In this Knowledgebase

Unique insight into the head of a CSR.

How understanding a CSR’s mindset can help you determine if they truly care about your needs

There’s no neutrality when it comes to the customer service mindset of a CSR. A CSR will either be interested to help for various reasons, or they will be uninterested or indifferent to give you the service you deserve. The sad reality is that every CSR will be in one of the following categories, and understanding their behavior can help you be prepared for them.

The following emotions can make or break a CSR based on how they treat you over the phone, email or chat. As you interact with a CSR, have the following emotions in mind because they will demonstrate their happiness or lack thereof from how they address you.

A CSR may not share these emotions but their overall tone and willingness to help can give you a hint as to what they really want to do for you.

Positive emotions

 “I want my stats to look great so that I can grow in this company”

Certain agents get look at their overall phone/email/chat statistics with great care to understand how they do their work on the phones, email or chat. Every day or week or month that they have access to stats, they will be meticulous to read and understand their stats. Moreover, they will ask their management team to help them interpret their stats so that they can set long-term goals that lead to professional growth.

“Oh no! I’m sorry, I’ll do my best to help”

These agents will have a caring and understanding attitude, they will not holdback their concern and will do everything in their power to help. These agents have a natural ability to show empathy, and if they stay in their role for 2-3 years, they will most likely be promoted within the customer service department or other parts of their organization.

“My family will have food on the table”

If the CSR has a family to feed, they will be generally more diligent with their work than those who are young or single. CSR who have their livelihood on the line will try to not allow their emotions to control how they interact with customers.

“I’m eager to help”

There will be individuals who will stop at nothing to serve a customer’s every need. They are the real go-getters that cannot sit still until they have finished their task. CSRs with this mindset are very customer focused, and do not have to be told multiple times about an issue because they are already thinking ahead because they truly care!

“Yes? Tell me more?”

Certain CSR will have a detective mindset that makes them want to know everything about their customer’s need. From this customer can expect a bit of an interrogation but this will be helpful because CSRs who want to know more will use this to their advantage to personalize their service to their customer.

“I want to do what it takes for my employer”

Companies can take excellent or good care of their employees that they will do everything in their power to not hold back for their employee. Out of a grateful heart, they will represent the company as if it’s their own. These are the employees that usually get promoted because they have a business-oriented approach to handling their everyday duties.

Negative emotions

“We’re so short-handed”

Often times a CSR will be overloaded with work but their company has no plans to increase their headcount so that they can keep more and more profit. This can lead to extremely long wait times on the phones. As customer if we’re made to wait a long time on the phone, does this build satisfaction and trust with a company? No, this leads to tension and stress which can manifest itself over the phone. The CSR had to put up with not having enough people in their department which can make an environment toxic because you only hear negativity.

“Seriously, I cannot go on anymore”

Depression, anxiety, fear can make it to the workplace, and for this CSRs will have one of the worst overall performance because they cannot separate their professional life and their life at home. CSRs who cannot find any other type of work will be trapped and will have no choice but to quit.

“I just got abused by that last caller”

Nothing can negatively impact the metal well-being of a CSR more than someone belittling them, and making them out to be less than they are. While it’s possible to develop thick skin within time for customers who are abusive, when this does not happen, the CSR will retrieve into a mindset that all customers are bad. If this happens, the CSR will be on the defensive which will manifest as lackluster service.

“You’re not getting what you want…”

CSRs have a breaking point, so if they are passed this during the day, they will not give what the customer wants, or needs because they know they can get away with this. When this happens, a customer may be faced with a situation that they will not get the help they need because a CSR has already pre-determined that they will not give the help a customer really needs. These are one of the worst CSRs that you will encounter, be careful.

 “This is torture…”

The CSR has been repeating themselves about x issue all day, possibly all year. Think about this: If a CSR works over 2080 hours in a year, how many times do they have to repeat themselves? It really can be extremely difficult for any human to be in a position that makes them be something of a glorified answering machine.

“Why can’t you understand?”

Some CSRs may not have a natural ability to empathize, and this will lead to pure frustration because they don’t think of ways to help their customer understand because they do not think outside the box. When this happens, CSRs will be in a quagmire of helplessness because they cannot find different ways to communicate to their customers.

 “Do you think I care?”

After a CSR has heard the same complaint over and over again, they will start to care less and less about their customers and company. Why would this happen to a CSR who at some point cared about their job? The reason has to do with their perception of what a company’s management is doing to resolve the root-cause of a repeated complaint. It’s also possible that a CSR may think that their careless attitude will not have any consequence because of their company’s supervision practices.

“I just want to go home”

After being abused, threatened, annoyed, and belittled, CSRs will want to walk out and leave their desk. In some instances, they might just do that and say that their call dropped.

“I have to find another job”

When an CSR feels trapped, overwhelmed with work, this will cause them to burn out. When this happens, they will almost always quit within 1-2 months. If this happens, their overall service quality may drop drastically.

With all these emotions driving an agent’s overall attitude, you can better understand how a little kindness will go a long way to demonstrate that you just want to need help. Now that you know what emotions and general thoughts are going through a CSR’s mind you can show empathy so that they don’t make your journey difficult to get what you need from a company.

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