From the Ask Tom mailbag –
Question:
How do you interview for a customer service position? We are not concerned about product knowledge, it’s the soft skills, attitude, customer care?
Response:
The structure for developing these questions is the same no matter what attitude, characteristic or soft skill you have in mind.
- Ask yourself, what behaviors are connected to the attitude or characteristic.
- Identify, in what situations you might see that behavior (connected to the attitude or characteristic).
- Develop questions about the behavior.
Your question above shows an interest in a value called “customer care.”
Step One. What are the behaviors I would see in a person who cares about customers?
- Taking the time to listen, really listen, to a customer.
- Taking responsibility for a misunderstanding with a customer.
- Identifying something special about the customer and being responsive.
Step Two. In what situations would I see those behaviors?
Step Three. Develop questions about those behaviors.
Behavior – Taking the time to listen, really listen, to a customer.
- Tell me about a time when you thought you knew what a customer wanted, but found out it was something completely different?
- What was the project?
- What did you think the project was about?
- How was that different from what the customer really wanted?
- How did you find out there was a difference (in purpose, objective) in what you understood and what the customer wanted?
- What was the impact on the project when you found out the customer wanted something different?
- How did the customer express the difference?
- How clear was the customer in explaining what they wanted?
- How was the problem resolved?
Behavior – Taking responsibility for a misunderstanding with a customer.
- Tell me about a time when your customer made a mistake and you had to make it good?
- What was the project?
- What was the misunderstanding about?
- What was the mistake made by the customer?
- What was the impact of the mistake on the project?
- How did you learn of the mistake?
- How did you define the problem to your team?
- How did you define the problem to your customer?
- What corrective action was taken?
- How was the problem ultimately resolved?
- What was the impact on the customer relationship?
Behavior – Identifying something special about the customer and being responsive.
- Tell me about a time when you were able to do something special (unexpected, above and beyond) for a customer?
- What was the project?
- What did the customer expect?
- What did you do that was special for that customer?
- How did you find out that the customer would be surprised?
- How was this different than routine customer service?
- What was the impact of this “something special” on the project?
- What was the impact of this “something special” on the relationship with the customer?
Enough for today. Perhaps tomorrow we can tackle “Initiative.”