Losing your customers to your customers is no fun in any way. Be it the paucity of customer service skills, high price, or unavailability of favorite products – loss is a loss. A recent study states that US businesses lose about $62 billion every year due to inadequate customer service skills. On that note, promoting strong customer success Emotional Intelligence might keep you from these concerning numbers. That won’t only enhance your skills as a Customer Success Manager but also build a deeper connection with your customers. Here, in this blog, we will walk you through the ins and outs of emotional intelligence.

EQ Skills a Customer Success Manager should have

According to the MHS Research Report, 41% of the employees believe that Emotional Intelligence is a must-have topic of organizational training and development courses. And 27% of the leadership assessments evaluate an individual’s emotional intelligence level. Here are four of the most important EI skills that a CSM should entail:

Self-Regulation

In simpler terms, self-regulation is basically your ability to react to your own thought process and emotions and regulate them in a timely fashion. Also, how well you influence or control your feelings speak about your adaptability, trustworthiness and self-control as well. As a Customer Success Manager, having self-regulation is critical. The minute you inculcate a high level of emotional intelligence, you will be able to self-regulate your demeanor. With that, you will now be able to make more conscious and rational decisions per se.

Self-Awareness

Just like the name suggests, self-awareness is all about how alert you are about your desires, feelings, and emotions. In emotional intelligence, it all brews with raising awareness of how we face others. As a Customer Success Manager, you must imbue this quality. It is of high pertinence that you let the customers have their moment. Be aware of letting them speak their heart out. Sometimes, it could be possible that you get overwhelmed and start interrupting the customer as they speak. That is when you need to know where to stop and take a backseat. Customer Success Emotional intelligence is all about understanding the needs of your customers intelligently and giving them the things that they want.

Social Skills

One of the biggest traits that a manager must possess is being sociable.  How well you interact with others and how you influence them is what matters. This entails the interpersonal skills that permit you to communicate, create trust, manage issues and collaborate well with your colleagues. The more you understand them, the easier it becomes for you to connect well. This in a way impacts your overall profitability. Customers love to stick around with a manager who understands their needs and reciprocates with the requisite compassion and empathy. This will not only cut down on the bulging churn rates but also rev up your revenue bar.

Empathy

Empathy is said to be one of the core skills of emotional intelligence. Motivation and empathy are two extra facets that are central to emotional intelligence. A successful CSM should have the ability to recognize the emotions and feelings of other people. The easier it becomes for you to understand their needs, it will help you to serve them in a rather rational manner. Empathy in work place goes a long way.

How to Boost your Emotional Intelligence Quotient?

In fact, 60% of the Recruiters too find emotional intelligence assessments as very effective in shortlisting a candidate. Here are four such ways in which you can boost your emotional intelligence quotient in no time.

Solicit Customer Feedback

Reach out to your co-workers and solicit their suggestions, if any. It is always wiser to have a critique who tells you what is it that you are doing the wrong way. Ask them if there is something that they do not concur with at the moment and that they need anything to be changed in that. Collect their perception of your emotional intelligence and know what is it that you can do to revamp. Also, it is no fun to just receive those feedback and not pay heed to it later. Solicit suggestions only with a belief of accomplishing them as and when required.

Utilize Active Listening Skills

The emotionally intelligent people tend to listen to their customers for umpteen clarity and wait for them to finish. Howsoever, they do not interrupt when they are trying to explain to you their concern. Nothing puts off a customer more than talking to a manager who is not as involved in their issue as they are. Note that they also zero in on the non-verbal details of a conversation. Hearing them out actively ensures that there is less room for misunderstanding and it also shows the other person that you care about them.

Carry a Positive Attitude, always:

A positive attitude can take you a long way. On the other hand, a negative attitude can disseminate easily and can affect the person in front of you. An emotionally intelligent being has the awareness of emotions around him and mirrors his attitude accordingly. That is when bringing an optimistic outlook is vital to better serve the customers. Begin with creating a healthy rapport with your customers and extending them a helping hand as and when that is required. This is all that a customer wants from you.

Be Approachable and Friendly

The best way to boost your EQ is by being as approachable as you can. A smile and a positive outlook can do wonders. It is pertinent to utilize social skills based on the relationship you have around with people. A customer will feel more connected to communicate better with someone who is easy to approach and friendly to talk to. Being arrogant or adamant in your approach can be detrimental to your business and can add on to the churn rates too. Therefore, start seeing them as your friends, and you will begin to see a difference already.

That’s a Wrap

It goes without saying that one of the much-needed Customer Success’s requirements is having a higher level of EQ. When you are open-minded and driven, with a strong emotional intelligence quotient, you will find it more convenient to thrive in almost anywhere, and that connecting to your customers would never be easier. Become a stellar CSM right from this moment by imbibing the best of customer success emotional intelligence.

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