Delivery

This question is designed to identify whether you know your own management style - a lot of people don't. They don't know how they like to be managed, or how they manage.

I want to know if you work best alone, or in a team. Are you somebody who gets up and talks to your colleagues, or do you prefer to send an email? Are you easily distracted? You need to understand how you liked to be managed, and if you're going for a management position, what your own management style is.

Wherever possible be positive, even if your role was short term or didn't quite work out as expected, as it will have added extra experience or skills to your career history.

Although you are now looking to move on, acknowledge what you learned and what was on offer at the time. Demonstrate good reasons for the decisions you made and show that you understood what was to be gained, or acknowledge what you have learned from your past employer.

To answer this question you must have researched the company. Reply with the company's attributes as you see them and how your qualities match them.

This is also sometimes known as SOAR, where Task is replaced by Objective.

☛ Situation: Describe the situation.

☛ Task: Describe what task was required of you.

☛ Action: Tell the interviewer what action you took.

☛ Result: Conclude by describing the result of that action.

Be positive about your actions throughout your response and do not make up an example as you will not come across as believable. If you cannot think of good examples instantly, ask the interviewer for a moment or two to think about the question and then give your answer.

It's important to think of and talk about a situation that's relevant for the position you're interviewing for. Ideally this will have had a positive outcome. By doing this you will help the interviewers to understand why you are a great fit for their team.

Here your interviewer wants proof that you will tackle problems head on and not just bury your head in the sand.

A strong answer will clearly demonstrate a problem, an action and a solution.

For example:

Problem: When I was first promoted to team leader, I consistently struggled to ensure that my team achieved their sales targets on a Friday.

Action: I sought the advice of more experienced team leaders to find out how they motivated their teams through the Friday slog.

Solution: Acting on the advice of the other team leaders, I implemented a combination of incentives over the next few weeks and successfully boosted my team's sales figures.

This is your opportunity to tell your potential employer what keeps you focused. Possible answers include:

☛ Breaking your workload up into daily or hourly targets to ensure that the next small success is never too far away.

☛ Living a healthy life-style. Eating the right foods and drinking lots of water in the office can have a big impact on your concentration levels.

☛ Motivating others and promoting a positive atmosphere in the office.

I think the most important part about this question - and most of the others - is that they're behavioural questions, so we want to see examples of where they've done it before. You can't just fluff it - you need to give an example.

So in this scenario, I'm interested in hearing how the information was delivered. What did you take into consideration first? Did you collect all the facts and have all the necessary information? What conflicts were there, if any? And how did you deal with those conflicts? Finally, what was the outcome?

There are two ways to give bad news. You can do it while considering those around you, or you just deliver it not thinking about the outcome.

Morale is infectious - whether positive or negative - and, when working in a team-orientated environment like a call centre, it's important that there is always an air of positivist around.

It's therefore vitally important to ensure that if you're having a bad day, you contain this and don't let it influence the morale levels of the team, and in turn the productivity and efficiency of the overall operation.

This is my favourite question, some people are so honest! Some people enjoy losing their temper - which might be fine in your living room but not in the office.

Whilst more money, shorter hours or less of a commute are all potential factors for your next role, they are unlikely to make you the 'stand out' candidate of the day.

Know what the company are looking for and the potential job available, and align this with your career to date. Highlight your relevant experience, goals and aspirations in line with the role, to showcase why you are the best person for the job.

It is vital to have clear objectives before initiating conversation with the customer; what is your end goal? Ensure you are aware of the parameters, rules and regulations within the company. For example, if the issue is over money, can you refund it? What else can you offer to pacify the customer?

It is important to remain calm, confident, be clear and always remember to ask questions. The interviewer is looking for a patient and composed response. If you are still unsure about how best to approach role-plays contact your local recruitment consultant who should be able to offer you thorough advice.

As a leader or manager charged with delivering excellent customer feedback, you will know how important it is that customer feedback and insight are monitored, measured and acted upon, whenever appropriate or necessary.

But how about your agents? This question is very much aligned to your engagement, coaching and development skills. You need to think about the culture, communication and interactions you have with your agents.

Discuss how you impart your knowledge and experience to your agents and how you ensure that they can continue to develop the confidence, skills, knowledge and habits that will drive excellent customer feedback with every interaction.

This is an opportunity for you to show off your research on the role and company.

Talk about the benefits the company has to offer and how they suit you at this point in your career. For example, if you are joining the company as a graduate, discuss how you plan to utilise their highly-structured training scheme.

Also comment on the company's reputation and try to make reference to a recent success you have seen on their website.

This is about customer service skills. I want you to tell me how you went the extra mile. I want to hear how you responded to the problem by doing something so positive it converted the customer, so the problem was resolved and the customer continued to work with you and recommend you.

I'm interested in hearing whether or not you lost your cool, how you felt about the situation - were you able to step outside of what makes you angry in order to solve the issue?