Stress of not knowing the answer.

Your job is to answer questions and make sure the caller’s request for service is fulfilled. If you are experienced and good at your job, you either know most of the answers or you know how to find the answers to the caller’s questions. Most people assume that call centers are high stress because people call in and yell at you. I believe most of the stress in call centers comes from a lack of enough information to provide the callers.

Feeling Inadequate
When you don’t know the answer to the caller’s questions it can be intensely stressful. A rep once told me that she felt like a deer in headlights when the caller asked a question she could not answer.  Another said it reminded him of a teacher he had in high school who liked calling on the students who didn’t seem to be grasping the subject. She would ask a question of the student and then just wait in silence while the student either bumbled along with inadequate replies or sat in silent humiliation while the class watched.

Information is Power and Control
 As soon as the call begins your world is narrowed down to you and the caller. In order to control the call and feel positive during the call, you must be the person who has the superior level of information. The saying “Information is power” has a deeper meaning when it comes to call center representatives.



Not knowing how to answer the question is stressful because:

1. You feel inadequate during the call. When we do not feel adequate, we feel stress. When we are not meeting expectations, our own, the callers or the company’s, we know it and we start to lose one of the most important things we own - our self esteem.
2. You feel out of control. Stress is highly related to how in control you feel. When you do not have control, you feel stress.
3. Your inability is known to another person - the caller. This humiliation leads feeling rejected. Social acceptance is a basic need for everyone. When you feel bad because a person does not think you are good enough, it is related to your need for social acceptance.
4. Your job security is based on your ability to answer questions. For most people, a job is associated with our most basic needs - food, shelter and clothing. Without a job, we cannot afford to obtain these items. Therefore on an unconscious level you may feel a level real danger.

What can you do?

Take control of your job with the following strategies.  Don't expect your trainer or your boss to fix this.  At the most basic level, you need to fix this.  

1. Organize the information you have into easily accessible references. This means making your own cheat sheets, plastering your cube with notes, creating files, binders, whatever works for you...
2. Ask for more information:  When you have to ask a co-worker for an answer, don't just get the answer needed.  Understand the rest of the story - the background,-why,where,who, how.  Write it down!
3. Understand the question. If you don’t know the answer, sometimes it is because you don’t really understand what they are asking.  Summarize the issue, ask clarifying questions. 
4. Always sound calm, authoritative and assured. Fake it til you make it.  It works.  If you sound in control, you are more likely to behave and feel in control. 
5. Give yourself some space by asking for time.  “Ok, let me get that information for you.” Placing them on hold while you look will help.  "Let me check and get back to you." If you cannot find the answer or where to send the caller, further research is going to be necessary. That is normal. 

The key here is  that you have to do it.  Don't wait for your trainer to come up with the cheat sheet.  Make one.  Or if you trainer has provided one, its your responsibility to keep track of it.  And its also your sanity.

Actor vs Robot

When you allow (yes, allow) all humanity to be stripped from your day, all day, then what? - Seth Godin.

I am an advocate of being an "Actor" in your job as a customer service rep. Please do not mistake being an actor with being a robot. With removing yourself so entirely from the process that you cannot feel that there is another human being who is interacting with you.

An actor is actively and creatively playing a role.
A Robot is merely responding to input.

An actor can be empathetic, sympathetic, energetic and intuitively active.
A robot cannot display emotion, have empathy and is only active if the correct and specific input is provided.

An actor can adapt their behavior to the circumstances.
A robot can only follow the protocol that has been programmed into them.

An actor can enjoy themselves when playing the role.
A Robot has no ability to enjoy and is only numbly processing input.

Work is a huge part of your life. Do not waste it by refusing to be human during your work hours.

13 Reasons to do your job well

1. Forever is composed of nows.    Emily Dickinson
2. Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.    -Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.  - Annie Dillard
4. Every job is a self‑portrait of the person who does it.  Autograph your work with excellence.
5. Everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms ‑ to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. -Victor Fankl
6. First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. -epiticus
7. It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little - do what you can. -Sydney Smith
8. I long to accomplish a great and noble tasks, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker. -Helen Keller
9. Laws control the lesser man.  Right conduct controls the greater one.  -chinese proverb
10. Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds -Franklin D. Roosevelt
11. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. -Aristotle
12. Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. -George Bernard Shaw
13. Dignity consists not in possessing honors, but in the consciousness that we deserve them.     -Aristotle

You can spend your life wishing you were somewhere else, or  you can make your current job worthwhile.  All it takes is a change in focus.  Doing something well creates its own satisfaction.

Good Day - Bad Day

Your reaction to a situation is a sign of how you are feeling.  It shows if you are having a Good Day or a Bad Day.

The email you forwarded to the department has a virus that shuts down all the computer:
Good Day:  Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.
Bad Day:  Can I trade this job for what's behind door #1?

The Marketing Dept sent a letter with your phone number on it.  They forgot to mention it to you. 
Good Day: It's a thankless job, but I've got a lot of Karma to burn off.
Bad Day: I keep hitting "escape," but I'm still here

The current management doesn't have any clue what is happening and doesn't listen to anyone who does.
Good Day: It's frustrating when you know all the answers, but nobody bothers to ask you the questions.  
Bad Day:  Do you want me to sit in a corner and rust or just fall apart where I'm standing? - Douglas Adams

 Your co-worker has made an error that caused untold amounts of work for all concerned.
Good Day: He's only somewhat useful at work, but he's irreplaceable at happy hour.
Bad Day:   How do I set a laser printer to stun?

Someone asks for your help.
Good Day: I don't work here. I'm a consultant. 
Bad Day:Just what part of "NO" didn't you understand...?

Someone asks if you are responsible for a certain task:
Good Day:  Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial. 
Bad Day:  I'm out of bed and I made it to the keyboard. What more do you want?

You arrive at work on Monday Morning:
Good Day:  What is a nice person like me doing in a place like this?
Bad Day:  This isn't an office. It's Hell with fluorescent lighting.

Remember who you are

Hugh Macloed is a cartoonist/artist and he produced the above. To a customer service rep it has some particular value.  Each of us is a different person depending on the situation. At home you are a spouse or a parent.  At happy hour you are friend.  We have roles and that is how we adapt to our situation and make the most appropriate actions. 

Too often we forget that when we are in our role as a customer service rep, we are the company. We need to remember the company's goal, the companies vision, and the companies welfare.  We should make sure our words and our actions match the company's vision.   When you are at work you are the representative to the company.

This is a good thing.  It allows you the distance to remove some of the emotional tension that you feel when a caller is frustrated.  An actor is a play is not hurt when he stabbed or insulted on stage.  Neither are you when a customer is screaming in your ear.  You are just the actor in a role.    We don't need to take anything personally.

Avoiding the Infection of a Caller’s Anger

Working in a contact center means occasionally dealing with angry people. Did you know the only thing that makes the call bad is your reaction to it? We have control in how we act, and we can refuse to become emotionally involved in the call. Avoiding emotion leads the caller into a constructive conversation instead of a destructive one.

Accept the situation

Fear of the “bad call” causes more bad calls than anything else. Fear causes defensive behavior by reps and calls that escalate out of control. Relax and realize that these calls exist. We can’t avoid them so our best bet is to manage them.

Be the actor in a play

Call Center reps are actors. They are not involved personally in this conflict. They are just representing a company. Just like the actors in a play, reps are not personally hurt because someone is upset or angry on the phone. Step into a role and create that space between you and the caller.

Make Choices, Don't be a Puppet

“Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response.” – Victor Frankl

Most people react instinctively to what people say, but we do have the option to choose. The more often a rep chooses the easier it becomes. When the caller is angry, choose to step back and move into the role. Remember that this anger is about the company. Power comes with the choice not to react but to lead the conversation.

Take your time and make a friend.

Once in the role, we are ready to handle the call. Let the caller spill out all of their anger. In fact encourage them to do so. Ask questions that lead to more explanation. The emotional reaction would be to quickly end the tirade, but this is a mistake. The caller must finish. The caller wants some confirmation that we hear and understand their emotion. Providing a sense that we understand why they are angry will convey that we care. They will calm down. Defending the company at this stage of the call is a mistake.

Lead the conversation to a solution

Once the emotion is over a solution can be found. Speak slowly and with assurance. Use words that reiterate a sense of security and trust to the caller. Make sure they feel part of the solution by asking for agreement. If we can’t give them what they want, lead up to your solution with “yes” questions that are related to the problem. Such as “Is this your address? Was it delivered on this date? Once they confirm two or three statements, suggest a solution in the form of a question.

The best customer service reps look at the angry call as a challenge. They revel in bringing the call to a positive conclusion. Realistically not every call will end up with a happy caller. But the call is successful if the caller was able to conclude their business without involving you in their emotion.

7 Marketing Dept sillysms

1. ACRONYM: Absurdly Contrived Representations Of Names Yielding Mass Stupefication
2. All you need in this department is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.
3. Catch a man a fish, and you can sell it to him.  Teach a man to fish and you ruin a wonderful business opportunity. -Karl Marx
4. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.  Teach a man to create an artificial shortage of fish and he will eat steak.  -Jay Leno
5. The first law of Marketing is to avoid the concrete promise and cultivate the delightfully vague. 
6. Why ruin a good story with the truth?
7. You can fool all the people all the time if the advertising is right and the budget is big enough.