Overview
Emotional Intelligence (EI), put simply, is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others. Often considered an area of concern for leadership roles, EI tends to be neglected in frontline staff hiring, training, and performance management processes. It is often wrongly assumed to be automatically cared for once specific ‘soft skills’ are displayed. To help set the record straight, here are five (5) reasons or hidden benefits of EI in frontline staff.
Satisfied Customers
Frontline staff with high EI can better empathize with customers, de-escalate tense situations, and communicate effectively even in challenging circumstances. Through these traits, representatives can provide more personalized service and support. So, while technical knowledge and communication skills are essential, EI will play a crucial role in determining the effectiveness of interactions which is critical to organizational success. As a result, EI in frontline staff has been proven to benefit handling times, first-call resolution rates, customer satisfaction scores, loyalty, and churn rates.
Naturally Happier
Often lost behind pay and benefits callouts, a key driver for representative dissatisfaction is the fallouts from the emotions related to customer interactions. This is why representatives shy away from interactions or feel they should be paid more. Unfortunately, when these demands are not met or are met, and the relief proves short-lived, it creates a never-ending cycle. However, staff with high EI who can adequately manage customer emotions as well as their own tend to be more balanced and intrinsically satisfied in their jobs. They have their ‘whys’ clear in mind and understand that customers are not upset with them directly, so they take the good interactions with the challenging ones and keep it moving.
Easier to Retain
EI allows for building stronger, more meaningful relationships with others through empathy and understanding. It also correlates highly with stress management and resilience against feelings of tiredness and burnout. The benefit is a combination of staff being able to find at least one good friend at a job where they don’t feel stressed and mentally drained. This synergizes exceedingly well with retention initiatives as more than half the work is done by the staff in an innately sustainable way that is resistant to diminishing returns. The wonderful feeling of being hugged as tightly as you are hugging.
Easier to Manage
Empathy doesn’t just stop at customers and peers; it also extends to the leaders. Staff with high EI connects more deeply with leaders fostering greater partnerships toward mutual objectives. They react more positively to coaching and development and are more understanding of leadership shortcomings. They are better able to give constructive feedback more effectively to leaders for the broader benefit of the team and organization. They move through change processes quickly, becoming early adopters and even advocates. In fact, most of the time, they are self-managed once instructions are clear, and when help is provided, they know just how to accept it. An amazing win/ win situation.
Just More Fun
Team members who are self-aware, self-assured, won’t take themselves too seriously, understand each other’s shortcomings, and can take the initiative to pacify situations and resolve conflicts are just more fun to be around. Less drama, work gets done more quickly, and play times are rich and wholesome. Enough said!
All in all
Too much organizational success rests on representative-to-customer, representative-to-representative, representative-to-organization, and representative-to-leadership interactions for EI to not be prioritized and developed for frontline staff. They are often the largest stakeholder group, after all. Hopefully, these benefits have made a creditable argument for more movements in this direction.
