Your customer support agents have a lot on their plates. From providing multi-channel customer service and dealing with difficult customers to safely managing customer data, their daily responsibilities can be overwhelming.

That is why you need to invest in customer agents’ safety in the workplace. 

Have a Health and Safety Policy

A health and safety policy specifies workplace safety guidelines for your customer service agents to follow. Every health and safety policy consists of the following sections:

  • A general statement of intent outlines the organization’s dedication to managing employee health and safety.
  • The responsibility section specifies the chain of command in terms of providing health and safety.
  • The arrangements section incorporates the steps and actions your company needs to take to implement health and safety policies. 

Make the policy available to your customer service team. It should contain actionable safety tips, such as improving indoor air quality, personal hygiene during the Coronavirus pandemic, using ergonomic furniture, the implementation of social distancing measures, etc. 

Encourage Mental Health and Psychological Safety

Your customer service agents constantly work under pressure. They often need to multitask, use various customer support tools, and process large volumes of data. Increased stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction may affect their performance and mental health. Eventually, it may result in employee burnout.

There are many ways to encourage mental health and psychological safety in the workplace.

  • Invest in transparent communications. 

Make sure your staff can ask questions, report issues, and complain without being worried about the negative impact of their feedback on their careers. 

  • Provide regular feedback.

Create monthly performance reports and schedule regular 1-on-1s with your customer agents. Provide honest feedback and provide actionable tips on how to improve their performance. 

  • Make mental health training obligatory for your customer service managers. 

That will help them become more invested in their staff’s psychological wellbeing.

Invest in Customer Service Tools

You should also invest in technologies and services that facilitate your customer support team’s jobs. For example, by investing in a cloud CRM software for customer service, you will allow agents to bring their communication tools together under a single platform. That saves their time, boosts performance, and increases their overall satisfaction.

Whether you are an eCommerce brand or a modeling agency organizing casting calls, customer service peaks can be overwhelming for your agents. To boost their performance and avoid burnout, consider outsourcing certain aspects of customer support to third-party agencies. 

Call center providers can take messages for you, answer customer phone calls 24/7, capture your leads, take care of your messages, and perform disaster recovery. You can also outsource live chat support, email support, or create AI chatbots to facilitate your in-house employees’ jobs.

Provide Customer Service Agents with Safety Training

Your customer support representatives need appropriate health and safety training. Only that way can you ensure they will safely use the workplace equipment and carry out tasks without any health risks.

Now, there are various types of health and safety training programs.

One of them is the introductory training provided to all new staff members. It should include standard safety procedures, such as first aid, workplace orientation, emergencies, accident reporting, safe use of workplace tools, fire safety, and so forth.

Employees that have already taken induction training should be offered refresher workplace safety training. 

Do not Ignore the Importance of Cybersecurity

Savvy customer service teams store mountains of sensitive customer data on the cloud. That is why they often represent the top target for cybercriminals. The cybersecurity risks have risen since the outbreak of Coronavirus, given that most customer service teams still work remotely.

To improve your agents’ safety in the digital landscape, you need to provide them with comprehensive cybersecurity training. You should also have a detailed online security policy for your team to follow. 

Some ways to deliver customer service cybersecurity in the era of remote work include:

  • Performing regular data backups
  • Making a shift to cloud-based internal communication and customer service tools. They provide encryption, multifactor authentication, and automated data backups
  • Investing in reliable online security software, such as antivirus, anti-malware, and firewall 
  • Educating customer service agents about the essential online safety behaviors, such as creating strong passwords, performing regular software updates, backing up data regularly, etc. 
  • Explaining customer support teams not to share sensitive information via unsafe networks or tools.
  • Encourage employees to immediately report online security incidents. 

Over to You

Workplace health and safety are a priority for customer support teams. Invest in both physical and mental health to boost employee wellbeing and prevent burnout. Above all, do not forget to mitigate cybersecurity threats, particularly if your team is working remotely.

 

How do you increase workspace safety for your customer support team?