Modern customers are so used to instant gratification that a lot of business owners severely overwork their employees in an attempt to meet the enormous demand. Here are some reasons why you should seriously avoid overworking any customer support representatives that you might hire.
#1 Tired CSRs Work Less Efficiently
This seems so intuitive that it is very shocking indeed that pretty much every business owner out there that has a team of customer support representatives doesn’t keep this in mind. However, the fact of the matter is that most people don’t give this the importance that it deserves, so it definitely deserves to be said: overworked customer service representatives will not be able to get the job done because they are just not going to have the energy to give your valuable customers the sort of support that they are going to need.
You need to shorten their working hours or lessen their workload in order to get the results you need.
#2 It Gives Your Company a Bad Reputation
Whether you believe it or not, word tends to get around. There are a lot of CSRs out there, and there are a lot of networks that enable CSRs to communicate with one another and enable each other to figure out which companies are worth working for and which ones should be avoided.
If you work your CSRs to the point of exhaustion, you can bet on them spreading the word and making it so that you don’t get all that many employees anymore. This can really hurt your company in the future.
#3 It’s Easy to Not Overwork CSRs
Let’s face it, long gone are the days when you had to work long hours in order to meet the almost endless demand that capitalism had created. We live in the era of capitalism, which means that a lot of the work that people are doing can be done by machines and software instead. This is important because of the fact that it can really turn the tide in terms of things like how much work your employees do.
If you feel like your employees are not meeting demand, simply use a website chat support software like the one offered by Kayako or outsourcing to call answering services and you will be able to get the job done without working them too hard.
#4 It Ends Up Costing More in The Long Run
There are a lot of reasons why overworking your employees is going to end up costing you more money rather than helping you save it. The fact of the matter is that overworked employees take longer to do less work, and there is also the fact that the customers you are going to lose because of the lower quality of work is also going to be an enormous loss that you are going to have to end up bearing in order to get the job done.
#5 It Creates a Hostile Working Environment
When your employees are overworked, they are going to become very short tempered and anxious. This is going to make it difficult for your work environment to become accommodating and relaxing for anyone involved. Indeed, you are going to be surprised at just how difficult things are going to end up getting when everyone is snapping at each other and refusing to cooperate.
Creating any kind of synergy is borderline impossible when it comes to overworked employees, so it is essential that you create a balance that your employees can enjoy as much as possible.
#6 Your Customers Can Notice It
No matter how well you make your CSRs act, at the end of the day they are going to end up getting very exhausted indeed and are probably going to let it slip through the way they are talking. Eventually, your customers are most certainly going to end up noticing that things are a little off. This is going to give your company a further bad reputation and make it so that no one is going to want to buy what you have to offer because of the fact that they are not going to want to do business with an unethical company.