The Concept of Emotional Intelligence: Human Connection Is a Key to Long-Term Success

How companies treat their employees ends with how customers are treated

How should companies continue to drive greater support for agents so that customer experience can be better?

If an agent feels happy to go to work, understands their direct mission in relation to the companies overall goal, has tools that are easy to use and work well, feels supported and appreciated by their direct leader as well as leaders above them, and feels that have a career path that makes sense for them, they will translate that to how they interact with others and especially the customer. Companies that don’t understand that how they treat their employees ends with how customers are treated will suffer longer term with customer experience.

What is next in terms of hyper-personalised interactions and new customer demands?

The most important element of hyper-personalised customer interactions is having agents who get a significant amount of training in the concept of Emotional Intelligence.  Customers need to feel that any issue they have is not only understood, yet they also need to feel there is empathy in their interactions. In an era filled with technology which is replacing human interaction companies will have risk of having disconnected customers. Having a methodology to ensure that a human connection remains is key to long-term success and companies need to find a balance.

How to improve employees’ training and develop top-performing agents?

Training for employees must go beyond learning the tasks and processes associated with the output of their work.  In learning how to do their role, the emphasis should start with soft skills and the customer.  Then, when learning tasks and process flows, checkpoints could ideally be imbedded as to how the soft skills intertwine with the tasks and process flows, always referring to the customers´ perspective.  Collaboration, ownership as well as embracing failure to learn are also key soft skill elements that, when imbed into soft skill training, bring performance to a new level.

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Jeff Ocenasek is a Senior Director and Global Process Owner Account & Sales Operations at Adidas. In this role, he is globally responsible for wholesale Account and Sales Operations, driving the priorities for the global GBS CS organisation, setting the organisational objectives and key results, defining our KPIs, Global Process Ownership and ensuring our operational teams deliver world-class service to Adidas wholesale customers.

Jeff embraces having a growth mindset, emotional intelligence, and extreme ownership, believing that empowering people at all levels of the organisation provides the best customer and employee experience.