Customer Relations Work and Emotional Intelligence

I'll be doing a series of customer service stress management and emotional intelligence training for a major organization in September. This is stressful work and to succeed, even to survive, you have to have high EQ, or emotional intelligence.

As this article Customer Experience Podcast #5: Intrapersonal QBC points out, customer relations and sales, by phone particularly, is a very stress job that requires good emotional intelligence skills. "The emotional rollercoaster of sales and customer service presents a constant challenge to the individual to respond appropriately in all cases," says the article.

They sign intrapersonal skills such as self-regard, emotional self-awareness, assertiveness and so forth.

For instance:

Self Regard. People with higher levels of self-regard have a track record of success, and they attribute that success to themselves. That confidence rubs off on the customer, who gets the feeling that they are in good hands. By contrast, someone with poor self-regard presents both themselves, and the brand they represent, in a poor light.

Self Awareness. The ability to recognise one’s own emotional state is critical in enabling the indivudual [sic] to moderate that state as circumstances demand.

That means not just recognizing emotions, but being able to tell when you are reaching your tipping point, and knowing why. It may be that you aren't really listening to the customer, or it could be that you're too tired or too hot. When you're uncomfortable physically, it can set your emotional states higher. Like when you come home from a hard day at work and are tired, and something comes up with the kids.

This may seem obvious but you might say, "Well anyone would get mad at something like this." With The EQ course you can learn to modulate the states, hopefully getting angry more slowly, staying thess a shorter time and having it be less intense, getting out of it quicker, and recovering faster. It's about modulating your emotions.

Emotional intelligence is very important in customer relations work. In fact it accounts for about 80% of your success in an endeavor. The EQ COURSE raises your emotional intelligence, your EQ. It's interactive, on the Internet and self-paced, with feedback. It is consistently rated #1. Check it out -- www.susandunn.cc/EQcourse.htm .

What price your future success?