Here's how you can excel in a customer support career by developing emotional intelligence.

In order to excel as a Customer Support Specialist in Emotional Intelligence, one has to understand what emotional intelligence entails and know how to manage people and situations properly

To excel in a customer support career, develop emotional intelligence by actively listening to customers, empathizing with their concerns, managing your emotions under pressure, and using positive language to build rapport. This helps create satisfying customer experiences and fosters long-term loyalty.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the ability to manage both your own emotions and understand the emotions of people around you. There are five key elements to EI: self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skills.

WHAT? EI is all about knowing what TRIGGERS an emotional RESPONSE in YOU and OTHERS - a simple sentence that encompasses the whole universe of behavioral sciences. WHY? Support business deals with unhappy customers every day, much like a hospital or police detectives. Sometimes these "unhappy" emotion extend to many others (anger, frustration), thereby resulting in undesriable behavior in customers (abuse, blame, escalations). Thus, handling these tickly moments is an essential professional skill for Support Reps, besides the much needed technical diagnostic skills.

To excel in a customer support career by developing emotional intelligence, practice active listening and empathy. Recognize and manage your emotions, stay calm under pressure, and handle customer interactions with patience and understanding. Build strong relationships with colleagues and customers by showing genuine interest and maintaining a positive attitude.

Listening is definitely a important part of communication. Its better to keep a note of the key points in a Notebook so that you don't miss anything out.

Active listening is being fully engaged while another person is talking to you. It is listening with the intent to understand the other person fully, rather than listening to respond. Active listening includes asking wide-eyed questions such as, "How did you feel?" or "What did you think?".

1. The first step (in identifying the emotional triggers in you/others) is active listening. 2. It does not mean being slient when the others are speaking, but actively assimiliating without parellely procesing a response. 3. You suspend your own judgement/emotions, and focus on data/evidence and the emotions it triggers in others. 3. Note them all down (you really need to practice shorthand/visual writing). 4. Acknoweldge customer emotions (but do not be tempted to promise something immediately) - that makes customer FEEL that you are genuinely interested/committed to their wellbeing - a positive emotion that you can trigger in them. It forms the basis for making your subsequent interactions more bearable (and less sufferable).

If your are controlling your reactions is vital in maintaining a positive customer experience. When faced with an irate or dissatisfied customer, it's essential to remain calm and not take their frustration personally. By controlling your emotional responses, you can de-escalate tense situations and demonstrate to customers that their issues are being handled by a composed and capable professional.

Empathy is defined as the ability to recognize and understand the emotions of others. When a child experiences empathy it means that they understand how the other person feels in a particular situation and that they can imagine how they would feel if they were in the same situation.

You need to be clear and concise in your communication. This means using simple, direct, and precise language, avoiding jargon, slang, or filler words, and organizing your message into logical and coherent points.

Continuous learning is the ongoing expansion of knowledge and skill sets. In the context of professional development in the workplace, it's about developing new skills and knowledge, while also reinforcing what has been previously learned.

1) EI is a necessary but not sufficient condition for being succssful Sup Rep. You cannot compensate the tech skills just by sweet talk. The complete set includes EI, Tech Diagnostic Skills, Continuous Learning and Collaboration (regular give & take). 2) Obviously, you may be good (above average) on some (say, tech skills), and poor (below average) others (say, EI). 3) Craft your role based on your strengths. e.g. let someone else (with good EI) handle customer interactios, while you be a product/tech expert. Talk to your manager explicitly about it. Note that the "good" and "bad" have to be significantly far from the average (e.g. >=30% rather than 10%) to have a say in crafting the role.