Client Service Support Interview Preparation Guide

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Here your potential employer is looking to see that you are capable of planning your time effectively.

They want to hear things like how you hold team meetings to discuss the week ahead and allocate time slots and deadlines for various projects.

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.

The ability to negotiate and sell products may be an important part of the job. If so, mention any experience with selling, telemarketing and promotions.

List whatever tasks you perform each day. Some of these may be among them: Answering requests, responding to calls, maintaining and updating records, providing service information, dealing with misapplied payments and billing.

Good customer service is ensuring that every customer is satisfied. This is done by answering their questions, resolving problems and dealing with complaints. The goal is that each customer leaves with a positive impression of the company.

Talk about relevant experience, even if it wasn’t a telephone service. Mention any job related to serving customers and interacting with clients. Speak about your ability to communicate with many customers each day while maintaining composure under a heavy workload and time pressure.

Describe your style. Put your best foot forward – if applicable, use words such as friendly, enthusiastic, informed, quick, patient, and lucid.
These are just some of the commonly asked interview questions for customer service representatives.

Before your interview, you should have researched the company and seen a full job description. This information will be key to how you answer this question and show that you have made a considered application.

You need to try and align the experience gained from your current role to some of the challenges or responsibilities of the role you are applying for. Keep it to a few clear bullet points where you can.

Also think about where you are at your happiest or best. The role you are applying for may be in a new field or industry, but you may already have many of the transferable skills required.

You then need to be able to concisely explain what you can bring to the role and demonstrate how some of the skills you have (making passing reference to some of the experience you have just mentioned) would make you a good fit for this role.

Here your potential employer wants to know that you are capable of organising yourself properly and ensuring that nothing gets forgotten.

Do you keep a diary? Use Google Calender? Write daily to-do lists? Use wall planners to keep track of out-of-office appointments? Whatever you do, now is your opportunity to tell them!

Ideally, you will have had some experience with a dedicated customer service software package. If not, explain that you are proficient with Microsoft packages and using web based solutions and are confident that you will quickly learn how to use a new system.

If possible, think work related. There will hopefully be a number of things you are most proud of in your career to date. Think about your key achievements; were they commercial, people or process orientated? What was the cause and effect? How were you involved, what was improved, saved or developed?

If you are short on career-based examples, use personal achievements which demonstrate the commercial skills required for the role, such as team work, commitment, empathy, determination, attention to detail, etc.

You’re giving them a chance to show you how they handle stress and difficult situations. Someone who keeps their cool and tries to understand the customer is a good choice. Don’t hire anyone who describes themselves as having a quick temper. Overly emotional personality types aren’t a good fit for customer service positions, although an empathetic personality who can control their emotions can make a great pick.

Customer service is all about handling customers on issues relating to the products of a business. As such, the staff members in this department should be conversant with a lot of information relating to the products. The interviewer will want to find out if the interviewee has an interest in their job and how much research they have done before applying for the position. When answering such customer service interview questions, the interviewee should indicate an understanding of the business environment, nature of operations and target and existing markets for the business.

Firstly, know what you think great customer service looks like. Look for situations and examples when you had an idea, a client, or customer call, where you personally went that extra mile.

Did you change a process or procedure? Or perhaps a staff member you mentored, coached or advised delivered a great customer service win or result for your team, brand or business.

Here your interviewer is checking that you are capable of working consistently towards your targets.

In an ideal answer you will outline what your current targets are, then follow this up with a discussion about how you break these targets down into weekly objectives to ensure that you are consistently working towards your annual goals.

Say that it depends on the structure of the team and how long the co-worker has been at the company. If somebody new, you might speak to them to suggest that they maintain a more professional attitude. If you feel that this might cause confrontation, inform the team leader of your concerns.

Describe your ability to work with Microsoft Office or other relevant programs, and any computer experience, such as placing orders in the company computer or saving digital records of services and closed deals.

An ideal answer to this question will demonstrate that you are capable of monitoring a situation as it evolves.

For example:
Whilst working in a call centre as a supervisor, I introduced ‘Sugar Fridays’ – giving my team sweets and treats to get them through the Friday slog.

Prior to introducing the incentive, I compiled a backlog of sales figures from previous Fridays. I then introduced the incentive on a trial period, continued collecting data and cross-compared the results. There was an obvious peak in sales figures and so the incentive became permanent.

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.

Once again, this question gives you a decent look into a candidate’s personality. Do they see themselves as part of the team? Are they mentioning ways they can contribute as a team player, or focusing on their personal agenda? If they’re too focused on themselves, they may be a poor team player – even if they say they’re a fan of teamwork in Question #5.

Try to think about how you would describe yourself if someone asked you for your strengths, then relate these to what people say about you; peers, agents, managers and stakeholders. Have three or four at the ready, ideally in line with the role you are being interviewed for. Have examples or situations ready, in case your interviewer wants to drill down as to why you think or believe these are your key strengths.

This question isn’t necessarily about how the interviewee helped the customer. It’s about who they are.

Is the answer ego-centric? Does it sound like they’re trying too hard to please you? Or does it sound like a genuine response told from a mature and self-analytical perspective? Look for the applicant who is authentic and reflective in their response. Watch out for respondents who overuse the words “I” and “me”, as well as anyone who broke rules to help customers. Neither is a good sign.

If a candidate prefers to be a ‘lone wolf’, they’re probably not the right pick. Customer service reps are always communicating – with clients and customers, as well as with the rest of your team. They need to be easy to get along with, charismatic, and (almost always) extroverted. At the same time, you need a customer service agent who can work independently. They shouldn’t require constant supervision, but should enjoy teamwork.

Customer service reps are crucial to your company’s success and will add value by communicating often and accurately with your other teams to make sure any bugs, manufacturing issues, or service problems are taken care of quickly. They can alert your product teams to changing consumer trends, regular requests for design changes to an existing product, customer requests for a new type of product, and more.

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.

Fundamentally, if you look under the skin of the best teams and call centres, they do have certain things in common: clear communication, consistency, fun, performance management, leadership, engagement, incentives, etc.

Think what made up the best team or company you have been a part of or have seen. Have examples to back up any statements for how you would play a part in, or create, this team or environment yourself.