There’s a large misconception of the term intelligence in our society. The idea of intelligence goes beyond aspects of analytical thinking like test scores, thinking ability, and IQ. Above and beyond the traditional notion of intelligence, you can also gain emotional intelligence. We recommend that anyone who works in customer service gets proper training in this type of “smart.”
Why? Well, the short answer is: customers want to speak to a person and not a robot. A person has the ability to empathize, which means they can more accurately answer questions and provide solutions. Having a human team is just part one. Part two is making sure their service isn’t robotically reading from scripts while forgetting to read the emotional undertones of the conversation. If they are robotic, they’ll turn customers off, costing your business future sales, loyal customers, and your company’s positive reputation.
So, What Exactly is Emotional Intelligence?
The concept of emotional intelligence is fairly straightforward—it’s the ability of a person to identify and manage their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. Psychology Today breaks the concept down into three elements: awareness of emotions, harnessing emotions, and managing emotions.
“Awareness” equates to knowing how you or another person are currently feeling while “harnessing” is your ability to apply those emotions to your thinking and problem-solving. Finally, “managing” emotions refers to regulating your emotions, keeping a pulse on how you’re feeling so you can stay calm and collected.
Why Does it Matter for Customer Service?
Most consumer activity is emotionally driven. Customers are likely to get in touch about an issue or to make a purchase, and emotion plays a large part in these conversations. Whatever the circumstances, any service interaction is a chance to build or maintain your organization’s great reputation. It’s important to note that customer emotions are individual, so proper training is needed for representatives to get practice responding in a variety of situations. There’s no golden rule when it comes to emotional intelligence.
Practiced emotional intelligence has beneficial ripple effects for your business. Successfully serving and impressing one customer leads to the potential introduction of your offerings to more customers. According to People Metrics, good customer engagement boosts your organization’s profit margin, share price, and ROI.
How Can Training Make My Team More Emotionally Intelligent?
The first, most obvious, takeaway your team will learn is how to empathize with any customer. Each customer brings not only their individual service situation but also their own niche on the emotional spectrum. It’s critical your team is prepared to start off on the right foot by reading their feelings and meeting the customer where they are.
Once the details of the situation are laid out and an emotional connection has been successfully established, a well-trained employee will be able to assertively, but not aggressively, make suggestions to get the problem solved effectively. The quality of service is influenced by the representative’s ability to empathize with the customer because they’ll be able to confidently propose a solution rather than guessing or telling a customer what to do, which can lead to poor outcomes and even resentment. Not many people can pick up this kind of relationship-building without being taught.
Training in emotional intelligence can be a crucial differentiator in productive relationships with your customers and internal team members. Emotional intelligence training equips you to create relationships that truly work because it provides a roadmap for how to bring out the best in yourself and in others. A solid level of emotional intelligence helps promote:
- Self-awareness
- Self-management
- Social-awareness
- Relationship management
Get your team ready to recognize and expertly respond to each customer’s individual emotional needs to improve your representatives’ confidence in their roles and your business’s bottom line.
We have over 30 years of experience in training teams like yours for success, and we can’t wait to increase their representatives’ emotional intelligence, making their jobs, and your customers’ experiences, more efficient and fulfilling. Check out our Emotional Intelligence course.
Contact us today to equip your team and grow your business.
Additional Resources:
- Emotional Intelligence shows up every day. The question is how well is it managed to ensure everyone is performing at a high level.
- Imagine how resilient your organization could be if it were filled with people who have the skills and self-confidence to get what they need without unnecessary guidance or wasted time.
- This workshop examines how to show up for customers in an attentive, caring, and considerate way with each customer interaction, even during tough conversations.