By Bizna Brand Analyst

Customer support is one of the most essential sectors of a company, but it isn’t as cool for the people who work there. It’s tough to work in a company’s customer care department, especially if the company offers its services to thousands of clients. You literally can’t breathe. Yes you might inhale oxygen but before you let out carbon dioxide, the will be someone to make your life a living hell.  Every minute there’s a phone call or a complaint online. Unless you have nerves of steel or talent in neutralizing tense situations, you shall forever entertain the idea of quitting until you finally do it.

“Wacha Ikae”, you will say.

What are some of the reasons why customer care service is tough?

Customers expect you to know everything

Unless you are the CEO, you can’t really know everything about the company and its operations. There are technical details that are beyond your pay grade. However, customers don’t care. They expect you to know everything and to know it NOW. No customer wants to be referred to a technician or another employee that will help at a later time. In the end, you have no option but to lie

Trash talking customers

Satisfied customers don’t call in. Only the ones that have problems do so. And most of them have no intention of being nice. They are loud, abrasive, impatient and rude. For some reason, many clients find it fun to take out their frustrations on customer service employees.

Then there is always the dreadful client who threatens you with the classic phrase – I WILL TALK TO YOUR MANAGER.

You have to pretend to be nice, even if you are not

It takes effort to outwardly project a feeling you don’t really feel, As a customer care employee, you tend to feel like exploding from time to time. People cross all the lines they shouldn’t but you can’t do a thing. You have to pay your bills so you have to remain calm

You don’t get paid very much either

The company won’t compensate you for the emotional labor you get by dealing with hundreds of clients. Plus, bosses rarely see when the customer service department does a good job. They only notice when customers are mad.  Employees that absorb and dilute all the customer anger are among the least paid in the company. This is because management generally assumes that it doesn’t take much skill to do this job. It’s just a matter of knowing how to communicate and listen. Is it? That’s actually not the case. Studies have shown that companies which pay customer care employees well tend to have the most highly rated customer service departments

You are expected to multi task

Science tells us that our brains can only process one conscious thought at a time. If we try to bombard it with tasks, we end up rapidly shifting resources between various thoughts. The inevitable result is slower thinking and plenty of mistakes. These mistakes will always land you in trouble wth both the client s and your employer