How to bring together a great customer support team by asking right questions?
Even a great help desk tool can only be as good as the team using it to provide support. Hiring right support staff for the job is the most important step that determines how much you could delight your customers.
Why choosing the right customer service candidate is crucial? He/She is going to be the face of the company representing your culture, respect for customers and evangelize the value of your product and service to anyone they interact with.
There are different qualities to look out for, when you hire your customer service staff, ranging from empathy to communication, passion to product knowledge, honesty to attitude, and creativity to experience. All these qualities would essentially make a person fitter than the fittest.
How can you evaluate such a wide spectrum of employee qualities and ensure you hire the best people for the most important job?
Only by asking right questions to those candidates during the interview.
Top Customer Service Interview Questions
Honesty and Communication:
1. Have you ever had to communicate a bad news to a customer who was affected by your service? How did you do it?
2. Give me an example of a time when you have successfully handled an irate customer?
3. What is that one thing that you do not like about this company so far?
Here you should be able to sense the candidates ability to handle tough situations with honesty and ability to bring customers onboard with you effectively.
Engagement:
1. Do a role play as a customer support agent who is trying to manage a customer when facing a performance hiccup during a solution demo.
2. What do you generally discuss with customers other than their problems and your solutions?
3. How do you sense the mood of your customer while communicating with her?
Here you would be able to gauge the capability to engage your customers empathetically and manage difficult situations with ease.
Attitude:
1. What is that one skill you possess that will influence the bottom line of our company?
2. How much do you know about our company products and services?
3. Why did you choose to be a part of a customer support team?
4. When was the last time you bent any rules or policies to get things done?
5. How do you measure your success as a customer success consultant?
Here you will assess the candidates thinking abilities and attitude towards work and the respect he has for himself.
Passion:
1. What do you enjoy about working as a customer support agent?
2. If you want to change one thing about customer service what would that be?
3. Are you a better person today than you were yesterday? In what way?
4. How do you think you can help our customer support team become more efficient? Where would you start?
5. What are your best learning resources? Who is your favorite blogger?
Here you will be able to measure the interest level of your candidate which is essential to carry out his tasks relentlessly.
Knowledge:
1. What do you do to keep yourself updated with industry best practices in customer support?
2. What kind of books do you like to read?
3. What do you think is key for contributing to both your personal growth as well as the organisation’s growth?
The answers would help you understand the learning ability and appetite of the candidate.
Empathy:
1. What is that one quality in you that helps you understand the customer’s problem better?
2. How many interactions should it take on an average to resolve a customer issue?
3. What do you think is the best possible communication channel for your customers and why?
4. What does it mean if your customer says to you over a call that your product and your service suck big time?
Ability to understand a customer’s problem at first touchpoint is crucial to long term engagement and this skill is very essential for any support staff.
Creativity:
1. What do you do to differentiate yourself from others?
2. How much fun do you have in your job and what can you do to make your co-worker’s job fun as well?
3. Are you taking enough risks at work? Are you afraid of change?
4. What was the best mistake you did on your current job and explain why that’s the best?
5. If this is your first day here and your task is to make this interview process more fun, what would you do?
By analyzing his creative skills and the way he approaches his day to day tasks, you can be sure about his ability to inspire your team and organization.
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