A whopping 74 percent of contact center agents are at risk of burnout. 

The biggest cause? A company's lack of customer focus. Take a look at the difference between agents who are at risk of burnout versus those who are not.

These results confirm that customer service is a far more satisfying job when your company has a strong customer service culture. Contact center agents believe they can make a difference when a company is customer-focused. Unfortunately, many agents quickly become demotivated when they perceive their company is making it difficult for them to do their jobs.

These results come from a contact center agent burnout study I conducted earlier this year. The study was organized into two parts:

• Part 1: Burnout self-assessment test

• Part 2: 15 item questionnaire

The burnout self-assessment is provided by MindTools. It asks participants a number of questions and then provides an overall burnout risk score. You can try the assessment out yourself to check your risk level.

The questionnaire consisted of 15 items that research shows might be related to burnout risk. These relationships were tested by comparing the at risk agents to the agents who were not at risk of burnout.

Here's a summary of the results:

• 8 items were related to burnout risk (including customer-focused culture)

• 2 items were inconclusive

• 5 items were not related to burnout risk

The full report is also available for download.