Call center stress is perhaps the most common obstacle that site managers and owners have to overcome. Whether it's for customer service, sales, technical assistance, or collections, working in a call center is extremely demanding.
Besides handling a large number of interactions, call center agents must meet various quality metrics while de-escalating incidents with unhappy callers regularly. Even though most agents experience work-related stress at some point, this issue is hard to prevent because all sites are different.
What Is Call Center Stress?
In simple terms, call center stress is the result of a work environment that puts agents under too much pressure. Stress refers to negative emotions and feelings induced by unfavorable work situations—constantly taking calls from angry customers or failing to meet demanding quality metrics.
The Impact of Stress
For Agents:
- • Negative emotions before, during, and after shifts
- • Higher unexcused absences
- • Difficulty with training and engagement
- • Risk of burnout
For Operations:
- • Lower quality assurance scores
- • Poor performance metrics
- • Customer service issues
- • Higher turnover costs
Defining Call Center Burnout
If agents are constantly exposed to high anxiety and stress, they will experience burnout—a condition resulting in:
Research by Gallup: 76% of call center agents can experience burnout. Cornell University found many employees are prescribed medication for mental health conditions due exclusively to their work.
10 Common Call Center Stress Causes
Understanding these stressors is the first step to reducing anxiety across your team
Unclear Responsibilities and Expectations
When agents don't have defined roles, they're assigned tasks they don't feel comfortable with or lack skills to complete—setting them up for failure.
Solution:
Create clear job descriptions for each position. List all tasks and assign them based on relevance. Share descriptions with your team to ensure alignment.
Invasive Monitoring
Over-tracking agents to the point of inducing anxiety. Creates a barrier between agents and managers instead of helping performance.
Solution:
Identify a few key metrics that truly show performance and focus on those. Relieve pressure while reducing monitoring resources.
Poor Management
Poor employee management can occur at any level. Managers must motivate teams and help achieve goals while watching for burnout signs.
Solution:
Provide specialized training for team leaders. Ensure they're compassionate while providing everything agents need to grow and succeed.
Feeling Underappreciated
One of the main reasons for stress and burnout. Wages alone aren't enough to make workers feel well-treated.
Solution:
Reward hard work with bonuses, activities, or events. Celebrate birthdays and holidays to show investment in employee happiness.
Lack of Adequate Conditions or Equipment
Poor seating causes back pain. Conventional handsets cause neck and wrist pain. Inadequate equipment creates frustration.
Solution:
Provide headsets, comfortable seating, new computers, and proper equipment to create adequate working conditions.
Being Overworked
Unreasonable schedules, too many calls per day, or excessive tasks during shifts. Taking calls from unhappy customers is extremely stressful.
Solution:
Find ways to ease workloads and provide resources to lower stress levels across the board.
Overly Rude or Inappropriate Customers
Agents are inevitably exposed to rude behavior. Regular exposure becomes a major problem and can exponentially increase stress.
Solution:
Provide extensive training to teach de-escalation and handling annoyed customers. Give agents ability to solve simple issues quickly.
Low Salaries and Absence of Incentives
Call center wages are often below local average. Lack of additional incentives like attendance or performance bonuses adds stress.
Solution:
Create a budget for top-performers. Develop clear goals agents must reach to attain bonuses.
Unpredictable Working Hours
Frequently changing schedules without warning prevents agents from making plans to unwind. Stress builds up faster.
Solution:
Provide predictable schedules. Allow agents to plan their time off to reduce stress buildup.
Low-Quality Training Programs
Overly basic training that doesn't equip agents with needed tools or knowledge induces huge anxiety and stress.
Solution:
Conduct surveys after training to assess effectiveness. Improve programs based on agent feedback.
Benefits of Managing Call Center Stress
If left unchecked, call center anxiety can burn out your best agents. But with the right stress management strategy, you'll set agents up for success.
Lower Overall Stress Levels
Happier, more outgoing agents who are receptive to training and deliver great customer experiences
Higher Employee Engagement
Engagement metrics rise across the board when stress levels decrease
Boost in Productivity
Lowering stress levels directly boosts productivity and the call center's bottom line
Reduced Employee Turnover
Fewer agents quit when stress is managed and anxiety is addressed through proper channels
More Confident Employees
Agents in positive environments are more confident and focus on performance during calls
Better Company Culture
Low stress establishes better culture where agents feel responsibility to deliver superb service
How to Implement Stress Management Techniques
Identify Your Stress Causes
Ask agents directly what's causing the most stress. Create a prioritized list of elements to address.
Create a Reduction Plan
Develop strategy with clear goals, detailed steps, and progress tracking methods.
Train Team Leaders
Provide specialized training so leaders can communicate effectively and motivate agents.
Collect Performance Data
Implement solutions like Autopilot Reviews to get real-time feedback and granular insights.
Deploy Stress-Reduction Techniques
Test different approaches with small groups. Measure results to find the best methods.
Safeguard Top Performers
Prioritize your best agents to ensure they stay fresh and ready to boost performance.
Reduce Stress with Real-Time Insights
Managing agent stress is challenging but brings benefits that boost productivity and increase engagement throughout your site. You need to understand stressors and collect information from each interaction.
Autopilot Reviews is an innovative platform that allows call centers to collect feedback from customers and provide it to agents in real-time.
Get granular insights about employee performance and stress levels. Make data-driven decisions to reduce anxiety and improve your call center's environment.