Understanding your own emotional intelligence is yet another way to tap into your strengths and use them to better serve your customers. The following are the primary categories of emotional intelligence. Consider each category and the degree to which you possess these traits:

–Self-awareness. You have an emotional awareness, perform accurate self-assessments and display self-confidence.

–Self-regulation. You demonstrate adaptability, conscientiousness, innovation, self-control and trustworthiness.

–Motivation. You’re continuously driven by achievement and demonstrate commitment, initiative and optimism.

–Empathy. You contribute to the development of others, leverage diversity, maintain political awareness, take a service orientation and understand others.

–Social skills. You build bonds, promote improvement change, facilitate collaboration and cooperation, communicate well with others, manage conflict, influence, lead and participate productively in teams.

Improve Your Productivity By Controlling Your Response

Your customers may all have special demands and ways of expressing their requirements or expectations. Managers, too, have a variety of ways they can express or emphasize opinions or objectives. Your response to your customers can affect morale and, hence, productivity.

To be an emotionally intelligent customer service representative, you need to demonstrate an awareness of the effect situations have on your response. You might question the appropriateness of your response given the goals you need to accomplish.

Another aspect of being emotionally intelligent is the way you regulate your responses to situations. You may be inclined to start or fuel an argument, outburst or criticism, but you also need to consider the ramifications of such actions.

Filed under: Customer Service Corner