In this article from Business News Daily, the author shows that research concludes an employee’s personality, not his or her knowledge or technical skills, will be the thing that shines through in a customer service transaction.

The research noted that conscientious employees do best at customer service because they seem to understand interpersonal communications and the ways in which it can affect a customer’s decisions. Researchers used questionnaires with descriptions of 50 customer service interactions.  The “employees” were asked to state which behaviors were effective and which were not.  The results showed those who accurately identified the effective behaviors were likely to behave effectively themselves.

It’s been the usual practice to examine intelligence and a personal’s technical knowledge to determine whether they would  make a good job candidate. However, today there is increased interest in how personality, not knowledge, can play a role in interpersonal communications which are so important in a customer service transaction.