Patience

Patience is one of the key skills any customer service agent (or any position above) needs to develop. It is the ability to remain calm and professional, even when the person on the other end is angry, confused, or rude. In a Call Center, agents are often the "punching bag" for a customer's frustration with the company.

It is important to remember that customers are angry because something is not working as they expected; they are not necessarily angry at the agent. However, wrong procedures and agents losing their temper might lead a customer to turn the frustration from the problem towards the agent.

Challenging situations not only come in the form of angry customers; they also can be in the form of:

• Language and communication barriers.
• Lengthy processes to follow.
• Customers with more than one issue during the same interaction.
• Customers unable to follow instructions over the phone (elderly or not very tech-savvy).
• System lags.
• Lack of understanding of the problem or what to do.

Agents can work alongside the customers while managing their patience skills by, for example, applying some of the following elements:

1. The Pause: When feeling irritation rising, agents can physically take their hands off the keyboard and take one deep breath before responding. This prevents them from snapping at the customer.
2. Depersonalization: Remind constantly: Customers are not mad at agents; they are mad at the situation, and agents are just the voice they are venting to.
3. The Mute Button Strategy: Agents can use the mute button, or take the customer to hold, to vent their frustration safely (e.g., sighing loudly) and to do their due research, so the customer only hears their calm, professional voice.