Client Service Support

Here your interviewer wants to see that you will bring something to their company and not just fade into the background.

Whilst this question does open the floor for you to recite how you once doubled your team’s sales figures, employers are equally interested in hearing about how you have developed and maintained a strong professional network, or how you pride yourself on your reputation for being reliable and hard working.

Whatever you end up talking about, try to keep it short. You don’t want your ego to get in the way of you being offered the job.

Customer service is aimed at making the business improve its operations for greater profitability. In effect, staff members should communicate customer tastes, preferences, complains and changing trends to their colleagues and seniors for adjustments and improvements to be made. The interviewee should demonstrate their ability to work, under minimum supervision, within a team. They should leave no doubt as to the benefit they will bring to the business.

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.

In asking the question, the interviewer is actually looking at two aspects of qualifications. Qualifications obtained from a school setting and qualifications regarding past experience in the customer service field. This will help in determining how suitable the interviewee is for the position for which they have applied. The job applicant should outline their academic qualifications relevant to the job. After this, they should point out the experience they have gained from past jobs. This should be done in a way that demonstrates the application of theory to practical skills, focused on handling real life situations.

Mention profitable product sales, positive/fruitful customer instruction, customer care with patience and any communication which leads to improved customer service or a sale.

Mention educational qualification, including high-school diploma or higher or any professional coursework. Also specify any relevant job skills such as written and verbal communication expertise, ability to type efficiently, professional demeanor and strong work ethics.

A great resume doesn’t always equal a great representative. Your company has an image it’s trying to project. Look for job seekers whose answers to this question resemble your ideal response. You’re also getting a good look at the job seeker’s analytical skills. Do they come up with a good reply? How long does it take them? Speed is crucial in customer service, particularly if you’re in ecommerce.

A candidate who mentions listening carefully, empathizing, and following company policy is a good pick. Red flags that indicate an interviewee is a bad choice include being rude and not having any previous experience dealing with difficult customers. An inexperienced candidate may make a good pick if their other answers are strong, however.

Here you must do some thorough research before the interview. First, find out what are the main products and services that the company provides. Second, do some research into their marketing plans to determine who they are targeting. The annual report should provide some details of their customer base and target market. The aim here is not only to impress them with your knowledge of their product but also to show an understanding of who their customers are.

This question is set to test your ability to identify and analyse customer insight, trends and data, and drive continuous improvement, by identifying and understanding the root cause.

The interviewer will be looking for an example of where you have taken this insight and subsequently developed, implemented and improved your sales process. This could be through the introduction of training, post-sale procedures, a change in marketing communications, or other process improvements, to ensure that the cause of any future complaint is eradicated.

Only you will know if your team really trusts and respects you. Respectful employees will usually make you coffee, hold a door open for you, properly carry out tasks assigned to them and rarely undermine your judgement.

To maintain this level of respect, you should make time to recognise your employees’ efforts, occasionally explain how you reached a solution to a problem (this can help with buy-in for larger changes or projects) and do your best to be consistently level-headed and successful in your judgement – as it only takes one slip-up to undermine your credibility.

Tread carefully with this question. Whilst the truth may be that you only get out of bed every morning in order to pay your rent, this is not what your potential employer wants to hear.

This question gives you an opportunity to discuss what has attracted you to this line of work and what inspires you to persevere through the tough times. In a sales role, this could be the adrenaline rush of meeting daily targets, whilst in a customer-service role, this could be the personal satisfaction you gain through helping people.

This is your opportunity to assure your potential employer that you are capable of working in line with your objectives and getting the job done on time.

For example:

In my current role, I break down my objectives into daily targets and outline periods of the day when I am going to focus on achieving them. I find this system works well for me and I expect to carry it into my next job.

It is a common phenomenon for a customer service representative to encounter a customer that they consider to be difficult. This question will seek to find out how the interviewee would handle customers when pushed to the brink and subjected to pressure. Will they maintain their calm? What image of the business will they project? In order to answer these customer service interview questions effectively, the interviewee should clearly explain how they would listen to customer complains, handle a customer who is wrong and deal with a rude customer. Previous examples of how they handled such situations may be helpful.

Say that a good product should not result in customer complaints so products are always most important. If unexpected problems do occur, however, it is important to quickly resolve them.

Morale is infectious – whether positive or negative – and, when working in a team-orientated environment like a call center, it’s important that there is always an air of positively 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.

Customer Service first of all is knowing that the ‘customer is king’, the ‘customer is always right’. Keeping the customer happy is the main role of a customer service agent. As you are usually the first point of contact, how you present yourself and your overall attitude is always remembered. Customer service is all about the customer and the service you provide, it will be your job to build positive relationships with them, making sure that their experience with the company is a confident one and in doing so the overall reputation of the company is increased.

Change is an essential part of life in any call centre environment, as the industry strives to achieve best practice for their customers and stakeholders. Have some examples on how you personally managed, or were affected by, some change. What was your focus, what were you aiming to achieve and how did you deliver the outcome? Know what the problems encountered were and what was learned through and following the transformation.

You are not required to be an expert on the organisation or role, but a genuine interest and basic understanding is expected. If you are working with a recruitment consultant then they should be able to provide you with extra details and assist with preparation.

In addition, look for and use press releases, corporate and social websites. Ring the call centre to see how they handle your call: do they offer ‘up-sell’, ‘cross-sell’, how was the service? Read the job description to prepare for this question, a few key facts or some knowledge show a genuine interest and commercial awareness.

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.