8 Questions that are often asked during an interview at a call center (Plus Example Answers)
Customers can call a company’s call center for help if they have questions, concerns, or feedback about a product or service. During a call center job interview, you can show how good you are at solving problems and building trust with customers. In this article, we’ll look at some common call center interview questions and show you how to answer them in a way that makes a good impression.
Questions for a call center job interview and how to answer them
Here are eight common call center interview questions and some sample answers to help you get ready for your upcoming interview.
1. How would you describe the work of someone who works in a call center?
A call center representative’s job is to talk to customers on the phone and help them figure out what to do or answer their questions. When you go to an interview for a call center job, it’s important to know what the job entails and what you can do to help the company. Read the job description and say in your answer how your skills will help you do the job. Show how you’ve done things in the past that show you can do the job and help the company reach its goals.
“As a call center worker, I would be the first person callers would talk to. I’m good at listening to customers’ questions and concerns and figuring out the best way to help them. For example, if a caller needed to refill a prescription but didn’t know how to do it on the website, I would first help the caller do it over the phone. Then I would tell the person how to use the website and prescription portal so that they could do the task online in the future.
I’m good at talking to people, so I can show customers how to use the company’s helpful online tools and help them do things they may not know how to do.
What are the most important skills a person in a call center needs to have?
You need skills like empathy, active listening, speaking, solving problems, and time management to help customers well. The job description might say what skills the company wants, so if you can, give examples of how you have used those skills in the past.
Example: “I think being able to listen, think critically, and do more than one thing at once are the most important skills. In this job, I would be able to listen to a customer’s problem, come up with a solution, and explain how I would fix the problem. I also think it’s important to have a good attitude at this job because it makes customers feel heard and cared for and gives them a good impression of the company.
What does good customer service mean to you?
For call centers to be successful, the people who work there need to be kind, knowledgeable, and helpful. They also need to help the company keep a good name. Your answer should show how you have treated customers with respect in the past, how you have solved problems for them, and how you have put their needs first. If you don’t have much experience with customer service, thinking about how you like to be treated as a customer can help you answer this question.
In both cases, you should show what good customer service looks like, how it helps the company, and how you make sure that each caller gets good customer service.
“Good customer service means you can understand a customer’s problems and see them as your own. For instance, the caller who wanted to refill a prescription online might not have known how the online portal worked. If I were the customer, I’d want the representative to show me how to use the online system so I could do it myself the next time.
As the representative, I would know that the caller might not know how to use the online portal, so I would walk them through each step with patience. As a customer, I want a solution that is well-thought-out and complete, so I try to give the same to my callers.
How do you get a customer to talk to you?
Some call centers give reps scripts to use on calls, while others teach reps how to do things in a standard way. The call guidelines make sure that customer service reps give good service and let customers ask more questions.
Show how you handle the call from the beginning to the end during your interview. Make sure to explain what each step does. Some steps might be to introduce yourself to the caller, ask for their name and any other personal information you need, ask how you can help them, and give them a chance to ask for more help before the call ends.
“When I answer the phone, I tell the customer my name, thank them for calling, and ask for theirs. I can make the customer’s experience more personal by telling them our names. I also think that thanking the customer for calling shows how important they are. Once I know who the customer is, I ask how I can help and reassure them that I can. If they are calling to talk about a problem, I’m sorry if I caused any trouble. These steps help me build trust with the customer.
At the end of every call, I always ask if there’s anything else I can do to help. At this point, they can ask any follow-up questions. I’m glad they called and that they keep coming back. This is the last chance I have to make sure they had fun.”
5. What do you do when a customer who isn’t happy calls?
If you want to do well as a call center worker, you need to know how to talk to customers who are being difficult. It’s important to be nice and listen to what the customer wants while solving their problem and making sure they have a good time. In some situations, you might need to follow a certain procedure or ask your boss for help finding a solution.
Use the STAR method to answer this interview question: describe the situation, show what you had to do, explain what you did, and say what happened as a result. You can talk about something from your own life or talk about something that could happen.
“I had a customer who was very upset with his subscription service because it didn’t meet his expectations. I told him I was sorry for the trouble and promised to look into his problem as the representative. I found out that he wasn’t able to connect because his software hadn’t been updated in a while. I told him what was wrong and how to fix it by updating his software, but he said he was thinking about stopping his service altogether.
The customer agreed to wait for a short time while I talked to my boss about how to make up for the trouble. I was able to give the customer an extra month of free service. The client thanked me for helping him and seemed happy with my answer. He even agreed to get more services from us.
6. Tell me about a time when you helped a client figure out a hard problem.
Your job is to help the customer find a good solution to their problem and keep using your product or service. Show in your answer that you can solve problems, figure out what’s wrong, and meet customer needs. Use the STAR method to describe what happened, what was done, and what happened as a result. If you don’t have an example to talk about, you could talk about problems that customers might have that you could help them solve based on what you know about the company.
Example: “Once, a customer called to tell me that his subscription had been canceled without his permission. I told him I was sorry for the trouble and asked for his account information. I looked at his account and saw that there had been a billing mistake. I told the customer that he would need to change the information on his credit card before it could be charged and his service could start up again. I updated his billing information over the phone, which helped him get his service back on. 7.How do you make your interactions with customers better?
There are always ways to improve when it comes to giving the best customer service possible. You can get better at talking to customers and meeting their needs by getting more or more advanced training, getting feedback from your boss, or looking at the results of your customer satisfaction surveys. In your answer, talk about how willing you are to learn and change to new rules and methods in order to give customers the best experience possible.
“At my last job, I met with my boss every three months to talk about the results of my customer satisfaction surveys. I asked for more service training and better ways to deal with customers. For this job, I want to keep getting better survey scores by taking part in your customer service training program.
8. How can you get more people to buy your goods or services?
You might be asked to add new or old products and services to the accounts of people who call the company. This group includes jobs in sales and customer service helplines that handle customer accounts.
Show that you know a lot about the product or service and can tell the customer why they should buy it when you answer this question. You can also talk about how you would sell one of the company’s products or services to a customer. This strategy shows that you know about the company and can help them meet their sales goals.
When a customer calls about a product, I listen to what they want and try to find similar or related products that will help them more. For example, let’s say a customer was interested in your bookkeeping software and planned to use it to bill customers at her small business. As the representative, I would answer any questions she had about the accounting software and how it would work for her business. I would also be sure to talk about the extra software that makes keeping the books for a small business much easier.
By explaining the benefits, the customer can see how the main software and the add-on can help her solve her billing problems. She can then decide on her own if she wants to buy, without feeling like I forced her to.”
