Why You’ll Never Get It Done In Customer Service

Diagnosis

I have a mental disease that I’m sure many others do as well. I think I can get everything done in my job, and life, on a daily basis. Every day, I pour myself into my work. I delete emails like there’s a plague, and respond to tickets and phone calls like each one is a 911 emergency call. Get them in and get them out as fast as possible my motto goes. All for one simple purpose, to get it all done. To get to a place where there are no more emails, there are no more phone calls, there is nothing to do.

Reflection & Resolution

The funny thing is, reading the above now makes me realize what a perplexing mindset that is. I would wager that it is not even grounded in reality. There is no way to get it all done. In fact, if it was all magically done, then what would you do with yourself? Why, you would cease to exist I would think. Because life, work, and everything in between is about constant expansion. And expansion, never, ever ends.

This mentality creates constant stress in my life…

• I am always in a hurry, trying to rush from one thing to the next.
• It makes my customer service suck really, really bad. I don’t give customers the ample time they rightfully deserve as paying contributors to our organization.
• I effectively isolate myself from my peers because I always have my head down in constant “crunch mode.”

This mentality is the culmination of 26 years of conditioning that I have largely accepted as reality. But now, this mentality is no longer applicable. People desire an experience in customer service. While efficiency and speed are wonderful strengths, they also have their balance point. Here’s how I plan to never get it done in customer service:

• Take up challenging customer situations: Customer service support tickets fall into two categories – basic and frustratingly challenging. I usually grab all of the basic tickets. Why? Because they are faster to respond to. I’ll start small. Keep grabbing those basic tickets, but also grab one challenging ticket. Start with one, and then build as time goes on.
• Take my breaks: In my past two jobs, I have never taken my allotted breaks. I can spend those two 15 minute chunks of time getting more done. But in order to remain balanced, one must have a break from the constant flow. Maybe it doesn’t need to start with a full 15 minutes. Even a quick walk around the building to clear my mind.
• Let go of statistics: Numbers are beautiful. They provide a platform of measurement and progress. But you can also get lost in the numbers, as I do. Appreciate analytical measurements for what they are – measurements. They do not gauge the quality of 20 phone calls placed in a day, nor do they measure customer experience. I will still acknowledge them, but only as a piece to the puzzle.
• Appreciate what I have already done: In the quest to achieve more, you lose focus on all of the wonderful things that you have already accomplished in the day. I will now keep a running list of everything that I have already done in a given day.

This list could go on and on. I hope this article hits a resonating tone with some over-achieving souls out there that think they can get it all done. Sit down, breathe, and realize that you never will, and that is perfectly okay! Live each day in the moment. You can never get it all done when you do not know what is next. 

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