The chapter adopts a theoretical approach to exploring the existing literature on emotional intelligence models and customer relationship marketing concept with the aim of proposing a ‘new' conceptual model interlinking emotional intelligence (EI) and customer relationship marketing (CRM). The proposed conceptual model will then be re-developed on the basis of the findings that will emerge from a qualitative case study research carried out in the Lebanese retail banking sector. The fact that the focus of this study is on the Lebanese market could potentially ‘fuel' the topic with more controversy due to the impact of the Lebanese culture affecting both the banks' organisational culture and the front-line employee behaviour. Based on an extensive search of literature, one can conclude that EI significantly affects the retail banking sector. The research study aims at interlinking EI theory with frontline employee behavior in the context of CRM through combing existing models, theoretical research and secondary data.

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Purpose This study aims to descriptively identify and refine the role of emotional intelligence (EI) in the retail banking employee–customer contact context, and prescriptively use this knowledge to develop a framework for improving true customer service without excess organizational cost, in Lebanon. Design/methodology/approach The research adopts the classical interpretive/constructivist ontology and the interpretivism/constructivism epistemology, and it rests on a tripod of methodological foundations. The first leg is the theoretical work that sets the extant scientific ground for the empirical work to develop. The second incorporates the main (qualitative) empirical tools, i.e. 40 interviews with customers and HR managers (NVivo-analyzed), plus a critical incident technique study. The third includes the supportive tools of secondary data and an expert panel composed of industry and scholarly specialists. Findings EI was empirically shown to modulate the levels of customer satisfaction and to hold a critical role in the company–customer interface, albeit one that is currently and unjustly both undervalued and ineffectively controlled. The findings identify the key factors and exhibited behavioral attributes of EI within the customer service process, and they integrate all into a comprehensive framework of both scholarly and executive worth. Originality/value This study provides distinct theoretical elucidations and conceptualization that have identified and interrelated the relevant works on the subject; empirically refines the variables involved in the EI context of retail banking customer service; and culminates in the form of the proposed framework that incorporates and interrelates the findings into an empirical-data-based composition of both scholarly and executive orientation and worth.

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