Support Agent Interview Preparation Guide

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In 5 years I hope to have earned my MBA. I hope to see myself working my way to the top of a successful company, and volunteering with youth sports organizations in my off time.

I enjoy customer service because customers are everywhere. They come from all walks of life, and they are everyday people. I love meeting them, and I enjoy the process of trying to help make their lives as easy as possible. I love to help people. I also enjoy the challenge of providing solutions to difficult situations, and helping the customer and the business leave with a win-win.

A great resume doesn’t always equal a great representative. Your company has an image it’s trying to project. Look for job seekers whose answers to this question resemble your ideal response. You’re also getting a good look at the job seeker’s analytical skills. Do they come up with a good reply? How long does it take them? Speed is crucial in customer service, particularly if you’re in ecommerce.

Good candidates should put the experience of the customer first, but they should also be conscious of things like response time, tickets closed, and other metrics that translate to cost savings for your customer service department.

Well, I’m an excellent communicator. I’m a compassionate person. I’m dedicated, hard working, and a perfectionist. When I’m solving a customer’s problem, I do everything I can to help them. I know how it feels to be a customer, and I know the experiences they are looking for. I know that I can give that to them.

A candidate who mentions listening carefully, empathizing, and following company policy is a good pick. Red flags that indicate an interviewee is a bad choice include being rude and not having any previous experience dealing with difficult customers. An inexperienced candidate may make a good pick if their other answers are strong, however.

My proudest moment helping a customer was one time when a customer arrived at our store extremely upset because nobody had been able to give her the information she was looking for. She was trying to find a specific soccer ball, and a different rep had sold her something completely wrong. I was able to find the product that she was looking for, and gave her a free coupon discount to compensate for her troubles. She wrote me the nicest review I have ever read… it was a really fulfilling moment.

The key here is honesty. Especially if you have a complex product or service, it’s much better for a customer service rep to say “I don’t know, but let me find out,” than to provide potentially inaccurate information.

The customer service industry is my goal for at least the next five years. I am trying to gain as much experience as I can as I pursue a career in public relations. I hope to be able to hold this position for at least the next several years, and I also plan to pursue a leadership position. I really hope that I can tackle this position head on and gain some valuable experience in communication.

Great customer service means listening to your customers. It means empathizing with them and their experiences, and working hard to find the best solution to your customers’ problems. It means knowing how to de-escalate a situation with an angry customer, and using problem solving skills to make sure that everyone walks away from the interaction satisfied.

I hope to learn new skills that I can use in customer service and in life. I also hope to contribute my own talents to your team, so that we can mutually grow. I am also interested in the possibility of upward mobility within your corporation, and am eager to see where this position might take me.

This question should give you a sense of how the candidate views their role. A great answer won’t just involve solving a problem or answering a question, but ensuring that the customer had as positive an interaction as possible.

This might sound like a trick question, but it isn’t. A great candidate should feel comfortable talking about their experience using your product or service, and pointing out places where their experience could have been improved.

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.

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.

Well, I am a people person. I enjoy approaching and talking to customers, and making sure that they get what they need. I love solving their problems. I’d say that a weakness that I have when interacting with customers is knowing when to give up on trying to solve a problem. I’m working on learning when to call for backup when necessary.

Good customer service reps help customers solve problems, but great customer service reps are proactive about looking for ways to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

No, I have never served a customer over live chat before. I am a fast typer though—that’s something that I imagine you need to succeed with live chat in particular.

I’m familiar with working under pressure. In the restaurant business, that was something that we had to deal with every weekend – a large amount of customers, customers who were sometimes upset about the wait time or with the food they had ordered. Typically I just practice the rule that ‘the customer is always right’. I use smiles and apologize as needed to sort of ease the stress. I also practice breathing exercises when I’m alone to release some of my own stress.

if the candidate is inexperienced. 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.

One time at Allen’s Sporting Company, a customer couldn’t reach an item. They tried climbing the shelf, which broke, and they fell down. The customer was furious, and I think also really embarrassed. I was the first one on the scene. In the end, I ended up taking care of that customer. I heard them out and apologized as they yelled. Then I got them a sizable discount coupon to compensate. The representative who was supposed to be taking care of that section of the store was absent, so the trouble really was on our end. The customer left satisfied.

Yes, I’ve used a CRM (customer relationship management) system to track online orders before. Our company had a policy that all interactions needed to be logged there, and I came to understand the importance of looking at a customer’s history before putting together a response to their query.

Ever since my first paper route at age 10 I’ve been doing something to keep myself busy and earn money. Back then, it was obviously about earning some spending money. What I didn’t realize was that I was actually starting the journey of establishing what I liked to do and how I fit in to the grand scheme of things. I then worked as a junior computer tech in my last 2 summers of high school. It was here that I discovered what I was passionate about and what I wanted to do. I enrolled in college to get my degree in computer sciences, and I have been working around technology ever since.

I am confident in my communication skills. I have had extensive experience in the customer service industry, with more than five years in my history. Additionally, I have studied communication while earning my degree in relations. At this point I am as close to a master communicator as possible. In my previous position I was interacting with customers constantly, so I certainly have plenty of daily experience in interpersonal and service-oriented communication, and I am confident that I will be able to consistently and successfully apply these skills to this service agent position.

Every customer service rep is going to encounter customers who are upset. Great candidates should remain respectful while continuing to provide as high a level of service as possible.