Introduction

Abstract

Last night, Melanie Jones had another late night at the Call Center. Early in the evening, she overhead one of her direct reports (a Customer Service Rep) shouting at one of the company’s best customers, Nuts Galore. The rep was not even coming close to being cooperative and could not understand the customer’s needs, let alone solve the customer’s problem. After overhearing the conversation, Melanie recalled a recent class she had taken on the subject of Emotional Intelligence (EI). She had spent the past several weeks trying to understand why her department was not improving, and Melanie wondered if her staff really had the EI to understand how to listen to and understand their customers’ concerns.