Customer Service Interview Questions & Answers
Posted On:June 11, 2019, Posted By: Latest Interview Questions,
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Best Customer Service Interview Questions and Answers
Dear Readers, Welcome to Customer Service Interview Questions and Answers have been designed specially to get you acquainted with the nature of questions you may encounter during your Job interview for the subject of Customer Service. These Customer Service Questions are very important for campus placement test and job interviews. As per my experience good interviewers hardly plan to ask any particular questions during your Job interview and these model questions are asked in the online technical test and interview of many IT companies.
1. Your attitude
You would like to convey an attitude of willingness to help, friendliness and yet knowledgeable. Demonstrate your capability in handling problems efficiently. This can be done by way of some personal examples.
2. Accurate answers to the customer
Explain to the interviewer that you realize that you are the first point of contact for the customer, and how very important it is to speak politely, accurately and professionally. Throw in this quote: You never get a second chance to make a first impression!
3. Professional relationship
Clarify that you recognize the necessity of creating a friendly yet professional phone relationship with clients..
4. The face of the company
You believe in presenting a well-mannered, well-meaning and intelligent face of your company to the caller.
5. Your experience
Be prepared to give relevant facts and information about your previous job[s] and any customer service experience. Make sure that your facts and figures are correct. This is the most important aspect of the customer service interview.
6. What does good customer service mean to you?
According to me, good customer service means ensuring that my customer leaves my office (or ends the conversation over the phone) satisfied with my service, without escalating the problem to my seniors.
7. How would you deal with an extremely irate customer?
I understand that the customer is irate because we didn't live up to our promise, so I would be very polite and ensure that he/she understands that I empathize with him/her, along with finding a quick solution to the problem.
8. Why do you think you are suitable for a customer service position?
I am suitable for this post because I understand that at times we may go back on our word, either intentionally or unintentionally, leading to mass customer dissatisfaction. I have been a part of that crowd too, which is why I would like to deliver one hundred percent customer satisfaction to those who come with their woes.
9. What kind of customer would you like to approach? A satisfied customer, a doubtful customer, or an irate customer?
I would like to approach the irate customer, because of the challenge the situation presents. Attending to a satisfied customer will not give me the chance to understand how good (or bad), I am at my job.
10. Under what circumstances would you escalate the customer's query or problem to your supervisor or boss?
I don't think there would be a need to escalate a matter, but considering dire straits, then it would be only in the case where the customer out-rightly refuses to speak to me, due to a prior bad experience while he/she was lodging a complaint with us.
11. If a customer shows up with a complicated problem five minutes before you are to leave for the day, what would you do?
I would politely tell the customer that we are closing for the day, and that he/she could visit/call us the next day. But if they insist on it being urgent, I would smile and say I am happy to help them, along with being firm with regard to the timings the next time they have a problem.
12. If you are faced with a technical product query or difficulty that you aren't well-versed with or confident about, what would you do?
I would ask the customer if he/she would be kind enough to hold the line while I transfer their call to a technical expert, since they would be able to help the customer better.
13. Do you think you have the ability to maintain your cool during a call where the customer is firing you with abusive language?
A customer chooses to abuse only when his/her needs have not been met by us, even after continued efforts to seek help in resolving the matter. Hence, the problem is ours. So I would totally understand their plight.
14. If a customer provides you with severely negative feedback or stinging criticism about your service or product, how would you take it?
I would take it with a positive attitude so that I can better myself for my next customer. After all, I am here to provide one hundred percent customer satisfaction. If I am not doing a good job, someone has to tell me, and who better than a customer to help me understand my raw attributes?
15. Do you believe in the statement that the 'Customer is the king'; what does it mean to you?
Yes, I do. If we don't derive feedback from our customers, there's no way we can analyze how good our product/company is doing. Our business would not evolve if we do not have customers catering to our field. In order to develop a good customer base, it would be my duty to give them all they want with regard to answers, services, and whatever else they would like to include in the list.
Tips to Remember While Appearing for an Interview
Be Punctual
Never sound over-confident
Do not talk about what your pay scale should be (unless asked)
Answer to the point
Smile
Appear confident
Don't indulge in sugary sweet talk just to emphasize on the politeness factor. At times, customer service personnel needs to be stern and firm. Be level-headed, calm, and composed when you answer the interviewer's questions. Having a positive outlook is the most important need for the field, because in a day, you may have to deal with customers who may use profanity, get angry, or who may not understand your accent.
Prepare well, and be confident while answering. Also, never lie about your qualifications, as it reflects poorly on your part. Though people say a first impression is the best impression, personally, I believe that the last impression makes a lasting impression.
16. What skills did you learn about this business?
First of all, I learned people skills: how to listen, how to answer questions and how to deal with difficult clients. With regard to technical skills, I learned a lot about banking, how to search for information on the computer for customer accounts, interest accounts, and service fees for business accounts. I learned to shoot computer problems trouble, facing problems unavailability. I also learned accounting database interfaces use my bank. They are everywhere the same, but different in terms of layout, data storage and access to customer accounts.
17. Is the customer always right?
The customer may not always be right, but I have to put my best face to the customer's request. Because, first, I work for a company where we need them to have a business. Second, I am facing a human being, and maintaining professional behavior to serve the customer is a must. I learned that nothing is more useful than to serve the client with professional attitude. Difficult for a client, I would apply the rule imposing: Be calm, not to discuss with the client to do your best.
18. How would you deal with an angry customer who is threatening to take their business somewhere else?
Angry and irate customers are an everyday reality for customer service agents. Employers know that it’s impossible to resolve every customer complaint, but they are looking for customer service reps who will calmly listen to their customers’ frustrations and provide alternative solutions that fall within company guidelines. If the customer refuses to accept those solutions, the rep needs to firmly (yet politely) deny their request.
19. When would it be appropriate to initiate contact with a client?
In some ways, this is a trick question. Most customer service departments have policies and procedures that specify when it is acceptable to initiate customer calls or emails. But at the same time, the employer is looking for hires that are willing to take the initiative. So a good response might be to mention that although you would fully comply with company policies, it might be appropriate to contact a customer with additional information about the issue they are experiencing or to recommend new products and services.
20. How do you face negative feedback from angry clients?
You must be prepared to manage any customer temperament, and it includes those who have complaints, you must keep your manners without being dominated by the situation. You can explain your actions with an experience in a past job.
21. How do you define going the extra mile for your customer, give me an example of when you have done this.
Show how you develop positive customer relationships by actively listening and making the effort to understand the customer's needs, meeting and exceeding the customer's expectations and taking responsibility for the customer's satisfaction.
22. Why did you choose Customer Service Function as a Career?
Customer Service is an key function of an organization because a Customer Service Representative is often the only contact a customer has with the company.
Customers are important for business as they spend a lot of money every year with a company, and when they have a question or product issue, they expect a company’s customer service department to resolve their issues. It gives me satisfaction to resolve customer issues and help them with questions and concerns.
And a happy, satisfied customers is likely to return and/or tell others about the good experiences that they had when dealing with the company.
23. The customer feels you are taking too long to resolve the issue, what do you do in such a situation?
If there is an issue which is too much time to solve and the customer is getting frustrated, then you can politely explain him that it is a major issue and it will take time to resolve it permanently. You can try and convince the customer to call back again or you can offer him a call back after resolving the problem.
24. You're supervising on a public counter. There's lots of people waiting, and more coming in. What do you do, to get things moving?
Answer: I create a fast line system; one line that will serve anybody with jobs that can be done quickly, the other line for slower moving customer issues. I assign one or two people to deal with the customers. That cuts the numbers down and allows people with more difficult jobs to move faster.
Explanation of the answer: Customers should receive prompt service. A long wait on line is good grounds for complaint. Good customer service practice recognizes the need for efficient time frames.
25. What Methods Would You Use to Escalate a Call?
Call escalation is common in call centers, especially when a customer has contacted the company multiple times and still has an unresolved issue. Your interviewer will want to know what you would do when a customer asks to speak to your supervisor. The best answer for such a question would be “Although I would follow the company’s policies regarding call escalation, I would first attempt to obtain as much information as I can from the customer and deescalate the issue on my own. If I cannot provide the resolution the customer wants, or if the customer refuses, I would follow the company’s chain of command for escalated calls.”
26. Do you have any sales experience?
Yes I do. Part of my job at my previous place of work was to up-sell the company’s products and I am proud to say that I managed my targets by a 100%!
27. A customer comes up to you and complains about your product/service. What do you do?
Out of all of the customer service interview questions you may encounter on your interview, you will most likely be asked this one in some form or another. Luckily, the answer is fairly simple. You want to get across that in any situation where the customer is unhappy, you will take their complaint seriously and inspect the product or analyze the service problem to try to replicate the issue. If you find that there is a problem with the product or service, you ensure the customer that their complaint is important to you and that you will call the manager, have him/her fill out a written complaint form, or proceed with whatever the applicable company policy is.
28. What is Teamwork?
Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively, as in a sports team.
Teamwork is essential when creating a great customer experience... but who is "the team"?
In customer service, there are many working together to serve the customer. It's not just the customer service department... everyone in the business has a role in this:
Production creates the product. If the products has faults, will the customer be happy?
Marketing markets the products. If the product is hyped, and the product falls short of the expectations, will the customer be happy?
Finance invoices the customer, and handles the payment. If the customer is overcharged, will (s)he be happy>?
Customer Service handles questions and complaints. If this is not done with care, will the customer be happy?
But it's not just the people. All the stuff that your business does that touches the customer is also important. Slow website, little info? Bad customer experience. Faulty instructions? Bad customer experience. Difficult to find customer service info? Bad customer experience. No response to emailed question? Bad customer experience.
So hopefully you see... the teamwork needed to serve the customer well, is going across all the departments in your company.
If your company has barriers/borders between departments, or lack of communication between them, chances are (huge!) that some or many of your customers may have a less favorable experience.
29. What's the importance of customer retention?
Every company, even the best ones, loose customers. It's a given. To stay at the status quo, or even grow the business you need a steady supply of new customers to replace the old ones.
Now, if your business isn't good at customer retention, which is the ability to keep customers, your company is loosing a lot of customers. So you need to replace them with a lot of new customers, before you can continue to grow.
This is bad for business for two reasons:
On average, it costs 5 times as much to get a new customer than to keep an existing one.
Customers who have bought from you before, are much more likely to buy from you again.
30. How to make customers reach you?
There can be a couple of reasons for your customers reaching the voice mail instead of a human:
1. Personnel is not sitting at their desks. Most of the time this is because information they need is not readily available, so they must hunt for it elsewhere. So make sure they have all the information they need readily available.
2. For the same reason, they could already be talking on the phone internally, making the customer's call go to the voicemail by default.
3. After a number of rings, the voicemail kicks in. If this number is set too low, your employees may not reach the phone in time (setting a policy to answer the phone within 3 rings is nice, but then you have to take measures so your people can actually do that--see above).
4. Capacity may be too low... if everyone is talking, there are no people left to reach. For this, you can make Erlang calculations, check out this site for free calculators
5. If personnel doesn't answer the phone, thinking someone else will take it (I've seen people ignore anything and everything that could mean work for them!), then make it a part of their performance evaluation. Everybody must be willing to pull their weight. If not, get out!