How can you use EI to improve team performance in customer service?

Id start with their attitude, without the right attitude its like trying to fit a round peg in a square block. Gaining the teams confidence will enable more truthful answers, recognise not everyone in a customer service role should be in one. It's not hard to build or train a great customer service team, but, if its a struggle with implementing EI, its usually because you have put people in the wrong roles. A great attitude opens every door to anything.

I've found that paying attention to how my team articulates their thoughts in speaking and writing, as well as field observations, shows me what their "superpowers" are. By observing what they're good at and what they could use help with, I can praise and appreciate their superpowers in team meetings, as well as recommend team members seek help from each other as appropriate. It has built team morale, and encouraged cooperation among the team.

I find some people hear a term like Emotional Intelligence and understand the concept while lacking a way to put it into practice. When I am working with a team or an organization, I start by working on their mindfulness about how they are relating to others. It is natural to relate to others from a place of scarcity and survival - after all, our ancestors required these skills so we can even exist. As such, it is a human being's default nature to be assessing their environment and the people in it - something I call the "Realm of Assessment." We have to help our teams to think in the "Realm of Contribution." If teams are wondering how to contribute to the whole rather than defending their part of the project, new possibilities can emerge.

Leveraging Emotional Intelligence (EI) is the compass that guides us in enhancing team performance within the realm of customer service. By nurturing self-awareness, team members can better understand their own emotional responses, enabling them to handle high-pressure situations with grace and empathy. Additionally, fostering social awareness allows teams to attune to customer needs, building rapport and trust. EI empowers us to harness emotional energy positively, transforming potential conflicts into opportunities for connection. When our teams embrace EI, we elevate the customer experience by delivering not just service but genuine care, forging lasting bonds that drive business growth.

To observe a team’s emotional intelligence, I would add that paying attention to how they express their emotions, how they listen and empathize with others, how they adapt to changing circumstances, and how they handle criticism or praise is key. It is also best practice to look for signs of emotional awareness, self-regulation, motivation, social skills, and empathy! A good example is to see how a team behaves when someone shares painful news. If the news is met with laughter or jokes about the situation then the level of EI in the team must be questioned!

Emotion is the key element when it comes to values, culture and customers. Setting a tone of empathetic and creative problem solving in the team by leading the way, we can help them in navigating their emotions. Over the time even customers will be showing reciprocals. Constant self evaluation by connecting to your true self, can bring out and develop the best in you. Assisting others in exploring and taming their thought process will move you faster towards the #Emotionalintelligence.

Emotional intelligence helps you better analyse and react and manage your teams. This can lead you high and helps to mould the way you manage people

Developing your team’s overall EI quotient means that you consistently convey the values and behaviors that you want the team to be known for. Yes, it all starts at the head – whatever that head’s title might be. It means that as head of the team you are generous with compliments AND generous in taking the time to appropriately coach, mentor and have those tough conversations that go along with all of this.

The key to boosting your team's EI is to raise awareness of the subconscious mind and how it operates. Our subconscious holds information about how we once decided to react in particular situations and why we attach specific feelings and emotions to specific types of events. By analysing this data on a deep level of one's subconscious, individuals are able to recognise and change their emotional response. Your team would be able to better manage their emotions if they understand when & why they appear.

Building Teams Emotional Intelligence is an urgent need as the corporate sector starts to see the entry of kids born on this side of century. Several mid layer managers are struggling with 90's generation and the gap will widen further with Millenials. Coupled with competition from AI and ML will make the team dynamics even more challenging. Hybrid working and remote working debate already exposed the generational gaps in several organizations and now other areas too will start to see the cracks unless corporates proactively make efforts to build EQ amongst middle managers.

By tapping into empathy, understanding, and effective communication, team members can resonate more deeply with customer needs and concerns. When a team can accurately gauge and respond to the emotions of customers, it not only addresses immediate concerns but also fosters loyalty and trust for the long term.

El allows team members to understand and manage their own emotions, which is crucial in high-pressure customer service situations. By recognizing and regulating emotions effectively, team members can respond to customers with empathy, patience, and professionalism, creating a positive experience.

As a project manager, I witnessed the transformative impact of emotional intelligence (EI) in customer service. A customer reached out to our support team with a complaint about a product they purchased. Understanding the significance of empathy, I personally responded to their concerns, diffusing their anger and frustration. By actively listening and providing a satisfactory solution, I exceeded their expectations. Witnessing the positive impact of empathy on customer satisfaction reaffirmed my team’s belief in its power. Ps: Remember, fostering an empathetic culture within your organization can inspire your team members to deliver exceptional customer service experiences and boost their emotional intelligence.

Empathy (the ability to recognise, understand and appreciate the way you and others feel) is a crucial EI skill. One that is at the heart of every relationship and a huge value in customer service. Building your aptitude to understand your own emotions will directly affect your ability empathise with others (colleagues or clients). It start with learning to listen. When you listen without judgment or assumption, you pick up not only the content of what someone is saying, but also the emotional tone behind this content. Stay focused on the person, don't pre-empt, don't interrupt, ask questions, listen to the emotions in your colleague / client's voice. It will enable you to develop your empathy and build a more successful team.

In the act of Positive Noticing, even if we don't share it with the other person, a new perspective about them will show up in the words we use. Wanting to Contribute to the customer without Assessing them can make it much easier to assist, even if the customer is being uncooperative or creating further conflict. Using an empathetic pattern of conversation can de-escalate and allow emotions to get processed in real time, keeping the focus on solutions instead of feelings.

Think of it as taking the pulse of your team's emotional health in relation to your customers. Regular check-ins and assessments can help pinpoint where your team excels and where there might be room for growth. For example, consistently high customer satisfaction rates might indicate that empathy and active listening are strong suits, whereas an uptick in complaints might suggest areas to refine.

Making a good diagnosis is an essential factor to take assertive actions that will improve team's performance! I know: measuring team's EI seems subjective. The good news it that technology is allowing us to have more parameters to realize how emotions are impacting the mood and the culture of an organization. The big secret is not trying to measure as many data as possibile, but to measure strategic parameters that allow leaders to act in a more accurate way as is possible.

Teams that can have serious conversations around potentially emotional topics by honoring one another is great evidence that the team's EI is growing. We want to be able to work with emotions as they happen in productive ways, so look for that facility with emotions, authenticity, vulnerability, and self-expression to show up in the overall team personality.

While we all have blind spots, I think people, in general, are more aware than they may let on! The challenge is that we are all so overwhelmed we too often do not take time to self-reflect. The hallmark of someone with a high EI is having the ability to self-reflect. Asking – in a face-to-face setting – in the past week/month what are you proud of in terms of the customer service you’ve offered? Why do you feel pride? In the past week/month what did you do in your service that you want to avoid doing in the future? Why? What’s your game plan? Asking these questions invites a team member to truly reflect – and not just quickly answer survey questions!

I agree that increased customer satisfaction and referrals as well as reduced customer complaints are a sure way to evaluate the high level of emotional intelligence in a team!

As the emotional needs and preferences of your customers shift, it's important to ensure that your team's EI capabilities adapt in tandem. Continual updates to EI training and development, informed by the latest insights and customer feedback, can help your team remain attuned to customer sentiments. This not only fosters deeper customer relationships but also sets the stage for consistently stellar service experiences.

Yes, focus on using team meetings to create a culture of trust. Use those meetings as a forum for sharing what worked, what didn’t work and for members to ask for feedback, advice. In a team of robust trust, group support and coaching will become hallmark.

Engaging in authentic ways takes practice. Most of the time, it can feel easier to avoid discussing an uncomfortable topic. Having a framework to rely on helps immensely, so when an important conversation needs to take place, the way it will unfold will be predictable. In team meetings, hold the team to a high standard of speaking in gentle and direct ways about their thoughts and feelings toward one another. This builds trust.

It's important to keep the Emotional Intelligence (EI) of the team up to date in order to make sure that we are effectively managing situations with a benevolent approach in order to enhance relationships, customer satisfaction, and overall success. This can be done by aligning the team's EI with evolving customer and colleague needs. Likewise, in keeping EI up to date, various facets such as training, constructive feedback loops, and customization of programs can be incorporated along with customer insights, leverage of AI tools, and general encouragement of a learning culture. Pair this along with EI mentors, tracking performance metrics, and prioritization of adaptability and you will have a recipe for success!

Demonstrate your team's emotional intelligence within your industry and the wider community by providing them with opportunities to share their insights and personal experiences on public platforms. For instance, leaders can extend invitations for public speaking engagements and participation in panel discussions. Cultivate thought leadership through blog posts, social media updates, and incorporating insightful quotes into press releases and other public communications. This approach serves as an excellent means to cultivate an environment that nurtures the team's professional growth while enhancing the company's overall brand.

One approach I use with teams is Appreciative Inquiry, which allows us to: a) discover what we are already doing well and how emotional intelligence is currently manifesting in our team; b) envision how it can become if the first part is multiplied and occurs more frequently; c) design a pathway to make the dream about emotional intelligence a reality; d) implement what has been designed through recurring accountability exercises.

McKinsey predicts that the demand for emotional skills will grow by 26% by 2030. But it's not just professional success that EI impacts; it also plays a crucial role in our overall well-being. Contrary to common misconceptions, EI is not a fixed personality trait but a skill set that can be developed over time. By understanding how our emotional responses influence our abilities and work style, we can become more effective professionals and foster our mental well-being.

EI comes from within and with time we learn mindfulness. The whole childhood has a pivotal role in our understanding and actions. So, even though EI is an overnight sensation for the current era, it needs a lot of effort to teach/ mentor other to help find the way. I'd say we start with leading with high level of EI. Treating people, how we respond to request, urgencies, personal and official conflicts and we need to grasp how can we be a great example for someone to understand EI. We could use that opening to invest extra on learnings and mentoring on people and share the importance of EI. EI is something that as employers, we need to rethink about how we can involve family/ friends or anyone else who is closer to the people.

For emotional intelligence to thrive in any team, there’s a need for social contract that defines accepted behaviour and guidance to holding respectful and meaningful conversations

Emotional Intelligence is a very broad topic, so it's very important to start small or you'll risk people tuning out. My recommendation is to start small and build out. In my experience, empathy is typically the best place to start in customer service scenarios. It could be as simple as identifying when the team delivered the best experience. Put yourself in the customer's shoes to see what you did specifically that made the biggest difference so you can do more of it in the future. Then think about the times when the customer didn't have such a great experience. Try to identify the situation from the client's point of view to see what the team can do differently in the future to provide them with more value.