them gain new skills and hone their existing ones.
By handing them opportunities to learn and thrive, you are setting them up for success in their career.
Listen to Your Support Team
Give your team the chance to talk about their issues and concerns. Let them say their thoughts about a problem before giving your opinion on the matter.
Sometimes, their feedback and suggestions become the solution to a problem you are experiencing. With that, you would identify a problem and solve it early.
Do Not Micromanage
When you micromanage your staff, you are hindering their growth. The best way to help your employees grow is to give them responsibilities appropriate for their level.
For example, you can assign a new task, but check in with the representative and give suggestions when needed. If the staff member fails in completing their duty, you should not criticize them but instead provide feedback on how they can improve.
Communicate With Your Staff
It is always easy to scold a support staff when you feel they have done something wrong. But doing this will chip away at their confidence and demotivate them further.
Instead, allow them to answer your questions. That way, they can rectify the issue immediately and feel valued and appreciated.
Provide Your Support Team Perks
As a way to show your appreciation, you can offer your staff perks to boost their morale. For example, you could give them an extra vacation day, a gift card, or a meal from their favorite restaurant. These small gestures can help keep your staff happy and motivated to keep working for your company.
Share Customer Appreciation
Not every bit of feedback from customers will be negative. They could give your agents positive feedback if the agent assigned to them was beneficial, prompt, and polite.
Sharing these kinds of feedback shows agents the effect their work has on people’s lives. These reviews can give your team members a sense of professional and personal fulfillment, motivating them to work a little harder to achieve positive results.
If you are using customer support outsourcing services, you can still show appreciation for your support team’s work. You can remotely meet your team to say thank you for the work they have been doing. You can even reward individual successes through certificates and bonuses or treat your support team to a nice lunch at your company’s expense. Speak with the account manager assigned to you on how you can make these things happen and more.
Conclusion
Customer support is a vital part of running a business today. But sometimes, the stress and thanklessness of their job can burn out your team and negatively affect the quality of their performance.
Regardless of whether you have an in-house team or utilizing customer support outsourcing services, learning and implementing relevant strategies can do wonders. It can motivate employees and keep the morale up, positively affecting your employees’ well-being and the workplace environment. As a result, you will have happier employees, more satisfied clients, and a thriving business.
CrewBloom is a leader in customer support outsourcing in the Philippines. We are dedicated to helping you build your customer service dream team who can represent your brand in the best possible way. Book your consultation today!
