We often think of IQ when it comes to business and work, but emotional intelligence is equally important. Emotional intelligence is your ability to perceive, express, and regulate your emotions. When operating in a client-facing business that depends heavily on customer satisfaction, emotional intelligence is paramount. Here are a few reasons to hire and inspire emotional intelligence in your team:
Remembering specific details matters
Whether you’re running a small, local business or you’re managing a more corporate-level team, it’s important to remember key details about your clients. If your business depends on the longevity of customer and client relations to keep thriving, this is everything.
It may be as simple as sending corporate gift baskets to your clients for special days or giving a discount to your small business customers during their birthday month. Pay attention to the little details about your clients. It will pay off. Just as you expect a certain level of customer service from the businesses you visit, so do your customers, so don’t forget this when it comes to setting up customer support and satisfaction initiatives. It can be helpful to use customer support software to recognize patterns and address customer pain points.
Prioritizing loyal customers is important
If you want to keep your customers for the long term, it’s wise to prioritize them. Emotional intelligence in customer relations helps you to understand this and make the right moves in client relations to ensure that no client is left behind.
This could look like loyalty discounts or like offering freebies every now and then to your long-standing clients. It could be extra business dinners on the company tab or throwing in some pro bono work. Taking care of clients is key to long-term success, whatever your business may be.
EQ keeps your clients
A company that doesn’t prioritize customers or clients may find themselves with a plethora of issues. Clients want to know that they’re taken care of, no matter what. The thing is that emotionally intelligent leaders aren’t just showing up for their clients; they show up for their team.
Satisfied employees typically lead to satisfied customers, so if your brand is prioritizing rational intelligence over emotional intelligence, think about how important it is to start paying closer attention to the needs of your customers.
Understanding your clients helps you deliver
If you’re trying to meet the needs of your clients, emotional intelligence helps you listen better. Understanding where you may be falling short as a brand, whether in the products that you design or in the services that you provide, can help you to improve. In the long term, this will result in more customer satisfaction and help improve your reputation in your industry. You have to make an effort to listen.
It can also help you to say no
While you should definitely use EQ in your business and with your clients, creating more customer satisfaction and building strong relationships, emotional intelligence can also help you navigate when it’s a good idea to say no. This is especially true for small businesses, which may say yes to too much out of fear of not getting enough clients.
You may end up with deals that aren’t viable for the long term or that have terms that aren’t as favorable to your company as you would like. Emotional intelligence also means managing your excitement and using rational intelligence to make decisions.
While both heart and rationality should be in the mix, it’s important to let EQ help you slow down the process when it comes to seemingly great deals. Always take time to negotiate and investigate so that you can make the best decisions regarding your business.
In Conclusion
As you strive to grow your business, remember how important client relations are to your longevity. Taking care of your customers can result in the kind of long-term clientele you want. The more satisfied people you do business with, the easier it will be for your brand to last.
