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Customer Service Training:
Customer Service Skills: Emotional Labour Is At the Heart of Customer Service Jobs
It
should come as no surprise that customers continue to rate excellent
customer service high on the list of things they look for when choosing
a company to do business with. The amazing thing is that most companies,
in spite of customer demand, continue to offer
customer
service that is mediocre, or worse. It would seem that some
companies just prefer to insult customers and lose business on purpose.
The more likely answer is that they just don’t have a good
customer service management training plan in place. We DO understand
the value of great customer service training, and our
Customer
Service Management Training classes will empower you to train
your customer service staff to give great service all the time,
and keep your customers coming back to you.
Anyone working in a customer service job knows that being 'nice' all the time is hard work, but did you know that there's a name for it?
It is called emotional labour. This term, first created by Arlie Hochschild in the 1980's, describes the effort service staff have to put into managing and expressing their emotions in a way that fits in with their company's expectations. He noted that for most of the history of work, people had been paid for their physical labour, whereas now, more and more as technology progressed, it was their mental and emotional muscle that was being hired. Nowhere is this more the case than in customer service careers.
The main function of many customer service job roles is to deal with complaints of consumers who are usually in a negative state of mind from the outset of their contact with you. Many feel they have a right to be downright horrible to you. But of course, no matter how they make you feel, it's an essential part of your job to keep an empathetic smile on your face and in your voice.
It is a good idea if you're considering a career in this sector to understand the effects of emotional labour. All that negativity and denial of honest feelings is not good for morale, and can lead to emotional exhaustion.
Poor morale affects staff performance and costs the company money, so many companies with stressful customer service jobs invest in ways of preventing this. Training in stress management, emotional intelligence, problem solving, and providing emotional support are all common strategies used.
If you're considering frontline customer service jobs, it's important to remember that the frustration directed at you is not personal and that the person directing it is (usually) a reasonable fellow human being who needs your help. Plus maybe keep a stress ball on your desk or ask for a subsidised gym membership - preferably one with a punching bag.
Source: Paul Jordan link
Related: Customer Service Skills
Customer Service Training:
Customer Service Skills: Emotional Labour Is At the Heart of Customer Service Jobs
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