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Think about the time when you interacted with a sales or customer-service rep. Let's say, you have a question about your airline reservation and reward points.
* You dislike being put on hold for more than 10 minutes, so you go to their website and try to find an answer on their FAQ.
* You use their
* After 48 hours, you receive an auto-generated message filled with gibberish.
* You google to determine if others have an answer or if others had similar issues, but find nothing that relates to your account.
* You start a web-chat. It takes 5 minutes for someone to join but they ask you to call a 1800number as it is 9 pm and these agents do not address the set of questions you have.
* Now you take a deep breath and call the 1800number. Even though it is 9:30 pm where you are, you are put on hold for 15 minutes and then the rep comes on.
* The rep does not quite "get" your frustration and at the end, does not give an answer that is satisfactory.
* You take to Twitter and express your frsutration.
* You go to Facebook and express your frustration on the airline's Facebook page.
* .....
And the story goes on.
Customers and Prospects initiate an interaction via voice/phone, web, email, chat, face-to-face or social-media because they have a concern or they are encountering a problem or they simply have a question. Typically, they are not calling because they want to express their "awe" with the product or service.
The most important skill that a rep "must have" is the ability to identify the degree of your frustration and anxiety and then to de-escalate the situation adequately, such that they can engage you in a discussion and lead you to a satisfactory resolution.
When they are able to use this de-escalation skill, they can impact "first issues resolution" (FCR) and they can engage you in "solutioning" discussion. These in turn impact the "trusted adviser" score (in case of sales processes) and the "customer satisfaction" (CSAT) (in case of customer service processes).
If they are unable to use the skill well, it further escalates the situation that can lead to losing you as a customer. Also, in this day and age, the loss might not be only that one customer, but you can amplify the concern via any social-media channels (by tweeting with #fail that goes to your followers, by posting on Google+ and making it searchable everywhere and forever or by kvetching on facebook and getting your friends' attention) leading to a permanent and more severe damage to the brand equity.