How To Ace A Customer Service Interview

Aligning With Your Brand Culture

When customer service agents align with your companys overall culture and core values, theyre more likely to be committed to delivering their very best customer service. Disney ensures that their core value of Creating happiness is soaked into every Cast Member or guest service member, and they keep an eye for such happy people right from their recruitment process.

To check if the interview candidate aligns with your brands view of customer service and be a great addition to your overall company culture, you could ask these questions

Listen for:

• How aware the candidate is about what your business stands for and what you do on a high level.
• Though the first two questions look like textbook definitions, the answers to these reveal how the candidate views customer service and if they truly believe in customer experience playing a significant role in building a brand.

More Advice On Answering Interview Questions With No Experience

For more advice on answering interview questions with no experience, and pro tips on every element that youll need to succeed during your interview, check out our fantastic resource.

What Was Your Biggest Failure In Your Previous Role And How Did You Recover From It

This question helps assess coachability and honesty. Everybody has failed, but the important part is did the candidate learn from it — or do they blame someone else for it?

What to Look For in Good Answers

Some candidates will give a cop-out answer. You’re looking for an answer that speaks to the candidate’s sense of personal responsibility, resilience, and ability to learn from mistakes in the future.

Also Check: Women’s Outfit For Job Interview

Situational Interview Questions For Customer Service

This category of questions often requires you to place yourself in a particular scenario and offer ways in which you would handle the situation at hand.

• How do you deal with an angry customer? If this question comes up, you can offer the grown-up professional response of, I never take it personally. Go on to explain how you would employ simple tactics like saying the customers name and being an active listener .
• What do you do if the customer is wrong? In theory, of course, the customer is always right. But if youre asked how you would deal with a customer whos actually wrong, you can offer a few specifics like, I would work to find a compromise that satisfied the client I would suggest an alternative solution that would meet their needs or say you would tell the client, I cant do that, but heres what I can do for you.
• Describe an instance where you facilitated a happy outcome for a frustrated customer. If youve worked in customer support previously, be armed with a specific and comparable scenario in a professional setting.

Tell Me About A Time You Couldn’t Solve The Customer’s Problem What Was The Outcome

Customer support specialists can’t win them all. At the same time, they should still be able to deliver a great experience that maintains or exceeds the customer’s expectations.

What to Look For in Good Answers

The candidate should be able to describe the customer’s problem, the steps that were taken to solve it, the reason why it couldn’t be solved, and the approach that was taken instead. Look for answers that demonstrate a competency in managing customer expectations as well as innovation on an organizational level. In addition, keep an eye out for candidates who mention following up with the customer beyond the initial unresolved call.

Don’t Miss: Interview Questions For A Cfo

Knowledge About The Product/service

To know how to help an unhappy customer, you first need to know what is wrong with the product or the service. You cant do that without a thorough knowledge of it.

Before you go to your customer service interview, take the time to research the company and its products/services. Check their website, social media profiles, and even physical shops if you need to. The more knowledge you have about the company, the better you will look to the recruiters when answering their customer service rep interview questions.

How To Prepare For A Receptionist Interview

At many organizations, receptionists are the face of the company. Every new client, job applicant, employee, or third-party vendor will pass by or check in with a receptionist, so employers are eager to find someone who will be responsible, friendly, and calm.

Take the time to review the questions you will most likely be asked during the interview, examples of how to respond, and tips for making the best impression during your job interviews.

Also Check: Best Interview Clothes For A Woman

Q How Would You Describe An Ideal Customer Service Experience

Who this question is for Both experienced and inexperienced customer service candidates.

What employers are looking for in your answer With this question, interviewers want to assess what excellent customer service means to you. They want to know whether your understanding of what qualifies as great customer service aligns with that of their organization.

How you should respond to this question The best way to start your answer to this question is with an example. Give an example of a customer service interaction you handled or share a memorable customer service experience you had with a brand. After that, point out specific qualities from that example that according to you made the customer service experience a delightful one. Be prepared to answer any situation-based follow-up questions.

How Do You Keep Your Daily Schedule Organized

What They Want to Know: How you organize your day is not really the point. The point is to demonstrate that you are well-organized and will complete all your duties in a competent and timely manner.

I begin every day by making a list of everything I need to accomplish. I check my calendar for any meetings or appointments, so I can be aware of them, and get coverage on the front desk if necessary. In my job, communication is key, so I’m constantly answering the phone and checking my email for new requests, then updating my to-do list with follow-up tasks accordingly.

Recommended Reading: System Design Interview Preparation

Tell Me About Yourself And Why You Are Suited To This Role

This will be the first interview question, and in my opinion, is the easiest one for answering with no experience. Use strong keywords and phrases that are attractive to the employer who is interviewing you. Make sure you study the job description carefully and pick out specific elements from that description that you can use in your interview response.

Answer this question by focusing on the strength of your personality, your enthusiasm for the role, and what has attracted you to their company.

Sample Response

I am an enthusiastic, professional, loyal and hard-working person who has been working towards applying for this post for many months now.

I am someone who believes their personality will be a big asset to an employer, not least because of my dedication to my work, my willingness to go above and beyond what is required, and also my hunger for learning and developing new skills.

I am particularly attracted to your company because I want to work for someone who is ambitious, innovative and who gives their employees the opportunity to thrive.

National Retail Federation Customer Service Test

The goal of NRF is to improve customer service career accessibility for students, job applicants and customer service employees who are seeking a promotion. This retail federation has devised an employment aptitude test that leads to a retail business credential, highly respected by retail entities with available customer service positions. For those who pass the NRF test, the credential acts as a step-up in the hiring process. JobTestPrep is of enormous value in thoroughly preparing job applicants for the NRF assessment.

Recommended Reading: How To Prepare System Design Interview

Next Steps For Finding An Exceptional Customer Support Agent

Once youve gained confidence in the candidate with these customer service representative interview questions, see if you can give them an actual support ticket or call to see if they reflect the skills you need for the role.

If youre assured of the candidates expertise in handling the issue, then voila! Youve found yourself a new member for your customer service team. Be sure to convey your companys values on customer service and work culture during their onboarding and equip them with the necessary training for the tools and internal processes.

With the right peers to guide the new member and robust customer service software to assist them, youre sure to see a win in your next customer service hire!

How To Ace The Top 9 Customer Service Representative Interview Questions

Brandi Glass

Impressing interviewers for a call center agent role is all about the preparation. If you can plan strong answers to the most common customer service representative interview questions, youll have a higher chance of receiving that job offer.

Lets break down how to answer some of the customer service and call center representative interview questions that are most likely to come up.

Recommended Reading: Interview Attire Womens

Tips For Making The Most Of Your Support Interviews

When interviewing potential support hires, you always run the risk of repeating the same questions, receiving the same answers, having the same small talk, and then promptly forgetting all the important details.

The antidote? Think creatively, establish a system, and then stick to it. You wonât be left groping for questions, your interactions will be more memorable, and youâll be able to standardize the circumstances under which you assess candidates.

A strategic approach makes for less fuss, more focus, and leads to the best person possible joining your customer service team. Below, Cassie Marketos provides some useful tips for conducting better interviews.

How Does Our Organization Offer Top Customer Service

This question is important as it helps you find out whether your candidates have researched your organizations values and have some knowledge of the positive outcomes it has achieved through providing excellent customer service.

Sample answer

I noticed in your job description that your organization has a briefing session every week for customer sales reps, to help your staff refresh their knowledge of your products.

Since product knowledge is crucial for customer-facing roles, I would imagine that your customer sales reps not only offer top customer service but also can recommend complementary products and services to their customers.

Recommended Reading: Questions To Ask A Cfo During An Interview

Have You Ever Experienced A Customer Service Issue That Required A Creative Solution

Can your candidates think of innovative solutions to resolve multifaceted customer service challenges? Asking this question will help you determine if theyre capable of coming up with creative solutions to challenging situations.

Sample answer

In a previous role, I had a client who was visibly angry and wanted to return an item and get a full refund. But they had lost the receipt. As I was in charge of returns, I handled the situation by acknowledging their frustrations and emphasizing that I understood how they must be feeling.

I used active listening skills to fully understand why the customer wanted to return the item and explained that the store policy does not allow for refunds without the receipt. I offered the customer an alternative option, a store credit that was the equivalent value of the refund. The customer left the store in a much better mood.

What Does Good Customer Service Mean To You Example Answer

It is one of the most common and basic customer service job interview questions. Interviewers want to know how much you understand the responsibilities of the positions.

Customer service interview questions like this one are open-ended. There are several ways to approach it. We recommend you something like this:

I think it is all about understanding clients needs and surpassing their expectations. A happy customer is a loyal customer. By providing them with the best experience and solving their issues, we can guarantee that they will trust our company and buy from us.

Read Also: Questions To Ask The Cfo In An Interview

Tip: Articulate A Well

A clearly defined job description is a candidate-screening step since its more likely to attract the relevant talent youre hunting for. A great job description sets the right expectations of the job, conveys work boundaries if any, provides the opportunities and benefits in store, and gives a glimpse of your companys culture.

What does a well-crafted customer service job description2 look like?

It usually has the following sections

• Job title
• A brief description of the role
• Responsibilities involved
• Geographical or domain-based constraints, if any
• A list of essential skills
• Nice-to-have skills
• Educational qualifications
• Employee benefits

See if you can float the job requirements internally and then post the job description on popular job boards, social media handles like LinkedIn, and community forums like Support-Driven, which has a dedicated Slack channel3 for job postings.

General And Common Customer Service Interview Questions

• What does good customer service mean to you?
• Whats the best customer service youve ever received?
• What do you consider to be the most important skills when providing customer service?
• How do you ensure you maintain good communication with every customer?
• Tell me about a time where you received bad customer service? What did you learn from this?
• What about our company/or product makes you excited to work with us?
• Do you believe the customer is always right? Why or why not?
• How do you stay motivated if you have to deal with multiple angry customers in a single day?
• If you have never worked in customer experience, what makes you interested in this role?
• What do you do on a daily basis to improve the customer service experience?
• How would you describe the value of a customer agents role to the company?

You May Like: Questions To Ask A Cfo

Describe Your Previous Duties As An Administrative Assistant Secretary Or Receptionist

What They Want to Know: The interviewer wants to go over the responsibilities that you listed on your resume, and confirm that they fit in with the position that is being offered. This is also a good opportunity to expand on the points highlighted in your work experience.

As the receptionist at ABC Financials, I was the first person for customers. I answered the general phone line, as well as answering the phones for the company’s five VPs. I was also in charge of receiving packages and distributing mail, greeting and escorting customers and vendors to meeting rooms, and keeping up with the company’s general information email address. I also had a lot of administrative responsibilities: I managed the calendars of those VPs, arranged their business travel, and helped create and refine PowerPoint presentations and other materials to distribute at events.

Do Not Interview On The Same Day As The Most Powerful Candidate

The study found that interviewers interviewed those people on the basis of their assessment based on a personal assessment to learn how to ace the final interview.

One study found that at the end of a series of strong candidates, the candidate was rated less than the expectations of interviewees. On the other hand, after a series of weak candidates, interviewers received more ratings than expected.

Whether it is an unknown phenomenon, or whether the interviewers consciously want to rate the final candidates higher or lower than them, is not clear because they do not want to remind their supervisors that they are all giving the same rating to learn how to ace a behavioral interview.

There is no other way, if you have any other interviews and when you want to come after relatively inefficient candidates, you have to know.

You May Like: Interview Attire Women

Tip: Prioritize The Skills Youre Scouting For

Remember that youre not hunting for the ideal customer service representative but a person whos perfect for your business. A friendly attitude may be a priority for a customer service agent joining a travel agency, while solid problem-solving skills top the list for a technical support specialist.

Once youve identified the gap youre trying to fill in, define the exact roles and responsibilities of the customer service representative. Then make a list of the skills that would help carry out these responsibilities. Split these skills into smaller buckets Must-haves, happy-to-haves, and the bonuses.

For example, a must-have for a contact center agent handling customer issues from France would be a strong command of the French language.

Tell Me About Yourself/tell Me About Your Background

Recruiters and hiring managers will likely start a phone interview by asking about your background. This is a simple way for them to learn more about you. You should use this time to explain your relevant experience, what youre currently doing and why that makes you qualified. While you can include a few personal details that allow the employer to understand how you lead a well-balanced life, you should focus on professional qualifications and accomplishments.

Don’t Miss: System Design Interview Prep