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by Jennifer LeePresident and Co-CEO of Intradiem
circleWorking in a financial institution’s call center can be stressful.
In a call center environment, agents often sit for long periods of time, attempting to cheerfully and efficiently resolve a high volume of customer inquiries. The nature of this role and the emotional toll it comes with can leave agents feeling mentally, emotionally and physically stressed. Recurring instances of anxiety in the workplace can lead to absenteeism and ultimately to attrition.
Nationwide in May Mental Health Awareness MonthNow is the perfect time for financial services and banking leaders to assess and address the mental health of their employees, especially their call center agents.
Mental health is important for everyone, but call center agents face an especially difficult and mentally taxing job every day. As a former call center agent, I know this all too well. And research backs it up.
A study on call center health found that: 96% of agents feel extremely stressed At least once a week, this stress negatively impacts agent satisfaction and engagement, impacting customer experience and brand loyalty, and the majority of agents surveyed said their organizations aren’t doing enough to help them deal with this constant state of stress.
Financial services and banking industry leaders need to be aware of the following four challenges that impact the mental health of call center agents and how technology can help overcome these issues.
- Stress: Understanding its effects
Rather than blindly applying technology to solve workplace challenges, business leaders should actively seek to take a step back to understand the underlying problems and propose precise solutions that will have the most positive impact.
In the case of call centers, the main underlying factor is usually stress.
stress It can have a negative effect on a person’s body, thoughts, emotions and behaviour. It can cause headaches, muscle tension and pain, fatigue, stomach upset, chest pains and sleep problems, and if left untreated for a long period of time, it can have a significant impact on your personal and professional life.
If workplace stress isn’t addressed, every incoming call a frontline agent takes can add to the stress of previous customer interactions. And it’s easy to see how stress can snowball as they’re expected to wrap up one difficult call, calm down, and move on to the next.
- Customer Challenges (and Difficult Customers)
Consider why customers call their financial institution in this digital banking era: they may have lost access to their bank account, may see charges they don’t recognize, or their account may have been hacked. Agents may be fielding calls about payments or personal information that may be sensitive or reactive.
Customers who call customer support lines go through a range of emotions, and so do call center agents. This emotional upheaval can take a toll on agents, making them less empathetic to customers and less than ideal in providing customer service, which only exacerbates the challenges at hand.
- Insufficient information
The third scenario occurs when a new product or service is offered to customers with little or no preparation by call center agents: When the call center queue is inundated with questions about the new service, agents who have not been trained on the functionality are overwhelmed.
This is a problem that comes up more often than you’d think, especially in industries with a large population of call center agents, such as financial institutions. Extremely busy companies, with equally busy call centers, may not keep their employees well informed about everything from new product launches to policy changes. This leaves agents suffering mentally and feeling like they’ve failed through no fault of their own.
Additionally, if agents aren’t fully informed and trained on new customer-facing updates, the first two challenges outlined in this article will be exacerbated, resulting in poor customer experience and brand loyalty.
- Outdated technology
Finally, many call centers may be holding themselves and their agents back by having an inadequate technology stack. Call center specific technology can streamline processes, increase agent productivity, and improve the customer experience – a win-win for both agents and company management. And while many agents may have the technology to get the job done, they may not have the right technology to most effectively resolve customer challenges.
It’s important to ensure that the technology deployed in your call center is used most effectively. For example, chatbots have come a long way but are not yet able to solve complex problems. A typical chatbot can perform basic interactions such as changing an address or scheduling an appointment with a loan counselor or financial planner.
Business leaders shouldn’t deploy chatbots as a silver bullet for addressing customer challenges, but they shouldn’t exclude chatbots from the solution either. Instead, they should use tools like chatbots and other automation software solutions to take on the heavy lifting, freeing up agents to better support customers and solve more complex challenges.
Self-service, automation, and artificial intelligence (AI) can make call center agents’ jobs much better and increase customer satisfaction. These technologies also reduce stress levels by giving employees more confidence that they can do their jobs well.
Providing modern tools to reduce agent stress
Financial services and banking organizations are investing in call center automation to empower agents to do more with less. Technology and AI make interactions easier and more efficient, especially when these tools resolve customer issues faster and deliver better outcomes. While technology can’t replace the human element that call center agents provide, it can make agents more efficient and productive, helping to result in more empathetic interactions and increased customer satisfaction.
Some platforms use AI to identify signs of burnout within their agent population, allowing call center leaders to intervene before the problem reaches critical levels. Such solutions can predict agent burnout weeks in advance and suggest proactive steps for managers to address agents’ needs and prevent attrition.
When I was managing a call center 20 years ago, I wish I had had a tool that clearly indicated the level of burnout so that each agent could be properly supported and excel in their role. For those who were moving from mild to moderate burnout, I could have intervened sooner to prevent it from progressing.
Back then, I relied on my eyes, ears, and intuition to have an impact, and great leaders still do today. But their impact is limited because they can only process a certain amount of data in a certain amount of time. With AI, financial services call center leaders can get a holistic view of the customer and intervene instantly.
A call center platform equipped with generative AI can also analyze the meaning of agent-customer conversations, correlate insights, and provide a bank of auto-responses that agents can use to improve outcomes even when the conversation takes an unexpected turn. The software can generate checklists to keep agents on track, real-time prompts to steer the conversation, and online coaching sessions to help reduce stress.
Beyond technology, call center leaders can also give agents quick resets, like 1-2 minute wellness breaks or mini-interventions, where agents can use the time to decompress, stretch, or get some quick advice from their supervisor.
Finally, leaders need to encourage open communication and create a safe environment where employees can raise concerns and seek support when they feel their work is impacting their mental or physical health.
Take steps to improve agents’ mental health
Call center work can be rewarding when a customer hangs up and their problem is resolved, but it can also be emotionally draining and overwhelming when fielding call after call.
Technology acts as an assistant to agents by taking on tasks such as processing time-sensitive call center data in real time and allowing them to respond immediately. Some platforms even notify supervisors when intervention is needed, reducing stress and burnout. While these tools cannot replace the human element, they can work in tandem with agents.
Mental Health Awareness Month is a great time to reflect on the work of your financial institution’s call centre agents – and for managers to consider whether they’re doing all they can to ensure the mental health of their frontline employees.
By recognizing the stress agents are under, providing them with technological tools that improve their efficiency and productivity, and providing an environment that fosters open communication, financial institutions can reduce employee stress and mitigate or improve the mental health of their contact center agents.
