Hiring for Customer Service Jobs? 6 Questions you MUST Ask

Planning on hiring customer service representatives? How do you ensure you're hiring the right people who will deal with your customers daily, whose actions and performance directly impact your bottom line? We've compiled some key interview questions you should ask when interviewing for customer service jobs.

Best Interview Questions for Customer Service Jobs

1. Common Interview Questions

Customer service interviews should include common interview questions. Ask about the potential candidate's educational background, skills and qualifications, goals for the future and employment history.

Look for red flags on the potential candidate's resume. These red flags are a cause for concern when hiring for customer service representatives.

Examples:

• What qualifications do you have that make you suitable for the position?
• Are you a team player?
• Why should we hire you?
• Why do you want to work here?

2. Customer Service Questions

There are basic principles of customer service that needs to be followed. Find out if the qualified candidates have researched about your company's mission statement and website. Ask the qualified candidates why they want to work in customer service roles, both in general and specifically with your company.

Examples:

• What is customer service?
• What is good customer service?
• Why do you want to work in customer service?
• What are the top 3 qualities you must have in order to succeed in customer service?
• What have you done to be a better customer service representative?

3. Behavioural Interview Questions

Some of the interview questions should also be about the interview candidate's behaviour. Ask them how do they deal with past experiences on the job. This is where you learn about how the candidate will respond in specific situations.

This will give you insight into how they handle similar situations if they were to be hired.

Examples:

• Explain a time when you helped in resolving a dispute between others.
• Provide an example of a time that you changed a customer's emotions from frustration to joy.
• Tell me about problems with the products or services you previously supported and the way you handle these issues.
• If there was a time when you were unable to help the customer with their problem, what was the issue and how did you handle the situation?
• How did you help resolve a particularly difficult customer issue? 

4. Situational Interview Questions

These questions are focused on how potential employees would handle a future situation related to their work in customer service jobs. 

Examples: 

• The customer is saying you're taking too long to resolve the issue: what do you do?
• The customer is pointing out a well-known problem with your product: what do you do?
• How would you handle an angry customer?
• What would you do if the customer is wrong?

5. Questions About the Company

You should expect the candidates to do their research about your company. Ask them how much they know about your company including the company's products and services.

Examples:

• What do you know about this company?
• What do you know about this company's products and services?
• Have you tried our product/service and what do you think of it?
• Why would you be a good fit for our company?

6. Questions About the Work Schedule & Flexibility

Most of customer service jobs have schedules that require employees to work irregular hours, so you might want to know if they are able to work a variety of shifts.

Examples:

• Can you work a flexible schedule?
• Are you available on weekends and holidays?
• Would you be available to work additional shifts?
• Are there any reasons why you can't work your assigned hours regularly?
• What kind of schedule are you looking to work?

Finally, make sure the employees know the requirements of the job you have listed. Review their resume and seek for any experiences they have had that demonstrate their ability to meet those requirements.

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This article is adapted from Alison Doyle's article "Customer Service Interview Questions and Answers".