23 questions for a support candidate
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How to determine that this particular customer support candidate will become a productive and involved team member?
If you have not invented a time machine, then the interview remains one of the most important tools for finding the right support candidate.
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The right questions will reveal more useful and useful information about candidates than the entry in the workbook, because they will force you to improvise, relying on your experience when answering questions. Observing their reactions will tell you how they will cope in life situations, and you can save time and energy on finding the candidate you need.
Distribute the questions among the interviewers, and you will have everything you need to hire the best support candidate. If you are not quite sure what to look for when a candidate answers, then we have prepared clarifying comments on each group of questions.
1 . What does quality service mean to you?
2 What exactly attracts you to work on customer service ?
3 The best example of a service from your personal life? Why
4 Tell us about the example of poor service?
5 Is there a difference between service and customer support?
A good candidate will easily explain why high-quality service is so important for a business and will provide good examples of good and bad service. Candidates should be prepared to talk about the specifics of your company and how customer service can contribute to its success.
Avoid candidates who are applying for a different position, and consider the customer service department as an easy way to get into the company. As a rule, they do not understand what an important role client service plays for the development of a company.
6 Could you give an example of when you were really proud of yourself after you helped a client?
7 Have you ever encountered inappropriate client behavior? How did you handle it then and how would you do it now?
8 Did you have to break the instructions by helping the client? Tell us about this situation and how it ended?
9 Did you receive negative feedback from the client and how did you do with it?
10 Did you meet a client with whom it was difficult to find a common language? How did you try to interact with him?
11 Tell us about a time when you had to say no to an important question?
12 What is the best way to help a client who has already communicated with several support managers, but hasn’t got what he wanted?
An excellent candidate will tell you the real cases from his experience and answer all the clarifying questions on them. Look for people who know how to admit their mistakes and take responsibility for them.
Avoid candidates who give flimsy examples, preferring them to real ones, or those who cited examples a la "the client was wrong" or "a colleague was wrong."
13 Did you have a case where a customer reported a technical problem and you didn’t know what to do about it? How did you end up helping him?
14 Did you have a situation with a client when there was a violation of rights to use, and you had to call and report it. How did you get out of the situation, and how did it all end?
15 Give an example of a situation when significant problems were identified with your product / service, and you had to respond to a client’s request, without knowing how to fix it?
Avoid those who will convince you that they have never been at a deadlock and those who claim that he and his team have always found a solution.
16 Give an example of how you responded to a disturbing message from a client who complained about a non-working product / service.
17 When you respond to a client, how do you decide what information to communicate and which not?
18 Tell us about the situation when you had to convince the client or colleagues that you need to change the approach (to adapt the process or change the message). How did you go through this?
Excellent candidates will show the ability to recognize customer needs and adapt to each client's communication style. Those who always use only one approach and are not flexible in communication deserve your attention.
19 What is the last skill you have gained? Why did you choose it and how did you fix it?
20 Tell us about how you made a truly valuable contribution to teamwork?
21 . Which book do you recommend me to read and why?
22 What have you become better over the last year?
23 . What makes a good team player?
The best interviewers do not build question-and-answer dialogue. They break up conversations into parts in which the candidate’s attitude to work, his strengths and weaknesses will be seen.
Push candidates to use storytelling. Say that you are not looking for hypothetical situations like "I would have done so if this had happened." Ask to tell the real cases of customer service experience, and how they showed themselves in them. Ask about their personal superb (terrible) service experience.
Do not be afraid to dive into the details. Your questions are just the beginning of a conversation. If you hear answers that are interesting or relevant for your industry, ask them to dwell on this and learn more.
Asking similar questions is normal. Usually the most interesting stories come to mind a little later, after some time. Therefore, returning to the same topics, you give candidates a chance to prove themselves and show their best.
Make small pauses. The normal practice is to give people the opportunity to think before answering. A pause will allow them to collect their thoughts and respond more fully and consciously.
How to determine that this particular customer support candidate will become a productive and involved team member?
If you have not invented a time machine, then the interview remains one of the most important tools for finding the right support candidate.
')
The right questions will reveal more useful and useful information about candidates than the entry in the workbook, because they will force you to improvise, relying on your experience when answering questions. Observing their reactions will tell you how they will cope in life situations, and you can save time and energy on finding the candidate you need.
Distribute the questions among the interviewers, and you will have everything you need to hire the best support candidate. If you are not quite sure what to look for when a candidate answers, then we have prepared clarifying comments on each group of questions.
23 questions for a support candidate
Customer Service Approach
1 . What does quality service mean to you?
2 What exactly attracts you to work on customer service ?
3 The best example of a service from your personal life? Why
4 Tell us about the example of poor service?
5 Is there a difference between service and customer support?
At this stage, you are looking for people who share your views on the role of customer service within the company. You know what quality service is, but does your potential candidate share your vision?
A good candidate will easily explain why high-quality service is so important for a business and will provide good examples of good and bad service. Candidates should be prepared to talk about the specifics of your company and how customer service can contribute to its success.
Avoid candidates who are applying for a different position, and consider the customer service department as an easy way to get into the company. As a rule, they do not understand what an important role client service plays for the development of a company.
Emotional Intelligence, Empathy and Behavior
6 Could you give an example of when you were really proud of yourself after you helped a client?
7 Have you ever encountered inappropriate client behavior? How did you handle it then and how would you do it now?
8 Did you have to break the instructions by helping the client? Tell us about this situation and how it ended?
9 Did you receive negative feedback from the client and how did you do with it?
10 Did you meet a client with whom it was difficult to find a common language? How did you try to interact with him?
11 Tell us about a time when you had to say no to an important question?
12 What is the best way to help a client who has already communicated with several support managers, but hasn’t got what he wanted?
At this stage you need to listen to cases and stories from the past experience of the candidate. Even if he worked at the starting position, he should have real life examples.
An excellent candidate will tell you the real cases from his experience and answer all the clarifying questions on them. Look for people who know how to admit their mistakes and take responsibility for them.
Avoid candidates who give flimsy examples, preferring them to real ones, or those who cited examples a la "the client was wrong" or "a colleague was wrong."
Problem Orientation
13 Did you have a case where a customer reported a technical problem and you didn’t know what to do about it? How did you end up helping him?
14 Did you have a situation with a client when there was a violation of rights to use, and you had to call and report it. How did you get out of the situation, and how did it all end?
15 Give an example of a situation when significant problems were identified with your product / service, and you had to respond to a client’s request, without knowing how to fix it?
Problem-oriented - an invaluable skill that can always be improved. The best candidates will tell the cases when they did not have at hand a ready-made solution to the problem and how they got out of the situation. Ask what they learned from this and how they used their experience in the future.
Avoid those who will convince you that they have never been at a deadlock and those who claim that he and his team have always found a solution.
Sociability
16 Give an example of how you responded to a disturbing message from a client who complained about a non-working product / service.
17 When you respond to a client, how do you decide what information to communicate and which not?
18 Tell us about the situation when you had to convince the client or colleagues that you need to change the approach (to adapt the process or change the message). How did you go through this?
There is no better skill for the help desk specialist than the ability to simply communicate with the client and tell him everything you need. This part of the interview is a chance for the best candidates to show how they speak or write messages to clients.
Excellent candidates will show the ability to recognize customer needs and adapt to each client's communication style. Those who always use only one approach and are not flexible in communication deserve your attention.
Attitude to work
19 What is the last skill you have gained? Why did you choose it and how did you fix it?
20 Tell us about how you made a truly valuable contribution to teamwork?
21 . Which book do you recommend me to read and why?
22 What have you become better over the last year?
23 . What makes a good team player?
The final part will help you understand what the candidate in the work. Does he want to constantly improve? Will it benefit customers and the whole team? People who can speak freely about their interests and can keep the conversation going, usually successfully manifest themselves in customer service.
Make the interview more than just answer the questions.
The best interviewers do not build question-and-answer dialogue. They break up conversations into parts in which the candidate’s attitude to work, his strengths and weaknesses will be seen.
Push candidates to use storytelling. Say that you are not looking for hypothetical situations like "I would have done so if this had happened." Ask to tell the real cases of customer service experience, and how they showed themselves in them. Ask about their personal superb (terrible) service experience.
Do not be afraid to dive into the details. Your questions are just the beginning of a conversation. If you hear answers that are interesting or relevant for your industry, ask them to dwell on this and learn more.
Asking similar questions is normal. Usually the most interesting stories come to mind a little later, after some time. Therefore, returning to the same topics, you give candidates a chance to prove themselves and show their best.
Make small pauses. The normal practice is to give people the opportunity to think before answering. A pause will allow them to collect their thoughts and respond more fully and consciously.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/341468/
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