I’ve dealt with screaming, crying, and furious customers on the phone for the past 4+ years, and I’m calmer now than ever before — This is how I manage.
Call centers are without a doubt one of the most challenging areas of customer service, a job a lot of people get into due to the fact experience is not always required to enter, but this is not always true to its word.
You are trained to know what to say, how to give out the info, and a few details on the operating system, but you are never told what to do with the emotional exhaustion tax.
I had pretty difficult first few years, taking things personal and letting conversations I had with total strangers ruin my day. Years later I can confirm this is definitely the result of a young adult trying to deal with another person’s emotions when you are not trained to do so. Because it’s “easy”, “you just have to answer the phone”, “you get paid to do so” and so on.
It’s exhausting.
But, what changed for me then?
The work was still the same, the clients, the tasks, the procedures, but what changed was MY approach to the job.
1. This is just a job, not your personality, you are much more than 8 hours of your day.
2. When you hang up the phone, the person on the other line disappears from your life, you can’t even put a face to their voice, they can’t haunt you. This set me free.
3. The moment you leave your shift, it’s over. Respect your time off and enjoy it doing things that fulfill you.
I can now see my job as what it is, a moment in my life that will get me to the next, and I can get through any difficult moment knowing it’s not evermore.
