Customer service work, it’s not easy to say loving you

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  During the epidemic, some customer service staff doubled their workload and dealt with a large number of problems every day; some customer service staff took a lot of time off work due to the impact of the epidemic.

The customer service industry has attracted many migrant workers due to its high demand for personnel and low barriers to entry. However, problems such as high work intensity, high pressure, and lack of room for promotion have also kept the turnover rate of customer service staff at a high level.

Experts suggest that the working conditions and working hours of customer service personnel should be optimized, and the incentive mechanism should be improved; at the same time, they should also increase their sense of professional identity.

  "I'm really sorry, your situation does not meet our airline's full refund conditions, do you accept other solutions? Thank you for your understanding and support." Dozens of passengers have been processed on the morning of June 9 Zhang Xu of Zhang Xu kept answering the complaint calls of another passenger.

  The customer service industry has attracted many migrant workers due to its high demand for personnel and low barriers to entry.

However, problems such as high work intensity, high pressure, and lack of room for promotion have also kept the turnover rate of customer service staff at a high level.

For them, whether to persevere or turn around and leave has become a lingering question mark.

While working hard to serve, while facing challenges, what are the working conditions of these missing workers?

How should their rights be protected?

  "I don't get used to it when I'm free"

  Turning on the computer, pinning his hair behind his ears, putting on a headset, and keeping a smile are Zhang Xu's fixed movements before work every day.

While having a smooth conversation with passengers, Zhang Xu quickly tapped the keyboard, and Zhang Xu couldn't even spare time to take a sip of water.

"Speaking of dry mouth and tongue is common, I gradually get used to it." Zhang Xu from Daguan County, Zhaotong, Yunnan, is the service quality manager of an airline, mainly responsible for handling passenger complaints. She has already done this job for 5 years. year.

  According to Zhang Xu, previously affected by the epidemic, many passengers cancelled or changed their itineraries, causing the number of complaints to rise three to four times before the epidemic.

During that time, working overtime became the norm, and eating on time became a luxury.

"In fact, it's not just during the epidemic. The peaks of travel on various holidays are our busiest times, such as May Day, National Day, and Spring Festival. It is not too much to describe it as'feet hitting the back of the head'," said Zhang Xu.

  Unlike Zhang Xu, when the epidemic was severe, the amount of travel dropped sharply, and Chen Xiaohong, an employee of the customer service center of a travel service platform, changed his work schedule to once every three days.

The sudden idleness made her a little uncomfortable, but she soon found a way to keep herself "busy"-in her hometown, she used her free time to become a community volunteer to assist the grid staff in implementing the epidemic prevention requirements.

Regarding this special experience, Chen Xiaohong said: "It's probably because the customer service work has been working for a long time, but I don't get used to it when I'm free. It can be regarded as a different way to serve everyone."

  Low job satisfaction and high turnover rate

  "When I was a customer service, the question I was asked the most every day was:'Is it genuine?' It really crashes when I get asked too much. The effective communication every day accounts for less than 20%, all of which are answering a bunch of meaningless. Problem, the only benefit is probably to practice typing." Tingzi, who has done outsourcing customer service work in an online store, said about her work experience.

  According to an industry survey released by Alibaba Cloud Research Center, traditional customer service practitioners are dissatisfied with their work as high as 51%. The main reasons for dissatisfaction include high work intensity, boring work content, many negative emotions, and unclear promotion routes.

  In addition to the time and energy consuming answering a large number of repetitive questions, the customer's incomprehension is an important reason for the accumulation of negative emotions in the customer service staff.

  Chen Xiaohong said that one time a client called her for an hour, and 40 minutes of it were scolding her, tears swirling in her eyes, but she resisted crying because she couldn't be detected by the client that she was emotional.

Zhang Xu also bluntly said that when he first started working, he was scolded and cryed by passengers many times, and it took a long time to learn to slowly adjust his mentality: "Think more about those who are willing to understand us. A passenger's'thank you' is enough. I was moved."

  Hu Xiao, who serves as the head of the customer service center section of a certain automobile brand, believes that because customer service personnel have to abide by the company's regulations, sometimes there are differences in positions with customers, and communication between the two parties will be very difficult at this time.

"To be honest, there are a few times when I can't handle it, but if I can't handle it, what will happen to the other employees in the department?" Hu Xiao cheered herself up in this way.

  According to the "Customer Service Industry Salary Report" launched by a customer service platform provider, new customer service personnel who have worked for less than 3 years are mainly engaged in telephone or online seat positions, and their annual salary is mostly less than 60,000 yuan.

From entering the industry to becoming a customer service supervisor and customer service manager, it basically takes 3 to 5 years or even 5 to 10 years.

  "The requirements for outsourcing customer service are relatively high. I can't say a lot, and I can't learn too much." Tingzai resigned decisively, thinking that the future of customer service was bleak.

And Chen Xiaohong feels that the professional skills of the customer service industry are not strong, and it is difficult to use the experience learned in this industry to move to other industries.

Rather than leave quietly in frustration, it is better to work hard in this industry and reap the rewards from training.

  Need more motivation to persist

  When I joined in 2019, there were six or seven colleagues who came to serve as customer service with Chen Xiaohong. Now there are only two. Some people left after trying for two or three months, so that Chen Xiaohong couldn't remember their names.

"Persistence" has become a particularly difficult thing for customer service.

  Li Xingguo, associate professor of the School of Public Administration of the China Institute of Labor Relations, believes that the high turnover rate in the customer service industry is the result of multiple factors.

As far as customer service personnel are concerned, they should enhance their sense of professional identity, fully realize the value of customer service labor, and realize that it has an irreplaceable role in promoting communication between enterprises and customers.

  “It’s not easy to persevere, but it depends on my mentality. Having tempered my character is my biggest growth in this industry.” Chen Xiaohong has always said “As long as I value this job and do it hard, it’s both my character and work. "There will be gains in the end" as the motivation for my persistence.

  Li Xingguo believes that the replacement of artificial customer service by artificial intelligence customer service is one of the major challenges faced by the customer service industry.

However, artificial customer service has an incomparable advantage over artificial intelligence customer service in solving complex professional problems.

Therefore, companies should devote their energy to protecting the labor rights of customer service personnel and reducing their turnover rate.

  The reality is that the customer service industry generally has low thresholds, and personnel can be employed after simple training.

These migrant workers with low academic qualifications are mostly engaged in auxiliary positions, and enterprises often use labor dispatch in the form of employment, which is not conducive to the protection of the rights and interests of customer service personnel.

  In this regard, Li Xingguo suggested that the working conditions and working hours of employees should be optimized, while reasonable remuneration should be formulated, scientific performance evaluation standards should be established, and the incentive mechanism for customer service staff should be improved.

  The occasional epidemic repeatedly made Zhang Xu busy again. Fortunately, the more humane regulations allowed her to gain more understanding when explaining to passengers.

  Under the company's arrangement, Chen Xiaohong took courses in communication skills, PPT production, and psychology. Chen Xiaohong, who became the project team leader, had a fulfilling and efficient weekend.

"Persevere and be a supervisor will learn more," Chen Xiaohong looked forward to the future like this.

Shi Lanna

Shi Lanna