Basic Customer Relationship Officer Interview Preparation Guide

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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.

Focus on the strengths and skills required to successfully manage a customer service team including clear communication, organizational and planning skills, people development and empowerment, motivational skills and problem-solving skills. Support your answer with examples of actual feedback you have received from team members.

How do you employ this data to achieve your customer service goals?

"I measured the number of repetitive support emails that were coming in and identified that a number of questions were consistently asked. I researched the benefit of setting up a knowledge base online to address these questions. It was cost effective to do this and has proved an efficient way of reducing these repetitive emails sent by customers."

Yes, you can integrate CRM with social networking sites. It focusses on using social media to enhance customer engagement.

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.

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 you have following questions unanswered you might need CRM solution,

☛ Do you know how many customer service issues each customer has had, and why?
☛ Are you assured that all the leads in the sales pipeline are being followed up?
☛ Is your team communicating well with potential clients?

What process did you follow to understand the reasons for the poor performance, gain commitment to the need for change and resolve the issues?

Always answer that you are a team player, that you enjoy working as part of the team. Talk about previous teams you have worked in; mention the size of the team, who you reported to, what role you had and who the team leader reported to, for example, manager or director.

This is always a challenge to answer well. The interviewer wishes to see that you have done some research about the company. Mention the company’s values and mission as being in line with your personal attitudes and goals in life.

Many consider this question to be a loaded gun – dangerous in the hands of the inexperienced. Often times, an interviewee will start talking salary before they’ve had an opportunity to illustrate their skill set and value making any sort of leverage valueless. Here, knowledge is power, as salary often comes down to negotiation. Do some research into your industry to establish base rates of pay based on seniority and demand but keep in mind – your employer is hiring you for what they believe you are worth, and how much benefit they feel you will provide.

CRM types are classified into three categories

☛ Operational CRM
☛ Analytical CRM
☛ Collaborative CRM

Focus on utilizing different management styles to increase effectiveness in different situations and with different employees. Why do certain management styles work in particular scenarios?

"I find that it is most effective to have a variety of management styles and to use them appropriately. I have to adapt according to the team member and the situation. However one aspect of my management style that remains consistent is that I employ a hands-on approach.

I get a better appreciation for what my team does by spending time on the front lines, it builds a strong relationship with them and keeps me informed. I have found a participative approach to management helps build commitment and consensus among employees "

Discuss how you identified the opportunity for cost saving and how you implemented appropriate measures to improve operational efficiency. Examples include:

☛ cross training employees to handle different functions
☛ scheduling employees according to call and query volumes
☛ introducing new technologies
☛ providing information via an interactive website or other digital channel

This is another important question from a common interview questions and answers asked by the interview board for a customer relationship manager. Here, interviewer wants to know that how bad you are willing to do this job so you must be really aware about this situation. By answering this question you should not say that you like this industry this is wrong way to handle this kind of question. You can rather say that I love to communicate with new people therefore, I am so passionate about this job or you can display your previous job experience or you can show you success story.

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.

Another tricky one. The purpose of this question is to see how you view and evaluate yourself.

One the one hand, if you suggest you don’t have any weaknesses, your interviewer will almost certainly see you as a lair, egotistical, or both.

Don’t fall into the trap of trying to present a positive skill in disguise as a weakness, like “I work too hard” or “I am a perfectionist”. Any experienced interviewer will see through this in a heartbeat.

Additionally, revealing that “I’m not really a morning person and have been known to come in late” raises immediate and obvious red flags.

The trick here is to respond realistically by mentioning a small, work related weakness and what you are doing or have done to overcome it.

CRM can be helpful in

☛ Sorting emails from customers by workflow-enabled email processing capabilities
☛ Automatically route emails to appropriate users based on workflow rules
☛ Manage multiple attachments in emails
☛ Sending replies to customer automatically
☛ Associating emails with respective customers and incidents

This question is geared towards understanding the level of complexity that you can handle, or have handled in the past, and how you approach the problem. This becomes a 2-fold question because the interviewer inherently expects you to also talk about how you'd resolve the situation differently today.

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.

If you have first-hand experience talk about this, otherwise say that you have not had to deal with angry customers but if it did arise you would remain calm and professional and listen to the complaint and try to provide a response that addresses their problems. It is important to not take it personally and to always apologise to the customer.

An easy question to answer well with one caveat – don’t slam your fellow interviewee’s. On the one hand, you have an opportunity to really stand out from the pack. Alternatively, You shouldn’t assume the skills of other applicants. Focus on your own strengths, and if the interviewer hasn’t given you an opportunity to mention that one “slam dunk” quality about yourself, now would be the time.

Is there a wrong way to answer this question? Consider the responses below:

☛ “I really need a job right now”
☛ “I need the money”
☛ “Your office is really close to my house”
☛ “I’ve always been interested in what you guys do”

Such customers often demand an extremely low price for your products or services. A price which is possibly impossible to sell at. In such scenarios, it's always helpful to do an ROI analysis with the customer. They might spend only 50% of what they're spending now, by going to a competitor, but with that additional cost, you're providing XYZ services / features that no one else can, a dedicated and highly motivated customer support team which thrives on customer satisfaction, the confidence and guarantee of your time tested and proven solution that is COMPLETE in all respects, and the confidence that you'd come to their rescue ANYTIME they need help.

This answer can also be customized based on the specific industry in question.

It's important to remember that you may not always be able to retain a customer in such circumstances. However, never engage in an aggressive standoff, or bad mouth your competition. Hold your ground and trust your product. This customer will come back if you genuinely provide a superior solution.

Ideally, you should already know what to say here. Remember, your weaknesses must always be used to your advantage - nobody has any true weaknesses in interviews. Your strengths could be that you are good at listening and always patient. A weakness should ideally be related to the role, such as sometimes being too helpful and providing more advice than a customer actually requested. Go on to say that you are careful to ensure that you concisely answer their questions.

Answer that if you cannot personally resolve a problem you always inform the customer that you will investigate and get back to them. Then ask the team leader or other experienced co-workers for advice on how to deal with this specific issue before calling back.