Do your employees exhibit high social intelligence behaviour? You’ve likely
hired based on their hard skills and they may enter your firm highly experienced
but somewhere in the recruitment process or job training, did you cover the
importance of social intelligence to help manage the customer experience?
Social intelligence in the context of workplace service professionalism is awareness by employees of what is appropriate and facilitative behaviour to positively impact the customer experience and drive the consumer purchase cycle.
Non-verbal communication such as body language, facial expressions, eye contact and smiling can greatly affect the consumer’s perception of a service experience. So too can the vocal communication where employees’ tone, emphasis, speech volume and speed, choice of vocabulary for the specific audience/individual can show a level of sincerity and willingness to assist in customer’s needs.
Employees with high social intelligence have an acute awareness of self-presentation; how they appear to others both in their physical stature (body language) as well as how their voice projects their professionalism. Those with high social intelligence generally have an easier time building relationships with customers, are more able to field customer concerns and come to resolution faster and more effectively when problems arise. Those who may not naturally have such awareness can feel like customers often give them, “a harder time than other employees”.
Over the years I’ve worked with both types of colleagues; those that were on their game when it came to using their bodies and voices to effectively manage the customer experience and those that were less skilled at it. I say skilled because it is something that can be taught. In almost every workshop I’ve facilitated, there is at least one individual that comments something to the effect of, “I didn’t realize doing it that way would make a difference”. Sometimes I think we take for granted that the employees we hire simply know all the ‘soft stuff’ like relationship-building behaviours, etiquette, facilitative communication language (as opposed to barrier-type language) and creative problem solving. We then pop them into positions where they become the face of the company and unknowingly let them fend for themselves.
Failing to train employees in social intelligence or omitting testing for it in the recruitment process can create a triple loss – frustrated customers, frustrated employees and frustrated owners/managers. Training new employees and offering regular refreshers to existing staff is one way to help ensure all your company representatives are made aware of the importance their behaviours are to the success of the company, its customer and ultimately their own experiences in the workplace.
Service Essentials workshops are one-day, fully interactive sessions allowing participants to learn, discuss and practice techniques, tips and behaviours of service professionalism.