Interview Questions for Hiring in Contact Centres
When recruiting in a Contact Centre hiring managers are looking for candidates who can provide outstanding customer service, as well as thrive in a fast-paced, sometimes stressful environment. However, identifying the high performing candidates during an interview can be a challenge for many hiring managers.
We’ve put together our top contact centre interview questions and answers that hiring managers should be asking to identify the high performing candidates:
Tell us about your contact centre centre experience?
You want the candidate to give details of any contact centre jobs that they have previously done (including KPIs, call volume, the communication channels they have used, etc). This is important even if they have only had very short temporary work. If a candidate has never done any contact centre work you should focus on why they would like to work in a call centre (see question two).
Why do you want to work in a contact centre? This is an opportunity for you to identify if the candidate is passionate about customer service and helping people. A quality candidate will already understand the atmosphere of a contact centre and demonstrate that they thrive in this type of environment. Ideally, a quality candidate should also be able to provide you with examples of the research that they have done on your business and understand what their role will be and how they will be servicing your customers.
How do you feel about meeting goals and targets? This question is about trying to understand if the candidate will be motivated and work well with set targets and goals. You need to understand if they will work well with this type of pressure in their daily responsibilities and if targets will help to retain their focus and provide structure. It also gives you an opportunity to see if the candidate can embrace healthy competition within a team environment.
How do you make sure you meet your targets?
You will want the candidate to explain how they stay organised to complete their tasks within the appropriate time frame. However, you should also probe deeper with this question to understand what the candidate would do if at any time the targets or KPIs set are unrealistic or not being met. A good candidate will be able to explain what they would do in this situation and how they would handle it/escalate this with their team leader.
How do you manage pressure? A quality candidate will be able to work under pressure in a contact centre. You need to go further with this question and ask the candidate for examples of when they have thrived during a high pressure situation. Their examples should provide you with a scenario that demonstrated they could stay focused on a task and achieved a favourable result.
How have you dealt with an irate customer on the phone? The candidate needs to demonstrate to you that they were able to remain calm and be polite during the call. They should be able to describe how they listened to the customer’s complaint, and what measures they took to reassure the customer and resolve the problem.
How would you tell a customer something that they will not like?
This is an opportunity for a candidate to give you an example of a time when they have had to deliver unfavourable news to a customer. Try to understand how the how the candidate delivered this news. What they did to keep the customer calm and how the conversation ended. Did they have to escalate to a team leader? The more information a candidate can provide you with this style of question, the greater information you have to understand how they operate.
A quality candidate, especially one who is introduced to you through a recruitment agency should be well briefed and prepared for an interview with you. The candidate should have examples at hand to provide you with scenarios from their past experience that are relevant to your role and working in a contact centre.
Talent Connect work with many candidates and hiring managers in contact centres across Australia. If you would like to chat to us about meeting with some high quality contact centre candidates, please get in touch with us.
