What are some ways to build resilience in a customer support role?

Over at Dardee Deals, we consider ourselves 'Support Superheroes'. With that always in mind, we understand that every superhero has their Kryptonite. Demanding Donalds and Kooky Karens are mine. I am human. Every superhero has their weakness and customer support agents are no exception. Whether it's dealing with pissed customers, endless ticket queues, or the sucky late-night shifts, recognize what triggers your stress response. Is the constant phone ringing making you want to pull your hair out? Or the endless stream of emails that make you want to throw your computer out the window? Figure it out and deal with it FAST if you want to last in this industry.

Well, to be as a Customer Support Specialist, I have learnt alot! and I would must say that, doing this has become my passion because, dealing with hyper/angry customers is very easy, specially if you put yourself in their shoes. Points you should must follow to be a best Customer Support Specialist. 1# Completely understand your product/service. 2# Talk confidently! 3# Never be a fake guy, speak from your heart. 4# Avoid typical pitches, accents. 5# Build a strong bonding with the customer and organization by empathizing the customer and genuinely understanding their issues to resolve in a perfect manner.

I like to foster an empathetic and supportive team who take care of each other. In a private Slack room, the agents have each other's backs and are fabulous at not only empathetic responses if someone's dealing with a frustrating customer, but they actively promote self-care for each other. Allowing for the kind of flexibility for a team to self-regulate and adjust channel coverage for each other promotes a healthy culture in a stressful job.

I don't think that setting boundaries should be on this list. Setting boundaries should be a day to day thing, and it is really important to create them, (since this is how we teach people on how to treat us) but in customer service this is not entirely applicable, and this is why: Many companies have "the client is always right" as a policy. When this happens, you can't set boundaries towards customers. Of course that if they abuse you physically, you can decide for yourself what to do, but if it is only verbal, you need to listen to it, apologise (even if it isn't your fault) and move on with your life. And in this sense, setting boundaries is not exactly what helps you to create resilience. Maybe it is the "learning how to move on".

Another thing that I have done to create resilience in the role, or at least maintain a solid mental, is to create not only a routine, but add *variation* Creating some variety in your activities or approach to certain tasks when possible, can help to make the mundane feel a little less tedious. One of the ways we do this in my team, is by rotating responsibilities each week so that we switch it up and give different focuses. One week you haver a live-chat focus, another, you have internal support, etc. this way the same job might feel a little different.

All valid examples, but the most important one is missing. Let's stop viewing customer support as a cost for the Company. If we continue to see it as a pure cost that needs to be minimized, none of the mentioned tools will work. I often see staff reduced beyond comprehension and an insane obsession with all KPIs. This leads one of the lowest-paid departments to work more than others. The people working in customer support are the ones we entrust with dialogue with our customers. They must treat them with empathy, respect, and make them happy. However, we pay these employees the least possible and measure how many seconds the conversation has exceeded. Under these conditions, do you believe that what was said above can work?