Answer The Call In A Professional Manner And Introduce Yourself
To make sure you sound professional when answering the phone for your interview, start out by stating your name in an upbeat tone, and when the interviewer states who they are, confirm that you were anticipating their call. This way, the interviewer will know who you are and that they reached the correct individual. Additionally, check that your voicemail greeting is professional and clear in case you are unable to answer the phone.
Example:“Hello, this is Gemma Rutherford. I’ve been looking forward to speaking with you, Ms. Anderson.”
Examples Of The Best Answers: People Skills
Here are some answers to the call center job interview question “Do you have good people skills?“
I like working with people, and I have been told that I have good people skills. My previous manager rated my communication skills at a 9 out of 10 in my last performance review. I think I communicate effectively and in a pleasant way.
Why It Works: This candidate lends credence to her answer by providing a quantified achievement: her impressive performance rating. Its fine to toot your own horn by sharing significant accomplishments. This isnt bragging its information that will set you apart from your competition.
I get along well with most people I meet, and people find me easy to talk to, so I think I have good people skills. When I was in college, I volunteered with the alumni association to make calls for donations. I got along well with the alums I talked to and was very effective at obtaining donations.
Why It Works: This entry-level candidate, lacking much work experience, effectively leverages his volunteer experience to show how he has gained phone communications skills similar to those required in a call center role.
Why It Works: The candidate provides a tangible example of multiple relevant skills: teamwork, creative problem-solving, conflict resolution, and customer service. Better yet, she supports this with a key accomplishment quantified with a percentage.
How Can You Build Customer Loyalty
To build customer loyalty, you need to
- Track customer retention by surveying your customers
- Analyze the data to see how many customers are new and how many are returning for your service
- Focus on converting new customers into returning customers as a plan of your customer retention plan
- Encourage employees to build connections with customers
- Solicit feedback from the customer, so they feel that their opinions matter
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I Dont Expect You To Go Into Too Much Detail But Why Are You Leaving Your Last Job
An innocent question. But a question that if answered improperly, can be a deal breaker. While many individuals will be looking to a new job as a means of increasing their salary, not being paid well enough at your last job is not something you want to mention to your interviewer. After all, are you not likely to leave this particular job if you found you could make more down the street?
If youre currently employed and leaving of your own accord, craft your response around enhancing your career development and a seeking out of new challenges.
If your current employer is downsizing, be honest about it, remain positive, but keep it brief. If your employer fired you or let you go for cause, be prepared to give a brief but honest reply. No matter how tempting it may be, or how unfair it was that they let you go steer clear away from any and all drama and negativity. Any experienced employer understands that sometimes things happen. Staying positive is key here.
What Do You Do When A Customer Is Rude To You
Be rude back? Mute the call? Cry? No! Those arent the correct answers you should always be calm and listen carefully to his or her problem. You can say that Not all people are perfect, some can get annoyed by services and I understand that. If I get a call from a customer, I would sympathize with them and get them to calm down with an apology. I will assure the customer that we will do help them with their concern and solve them immediately. Hopefully, I would want to know the cause of their problems and ensure it wouldnt happen.
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Interview Fail : Not Doing Your Homework
If you want to nail your interview, you have to put time into preparing for it. Failing to prepare for the questions youll be asked about your interest in the position, your experience and what you bring to the table makes it more difficult for you to find the exact words you want in the moment.
I was interviewing for an assistant manager in a sporting goods store, Shaw recalled. I had talked to the candidate twice on the phone before setting up an in person interview. On paper the candidate was perfect. The right experience, the skills needed, and love of the outdoors.
When we sat down for the in-person interview, he couldnt remember any detail from his past jobs, he couldnt reference any product knowledge, he continued. I tried making small talk to get him back on track, but it didnt happen.
Tip: Research the company, re-read the job description, and study up on commonly asked interview questions and practice your answers. Also, as mentioned above, prepare some of your own questions, too.
Dont Ask About Compensation Right Off The Bat
Compensation plays an important role in your decision to accept a job, but oftentimes its best to allow the employer to bring it up first.
Research the market rate for the job that youre interviewing for using websites such as Glassdoor, Payscale and SalaryExpert. This will help you understand the typical salary range, and allow you to advocate for your compensation requirements based on your experience and the going rate.
Youve worked hard to land this job interview. Use these interview dos and donts during your preparation so you can walk in prepared and confident, and leave a positive impression.
Staffing agencies can be helpful resources for your interview preparation. Its why weve complied a Job Seeker Interview Tips section on our blog. Check it out!
If youre looking for your next opportunity, connect with Masterson Staffing or explore current job openings.
Of if youre on the hunt for an administrative position, check out our post that discusses the essential administrative skills you need.
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What Strategies Would You Use To Measure Call Center Performance
Tip #1: Provide a few call center metrics
Tip #2: Explain the relevance of call center metrics
Sample Answer
I would evaluate significant KPIs, including the average abandonment rates, respond times, resolution rates, and call times. I would also prepare weekly and monthly reports for SLA and report on agent performance. They would help me to measure the overall performance at the call center.
Learn About The Company
Do your homework on your potential new employer ahead of time. Seeming well-informed about and invested in the company you hope to join goes a long way.
The interviewer might ask, why do you want to work with us? and youll need to have an answer ready. Looking into the companys business, mission statement, long-term goals, or organisation will tell an applicant a great deal about them. Think about what motivated you to seek them out rather than their competitors. Dont be sycophantic, but be honest about one thing that motivated you to seek employment with them.
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How Do You Keep Yourself Motivated When People Are Being Mean To You
Unfortunately, customer service jobs can involve a lot of encounters with people who are unhappyand being quite vocal about itwhich can result in a less-than-pleasant experience for you. Bell likes to ask this question to people who are new to customer service to see if candidates have thought about this aspect of the roleand figured out if its something theyll be able to handle.
What Do You Know About A Call Center
This question is asked during interviews to check if the applicant has a correct or at least a realistic idea of how a call center works. It must be noted that questions like this one are usually asked if the applicant has no call center experience yet.
Sample answer: âI know that a call center is where people ask for support when theyâre facing some issues and problems with a product or service. Itâs where representatives help customers with the best of their ability to find answers to their questions and fix issues theyâve encountered while using the product or service. Itâs also a place where people work on flexible schedules and different job functions.â
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Would You Enjoy A Call Center Job
Do answer by saying yes and having an explanation as to why. You have a grasp of a call center job the shifts, talking to a customer, etc. so tell the interviewer how you would find those interesting. You could also want to say something about enjoy being in a team.
Try something like this, I also like solving problems and getting people to achieve their goals, by being a customer service representative I could help solve the clients concerns. I would not only enjoy this job but also feel fulfilled.
How Do You Like The Company Culture
While every employee brings a small piece of the whole to the table, a companys culture is still more than the sum of its parts. Company culture is the every day rhythm and dynamic of a company. Concretely, this affect work ethic, morale, habits, norms, and much more.
Employers are growing more and more conscious of the importance of fostering a healthy company culture. In fact, this is a more delicate endeavour than one might think. When thinking of joining an organization, consider whether the companys culture suits you and whether you would thrive there.
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Interview Fails To Avoid: Masterson Team Members Share Bad Interview Moments
When you walk into a job interview, thats your chance to dazzle interviewers with your skills, experience, personality and make your resume come to life. Unfortunately, weve all stumbled a time or two, making silly or even embarrassing mistakes that took us out of the running.
For 50 years, Masterson Staffing Solutions has been recruiting, screening and placing talented workers in a variety of positions across many industries. While weve been fortunate enough to find and work with incredible talent, our team members have seen some of those job-costing mistakes firsthand.
We recently chatted with some of our team members who are on the frontlines of screening and interviewing candidates, asking them to share some of the not-so-great things theyve encountered during an interview.
Below we share some of the top interview fails theyve experienced, as well as some tips to help you avoid similar mistakes that could cost you the job.
What Is The Key Aspect That Helps Improve Customer Service
The key aspect of improving customer service,
- Data analysis: Analyze the preferences of customers based on the data collections
- Automation of business process: To improve customer satisfaction and to speed up the business process implement the automation of the business process
- Self-service optimization: Explore new ways for customer interaction with your business
- Workforce effectiveness: Integrate new tools and technology to improve customer service
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Questions About Mental Toughness
Being in a call center can be difficult and mentally draining.
Youll have bad days.
Youll have days where you do everything right and a customer still gets angry and yells at you.
So expect a few interview questions designed to make sure you can handle it mentally.
For example, they might ask you about a time you failed.
They might ask how you deal with failure or rejection.
Be ready to show that youre capable of handling the ups and downs and that you can bounce back mentally if something doesnt go your way.
Deep Knowledge Of A Companys Products Or Services
To field dozens of phone calls a day means fielding dozens of topics as well. Agents need to have a vast and deep understanding of their companys inner workings, products, and services if theyre to be trusted to accurately represent the company in their conversations. As a result, if you want to thrive as a call center agent you need to have deep company knowledge. This not only helps you feel more confident in the answers and solutions youre offering, but also increasing the likelihood of a positive experience for customerswhich is really what your job is all about.
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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?
How Can We Ensure That You Will Not Leave Our Company After One Week
This question results from the most common problem the call centers facethe high fluctuation of employees. Obviously, you can leave them in a week, or in a monthit is your right to do it, the labor law backs you, and they can do nothing about it.
Once you interview for a job, however, you should try your best to convince them that you at least plan to stay for a bit longer. What really happens at the end is another story
Look, I am in my first grade at the University. I plan to stay in this city for a few more years, and I need a flexible part time job, just like this one. If I get this position, I have no reason to quit it soon.
I know this job is very demanding and it is not easy to be eight hours on a call. However, if I was not ready to do it, I would waste neither yours, nor my time in an interview. If you hire me, I will do my best to have this job as long as possible.
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Are You Able To Work With Multiple Phone Lines
If you have previous call center experience, answering yes to this question should be easy. In addition, tell interviewers how many calls you handled during a typical day. For those without previous experience, highlight other positions that required multi-tasking skills. A response might be:
While I havent worked in a call center previously, I have juggled customer service while I was working in retail. Handling multiple customer returns each day involved a lot of multitasking with our inventory system, communicating with the customer, and accessing our POS system.
Questions About Your Customer Service Experience
One type of question youll certainly hear for call center jobs is questions about your customer service skills.
This might include behavioral questions like, Tell me a time you had to deal with a difficult customer?
And youll also hear direct, fact-based questions like, How many years of customer service experience do you have? or, Have you worked in a call center before?
Now, depending on the job, you might not need any prior call center or customer service experience.
Plenty of call centers interview entry level people.
So dont panic if they ask this and you dont have any direct experience.
Just be upfront, tell them you dont have the exact thing theyve asked about, and then try to explain why youll still succeed in this job and learn this job quickly.
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Describe A Complex Issue You Helped A Customer Solve
Your job is to provide the customer with an efficient solution to their problem and encourage them to continue using your product or service. In your answer, demonstrate your ability to troubleshoot issues, solve problems and satisfy customer needs. Use the STAR method to describe the situation, actions taken and results achieved. If you do not have an example to discuss, consider using your knowledge of the company to explain possible scenarios customers might encounter that you might help solve.
Example:I once had a customer call about having his subscription terminated without his consent. I apologized for the inconvenience and asked for his account information. I reviewed his account and discovered there was a billing error. I explained to the customer that he would need to update his credit card information so it could be charged and his service resumed. I offered to update his billing information over the phone and helped him resume his service.
Get Ready For The Call
Before the call, confirm all the details, including the date, time, and who you will be talking to. Be sure you know whether the interviewer is calling you or if you need to make the call.
If something goes wrong and you miss the call, or the recruiter doesn’t call on time, take a deep breath and try to stay calm. You should be able to get the call back on track or reschedule if need be.
Use a quiet, comfortable, and private space with no distractions so you can focus on the interview.
If you’ll be using your cellphone, make sure it’s fully charged, and you are in a spot with good reception for the call. You may also find that standing during an interview helps you sound more energetic during the call.
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