My absolute favorite book is Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” Why? Because no college degree can ever make as much of an impact on other’s lives as how you treat and interact with people. The way that you treat people has such a huge impact on the success of any company both on the corporate side as well as the customer facing side.

I hired about 160 individuals in my 8+ years as a Director of Customer Support for Chatbooks and education was never a driver in my decision on whether or not to hire someone. How they treat others, what their core values are, how they handle stressful situations, and what drives them. Those were absolutely vital for finding a good fit within our team and finding someone that I knew would take care of our customers in the very best possible way while also treating their coworkers with respect and kindness.

“Try to understand other people’s viewpoints” is a really important thing to practice and utilize when you’re directing a Customer Success Team. It applies to every aspect of your position. From an upset customer, who had different expectations to an agent who is struggling due to their home/life situation, to a leader who may have a differing opinion on how to train someone, to working with an executive who may have a different focus that you disagree with.

When you can understand someone else’s point of view, it will help you in your decision making process, in knowing how to approach someone to explain to them why a decision was made that affects them personally. And most of all, it helps you have empathy for each individual you work with. These types of skills are not as common as you would think.

So when reviewing resumes, and coming up with questions for an interview, make sure you keep this top of mind. Kindness and empathy will lead to a companies success just as fast as a “brilliant jerk” will destroy it.