1) What do you know about Call Center?
Call center is a service desk, where a large volume of calls are handled by the customer associate in order to render services to the client.
2) Mention the types of call center and what is the difference between them?
The types of call center are:
Inbound Call Center
Outbound Call Center
Inbound Call Center: In an inbound call center, customer associate will receive the calls regarding the customer’s queries or demands. Eg: Customer is calling a Telecom Company to know the current tariff on internet service they provide.
Outbound Call Center: In an outbound call center, customer associate will make calls to their customer, regarding business or sales related. Eg: When you receive a call from a bank offering a personal loan.
3) What according to you call center job is?
This question is asked by interviewer to know your awareness to the job profile. So based on your answer they will decide what role or position they will assign to you. For instance, if you say that call center is about dealing with customer problems they will put assign you customer associate Role. On the contrary, if your answer is that a call center is a new business zone, where youngsters are employed in numbers and get an opportunity to develop their career, they might put you in a HR department.
4) Why we should hire you for our company?
This question is an opportunity for you to showcase your talent and skill. You can convince the interviewer by bringing to their attention your talent you got and depict how perfect you are for that job. Also, you can mention some innovative ideas or concept that can help increase the organization profitability and credibility.
You can answer this question by saying that my past experience, my education and my personality actually fits the job. I am a hard-working guy and a quick learner. Also, I like the concept or idea that the company is working on and that is what exactly I was looking for.
5) What you understand by the term “Customer Satisfaction”?
Any business depends upon the quality of the service offered to the customer. To do so, you need to understand the customer’s need and their problems. You have to think from their point of view and try to meet their demands and requirements. This is what “ Customer Satisfaction” is.
Call Center
Call Center
6) What are key attributes of a customer service representative?
The key features for customer service executive are:
Professionalism
Politeness
Friendly
Courteous
Helpful
7) How will you enjoy working in a call center?
As I am an extrovert person and I like to interact with people, call center job is a perfect for me. I like to resolve customer’s queries and face the challenges positively. Also, the pace of work in call center and team members friendliness always motivates me to work for call centers.
8)What are your strengths?
This is the common question, you might face in any interview. So, prior to interview do your homework and jot down your strengths like subject knowledge, computer skills, communication etc. Also, how you can relate your strength to your current job. For example, you have a good hold on some language, or you have some good marketing skill or having ability to convince other.
9) What will you do if customer abuses you on the phone?
The first thing that I will do is to stay calm and listen to the customers problem, and try to figure out what made him/her annoyed. The next thing I will do is ask politely to the customer to calm down. Then I will assure him/her to solve their problem. The last thing that I will do is to identify the root-cause that creates problem to the customer, fix it and ensure it never happens again.
10) What are the key features you think that customer associate should possess to become perfect customer associate?
Good listening skill, problem-solving, concentration, and patience are some key features that make a perfect customer associate.
11) How you handle work-pressure?
To handle a pressure situation, I always try to keep the focus on work and avoid frustration.
12) What experience do you have in a call center?
If you are fresher and you don’t have experience, then you can mention something that can relate you with a call center. Example, I have worked in desktop support, or I am holding a certificate for mass communication, etc. If you are experienced, narrate the same.
13) Mention the types of customer service field?
By phone
Public relationship
Face to face
14) What is your typing skill?
This question means how many words you can type in a minute. If you know the number, you can mention it but if you don’t know then just tell that you are good in typing skills.
15) Can you handle multiple calls at the same time?
If you have an experience of handling multiple calls, then narrate the same. In case you don’t have experience mention that once training is provided, I could handle multiple calls with ease.
16) Are you comfortable with night shifts?
This is a question often asked for call center jobs, there are many multi-national companies that outsource their work to other countries. Such companies demand for night shifts as their working hours might be our sleeping hours. So based on your preference you can reply to this question.
17) How you rate yourself on communication skills?
Call centers always look for an employee with good communication skills, and you can rate yourself near 8-9 out of 10.
18) What is the key to success in a call center?
A call center is all about providing quality service to customer. If you are good at handling customer well and offering a good service then you can be successful in call center.
19) While talking to customer, what are the procedures you follow?
Greet Customer
Introduce yourself to customer
Ask customer how you can be helpful to him/her
Listen to the customer patiently
Try to help the customer with best possible solution
Cross check with the customer if he/she is satisfied with the solution
Make sure whether customer need any further assistance
20) Do you enjoy working in a team?
Any work in an organization requires a team work. So, answer to this question should be always positive.
21) What is virtual call center?
Virtual call center provides a technology or software service, through which the customer associate or agent can connect to their customer from any location. This technology involves host server and the equipments to run the call center. This service is rendered on monthly or annual subscription. Agents can connect to the host server and can get access to the customer data. The benefit of virtual call center is that you can work from home.
22) Do you like multi-tasking or you prefer to tackle one problem at a time?
Depending on the situation, I could do multi-tasking or could tackle one problem at a time. But multi-tasking always has the upper hand because it increases your efficiency at the call center.
23) What if the customer is not happy with your answer or solution?
If the customer is not happy with the answer or solution, then I will ask customer to hold the line and pass on the call to supervisor or a team leader.
24) To improve customer service what will be your approach?
To improve customer service, my approach would be to take feedbacks from the customer and ask them how we can improve in solving their problem and render them a good service.
25) What will you do in a situation where system shuts down and you still handling customer on the phone?
In the middle of handling phone, if the system crashes then I will ask the customer to hold for some time till I get a power back up and if not then try to resolve his/her problem with my knowledge. The best thing in such situation is to ask the customer to call back or note his contact details so you can call once the system is back.
26) Mention what are the key attributes of a call center executive?
The key attributes of a call center executive are:
Friendly attitude
Ask the right questions
Accurate answers to the customer query
Professional phone relationship
Be the face of the organization
View a customer’s complaint as an opportunity to gain the customer’s respect
Resolve complaints patiently
27) How to deal with the difficult customer?
To deal with a difficult customer you need to do following things
Listen to customer actively
Rephrase their concerns
Present a viable solution
Take action and follow up
Fix the problem at hand immediately
Use the feedback
Reduce the unpleasant situation happen again with customer
28) Mention how do you measure – good customer service?
Good customer service can be measured on following basis,
Number of repeat customers
Number and type of customer complaints received
Number of referrals given by current customers
Sales figure if service is product based
Customer satisfaction surveys
Benchmarking service with competitors
Rate at which number of customers enrolled to your service
Number of returns
29) Explain how can you turn down a request from a valued client?
To turn down a request from a valued client, you have to:
Remain polite and well mannered
Adhere to company’s policies
Explain the situation or reason for denial
Try to remain reliable to customer
30) Explain how would you handle negative feedback from angry clients?
To handle negative feedback from angry clients,
Customer representative should be able to manage customer without being dominated
He should not be overwhelmed by a disapproving customer
Try to listen and understand customer issue before going after suggestions or solution
31) How one can improve customer interactions?
To improve customer interaction,
Admit your mistakes even before your customer does and apologize
Take follow up if a problem is solved
Practice active listening so your customer feel heard
Try to identify a common interest or liking with the customer
32) Explain what steps will you take to deal with your unsatisfied customer?
Apologize and offer a better option
Act quickly and resolve the customer complaint
Take responsibility for what made customer unhappy
Compensate customer with better deal or free service
33) Explain how can you create a new opportunities for customers proactive engagement?
Use internet service to contact customer on social media
Use mobile often to reach maximum customers by sending personalized context-relevant offers or services
Customer Interactions must be relevant to customers interest to gain their trust and encourage them
Analyze the customer data and behavior using business intelligence tool, to understand its expectation for the service you offer
Use cloud platform to keep your service updated with the latest technology and with minimum expenses
34) For implementing a CRM solution to your business what things need to take care of?
Before implementing a CRM solution to your business, you need to take care of following things
CRM strategy: CRM only works when there is clear picture of why the organization is doing it and how it really helps to improve customer service
Choose the right CRM partner: A best CRM solutions are flexible and have a full integration capability with any other systems in your business
Identify the highest priority: Implement CRM solution for the highest priority and return area first
35) Explain how to get a responsive customer feedback?
To get a responsive customer feedback,
Offer feedback options on every page of your site
Present visitors with easy feedback form by giving them selective option
Give visitors easy-to-use ratings systems
Give option for a newsletter to skip or to register
Deliver feedback to responsible person directly via e-mail notification
Avoid multiple choice of answers instead encourage customer for descriptive feedback
36) Mention why a departed customer analysis can help your organization?
A departed customer analysis can help your organization in following ways:
Get valuable insight on why your customer departed from you
Which competitor is being selected to replace your company service
What was the expectation of your former clients
Help to understand weakness and gaps within product line or services.
37) Mention factors you need to take into consideration before doing a survey for customer service satisfaction?
Before doing survey for customer service satisfaction,
First consider the objective of the survey
Make your survey accessible online
Keep open-ended questions and keep survey narrative
Consider negative feedback equivalent to positive feedback it is equally important
Select the survey method that can yield real information in real time
Target putting questions that are relevant to service
38) Mention some of the useful online tools that can be used for better customer service?
For better customer service tools that are used:
Zendesk
Assistly
Zoho support
Kayako
Freshdesk
Uservoice
Conversocial
Get Satisfaction etc.
39) Mention what are the key aspect that help to improve customer service?
The key aspect to improve customer service,
Data analysis: Analyze the preferences of customers based on the data collections
Automation of business process: To improve customer satisfaction and speeding up the business process implement the automation of business process
Self-service optimization: Explore new ways for customer interaction with your business
Workforce effectiveness: Integrate new tools and technology to improve customer service
40) Give an example where you use some data to improve customer service without spending any money?
I have retrieved a number of support emails that we received from our clients and figured out that a number of questions were asked repetitively. I searched online forums and knowledge base to find out the solution for these questions. I made a document of the solution which is now accessible to the customer. It was cost effective and helped reduce common repetitive questions from the client.
41) Explain how can you build customer loyalty?
To build customer loyalty, you need to:
Track customer retention by surveying your customers
Analyze the data to see how many customers are new and how many are returning for your service
Focus on converting new customers into returning customers as a plan of your customer retention plan
Encourage employees to build connections with customers
Solicit feedback from customer so they feel that their opinions matter
42) While creating a customer newsletter what factors need to be taken care of?
While creating a customer newsletter, you need to include following:
General information about your company
Purpose of newsletter- Promotions, events, upcoming sales and new services/ products
Any photos related to the content
Any discount or coupons that may be included in your offer
43) How to deal with abusive/slang using customer?
To deal with abusive customers,
Give a positive response: Assure the customer that you are there to help him and tell them that you require certain information from them to carry forward
Personalize the conversation: Personalize with the conversation and call the customer by name and refer to their company by name
Declare your intent and boundaries: Let your customer know that you can solve the problem and their demands are reasonable. You should not allow customer to continue if they are too much aggressive; it’s time to use other strategies
Transfer the call: The best way is to switch on the call to the most experienced personnel or supervisor. Sooner you transfer the call, the customer will calm down –it’s a natural psychology.
Discontinue the conversation: Warn customer if he continues with abusive slang you will end the conversation. If the customer is still abusive even after speaking to them politely, it’s better to discontinue the conversation by telling them to contact the customer service complaint department for further discussion.
44) Explain how can you resolve the problem to customer’s satisfaction?
To resolve the problem to customer’s satisfaction, you need to follow the following techniques.
Talk to the customer: Standard emails or letters might work in some cases, but often you can achieve more quickly with a phone call. It will make feel customer more personal and understand their complaint
Figure out the problem and requirement: Listen carefully to your customers need carefully and ask them what they want
Ask about wider issues: Ask open ended questions like – is he happy with your service or product? What other feedback does he want to give?
Offer something back: If a customer has a genuine issue with the service/product, and there is a chance of losing it, it’s better to give him some offer/discount/coupons, etc. to keep him stick to your service.
Confirm your solution: To avoid dispute after coming up with solution on phone, it’s better to take follow up by email or letter
Take follow up: This is where most people miss- get a member of your staff to check that all is well. It will help to minimize the common problem faced by customers.
45) How do you deal with the question you don’t know the answer that customer asked?
If you don’t know the answer to the questions
Never say, “I don’t know”. Instead say “ Hold on while I look for the information”
Tell customer it’s a technical information and requires a specialist, I’ll get back to you shortly with some possible solution
You can also tell customer like this –
It’s a timely question and requires some time to gather XYZ information
As per the latest information what we suggest to you….
I can answer that in part, but like to consider it further and get back to you
Do anything else that seems proactive while putting them on hold or passing note to colleagues, you can also keep them engaging by asking questions
46) Explain what would you do if the customer says that it took you long to resolve an issue?
If customer says that it took you long to resolve an issue,
First ensure the customer that you are not far from him and was busy with his task all the time
You have to give him an expression that he or she is the only customer you are worried for
If required give him the explanation of whole operational path and the areas where the task can get slower
47) Explain how to deal with the customer having language barrier?
To deal with customer having language barrier,
Install translation aids on customer service workstations
Offer chat, e-mail or customer support options in their native language if possible on top of the phone calls
Hire additional personnel with the language skills needed to work with this customer segment
Enroll language barrier procedures that can be used when handling foreign customer calls
48) How to deal with unreasonable customer
demands?
To deal with unreasonable customer demands,
To avoid conflict with your potential customer, you can always offer him an option that is reasonable
Pre-qualify your customer, before allocating anything to your customer make sure you understand well your customers demand
Say-no without hesitation if the demand is illegitimate
Keep your patience while dealing with such unreasonable customer demands
49) Explain how to deal with customers who deny to pay for service/product?
Work with the customer not against him: Try to figure out the exact reason why he is not willing to pay without getting angry on him. Be friendly and try to come up with possible options and plans that might resolve the situation
Communicate often in writing and document everything: Always start with a non-threatening written message asking for the prompt resolution by a specific date
Don’t get personal or angry: Try to listen to customer with empathy it might be possible that your customer is in real financial crisis, so instead of losing your nerves try to handle situation with empathy
Turn to collection service at last: Turning down to an attorney or collection agency should be your last resort. Also, remember that a collector takes a hefty portion of any recovery
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