Summary Telephone customer-service representatives have tough time while at work due to the implementation of the automated telephone system that confused customers who called in thus resulting in long waiting time. Customer would be very angry by the time the actual customer-service representatives get to them on the phone. Very often, customer would begin ranting and scolding the customer-service representatives. Some customers are also racists.
Many customer-service representatives have little options but to take the abuse into their stride as many companies require their employees to maintain positive emotions at all times. Many a times, such behavior would resulted in the employees bring back their negative emotion back home and thereafter releasing it at either their family members or friends. Some companies have been conducting training for their representatives to reduce the high tension In an angry customer and to avoid taking In the abuse personally and directly.
Such job would actually made the employees more prone to being absent from work, illness and made more stress-related disability claims. From an emotional labor perspective, how does dealing with an abusive customer lead to stress and burnout? In this article, we can see that each individual is very important to the company and at the same their behavior. If an individual decided he/she would not be coming to work and didn’t inform the immediate superior, it would cause inconvenience to the people working around him/her.
The personality of the worker Is also very important. It will determine how the worker would perform In the organization. Emotions and moods are another factor that Is Important. Expressing emotions publicly may damage the social life and are critical to rational decision-making. Motivation is also important to the character development and behavior for every individual. There are three key elements to motivation which is intensity, direction and persistence. Intensity will concern with how hard a person tries which is the mall focus whenever motivation Is mentioned.
Direction Is the orientation that benefits the organization and persistence is a measure of how long an individual can maintain his/her effort to achieve their goal. If you were a recruiter for a customer-service call centre, what personality types likely to affect whether an employee can handle customer abuse a day-to-day basis? As a recruiter for a customer-service call centre, someone with the personality of eyeing able to self-monitor, having high self-esteem and proactive are best suitable to be employed.
Being a person with self-monitor and high esteem, he/she has the ability to adjust behavior to suit external or situational factors. This would be helpful as he can be able to handle different case without many difficulties. Being proactive would create positive changes in the working environment and thus able to lessen the tense working atmosphere. With this, respect would also be earned easily and they are normally seen as good leaders. With such capable employees, the organization would be able to operate better. Emotional Intelligence is one’s ability to detect and to manage emotional cues and information.
How might emotional intelligence play a role in responding to abusive customers? What facets of emotional intelligence might employees possess who are able to handle abusive customers? Emotional intelligence is an ability or skill to identify, assess, and control the emotions of own self, of others, and of groups. This is exceptionally effective in a customer-service call centre company. Employee under abusive customer would tend to bury the hatch in their heart and unknowingly vent it out on their family and rends after their work.
If the employees would to undergo course to enhance their knowledge of emotional intelligence, it would greatly help the employee in their own personal life. There are four stages to Emotional intelligence such as self-awareness, self- management, social awareness and relationship management. In order for employees to handle abusive customers, they should possess self-awareness and self-management as the ability to read one’s emotions and recognize their impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions and ability to control one’s emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances would greatly help.
Conclusion: Motivation Concepts and Theories We have concluded that customer service, especially the call-centre is a vital part of any company or organization. They are the first direct contact with any existing or potential customers. As these employees belongs to 1 of the highly stressed groups in the company, they should be taught on how to proper deal with abusive or racist customer. Customer should also be taught on stress and emotional control as it will benefits both themselves, the company and also their family or friends surrounding them.
