How to Raise the Emotional Intelligence of Your Call Center Staff

How to Raise the Emotional Intelligence of Your Call Center Staff

Emotional intelligence, or EQ, is the skill of being able to understand how others feel and using that information to influence how you can proactively interact for a positive result. While some employees may inherently have a high EQ, it can be nurtured to grow in all staff, improving interactions between agents and callers across the board.

Using EQ, an agent can guide a call from its beginning to a successful resolution while simultaneously adjusting the tone and language of the call based on listening to and engaging with the customer. Management and training staff can create an environment to foster high EQ in all call center agents and improve customer satisfaction. Here is how you can increase EQ in your own call center.

Positivity

Call center agents’ positive and proactive attitudes help the interaction between the agent and customer get started on the right foot. In order to foster these attitudes in the call center at large, managers need to make agents feel cared for and important to the company’s mission. Creating a fun and cooperative atmosphere between management and staff is a good way to foster positivity and the first step in encouraging EQ to grow.

Self-Awareness and Control

Training for agents to be aware of their phone persona is the next step in developing a higher EQ. These questions can be asked and the answers discussed during training sessions and call critique sessions:

  • How do I sound to the customer? If a call center agent answers a call in an abrupt manner, this will probably set an unfriendly tone for the entire call, with the customer gaining a negative perception of the company.
  • Am I making the customer feel welcome? If the customer is not extended courtesy, diplomacy, and respect, the customer may feel they are an unwelcome guest and escalate the call in order to get their need for information and service met.
  • How can I stay in control and guide the call to a satisfactory conclusion? Angry callers are a regular occurrence, but a call center agent can control her response to the angry feelings at the other end of the line. Staying in control by remaining objective and calmly responding to the caller’s request can transform the emotional energy of the call and guide it to a satisfactory conclusion.

Adaptability

The skill of being adaptable to a wide spectrum of customer attitudes and requests is built on the ability to be positive and proactive as well as self-aware and in control of customer interactions. Training agents how to respond proactively to difficult callers will raise their confidence and help them to perform at their highest level.

Rewards

When agents see that peers in the workplace are being rewarded for their high EQ during customer interactions, this sets the tone for higher agent EQ expectations overall. As a result, a culture of excellence is fostered to improve the customer experience. Ask high performing agents to serve as mentors for new hires to reinforce this expectation of excellence.

Training, mentoring, and peer engagement can make a difference in a call center’s EQ. When positivity is fostered, training is implemented, and performance feedback is given, you call center performance will be poised to improve exponentially.

This blog was first published on LinkedIn.

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