Many of today’s jobs with the most openings—nurses and health aides, customer service reps and sales representatives, just to name a few—require you to manage relationships with customers or clients. So, not only will displaying relationship-building skills likely land you one of these jobs, but it's also likely to increase your pay and further your career success. In fact, several studies have linked emotional intelligence, a key skill for managing relationships, to higher career achievement and better pay.
Plus, building and maintaining relationships with customers is best left to, well, humans—an important detail in a time when automation is threatening more and more jobs. Last we checked, it’s no one’s favorite thing to call customer service only to get trapped in an automated phone system. People prefer people, and the same jobs that we mentioned before are included on the list of jobs least likely to disappear due to automation. To embark on a career with a strong outlook, here’s how to improve your ability to manage customers and clients like a pro.
