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How to Handle Burnout Among Your Customer Experience Team

 Contributed Article by Amanda Winstead

Customer experience professionals are no strangers to burnout. Dealing with less-than-happy customers all day can take its toll on anyone regardless of how long you've been in the profession. However, if left unchecked, the daily grind of prioritizing customer needs over your own and not always getting the credit you deserve can lead to an unhappy work-life and increased stress.

Due to this fact, all employers need to know how to treat the symptoms of burnout for themselves and their employees. In this article, we'll go over a few helpful tips to treat burnout symptoms effectively. 

Learn How to Be an Effective Leader 

Managing a team effectively and consistently is one of the essential tips managers can utilize to prevent burnout. If you are not an effective leader, it will be difficult for your employees to trust what they do and how their efforts lead to success, whether customer satisfaction or sales figures. Learn about the qualities of a good leader, so you know what leadership traits to avoid.

Quality leadership includes:  

• Communicating with your team members well.
• Delegating responsibilities effectively.
• Rewarding teams when appropriate.
• Giving constructive feedback rather than just compliments; and
• Asking yourself if this leadership style works for everyone on your team versus just some people.  

Being aware of these issues means recognizing problems before they turn into full-blown employee burnouts, making it much easier for managers like yourself who want nothing more than to have a happy, productive team.

Prioritize Mental Health for all Employees

The mental health of employees is something you should prioritize. This includes mental illness and mental exhaustion or burnout, common among your customer experience team. To handle this issue with yourself and others on the team, some initiatives to consider are creating a comfortable work environment that doesn't act as stressors for employees, as well as encouraging employees to focus on their mental health while at home. This can be done by taking mental health days when needed and creating a less stressful work environment. Some suggestions for this are letting employees have flexible hours, telecommuting, getting adequate break time, and having reasonable timelines.

Hire the Right Team Members 

While there are active steps you can take to help reduce the burnout of your employees, hiring the right team members all together is another important aspect of this. You want to make sure that the employees you hire are good at what they do, can communicate well, and have a personality type and work ethic that will allow them to handle working with customers for an extended period without becoming burnt out themselves.

When making hiring decisions, the first thing you should look into is whether or not your team member has had experience dealing with customer service before. If they haven't, you could be setting them up for failure before your team even starts working together. Next, look into the personality type of your candidate. Are they extroverted or introverted? Find out how well they will fit in with the rest of your team and if their work ethic is strong enough, it won't lead to burnout if pushed too hard by customers or co-workers.

Ensure Workloads Remain Balanced 

When workloads are not balanced with employees, it can be difficult for them to keep up. This is where burnout comes into play and makes customers feel neglected. A better option would be to ensure the team has the responsibilities they need to accomplish during work hours while also allowing them time to complete any additional tasks that may come across their desk without overwhelming them. For example, suppose an employee does not have enough time in a day for everything they should be doing. In that case, there needs to be something reworked so everyone's job performance remains healthy and productive throughout the organization.

Encourage Regular Breaks and Vacation Time 

Time away from the job can be a great way to rejuvenate and boost morale. Encourage employees to take time off when they need it, even if their schedule is hectic. Organize regular breaks for your team so that everyone has a good chance of stepping away every once in a while. Be sure to provide opportunities for them to have some fun with events such as company outings or parties.

It may seem incredibly important when working hard at getting projects completed, but taking vacation days is beneficial on multiple levels:  

1.  It improves employee retention by showing that workers who stay committed through thick thin will also get rewarded.
2. It gives employees someone to cover for them when they are on vacation.
3. A break can also improve productivity since people will be less stressed and more focused on their work when they get back.  

In Conclusion 

Burnout is a serious issue and one that deserves attention. By implementing these strategies, you can reduce your employees' risk of burning out by creating an environment where they feel safe and supported at work. They'll also be more fulfilled in and out of the workplace and continue to provide value to the organization for years to come.