Looking for a Customer Service Role?

If you have an important customer service job interview coming up, don’t worry – you have got this covered with our helpful advice.

It is not an easy job to second-guess what interview questions you will be asked, but putting in a little preparation can really help, especially when it comes to customer service jobs. These types of role are heavily dependent on your personality traits, so you should place precedence on your personality when your interview questions come up.

Going by past experience and information gathered by industry sector experts, the chances are you will be asked the following interview questions. To help you out, we have also listed great ways to answer them.

Q: Can you give me an example of when you worked well in a team?

This is quite a common interview question for customer support roles. The thing to remember here is that there’s no ‘I’ in customer support. Try to avoid saying ‘I said this’ or ‘I did that’, instead focus on saying ‘we’ or ‘our team’. The interviewer will want to know that you can work well in a team and they will want you to be able to prove it.

Refer to an actual event that happened in your previous role where you worked together as a team. Tell your story and pay particular attention towards giving credit to your team-mates and work colleagues while explaining how your role fitted into the story.

Q: Tell me about a time where you were faced with a difficult customer. How did you diffuse the tension and solve their problem?

What the interviewer wants to know here is whether you have the ability to talk calmly and patiently to disgruntled customers, or if you simply crack under pressure. In this case it isn’t important to go into great detail about why the customer was complaining. Simply focus on how you used your skills to understand their issue and kept the customer calm while finding a resolution to their problem.

Your answer could go something like this: ‘A customer called about a faulty product. Firstly, I listened to their whole explanation and could understand why they had an issue. I apologized on behalf of the company and empathized with their issue. I went on to offer the customer a refund or replacement, as was the company policy. The customer opted for a full refund, so I made sure I processed this for them immediately while they were still on the phone. I asked if they needed assistance with anything else, then left the customer my name and direct number should they wish to contact me with any further issues.’

Q: Can you describe a time when you provided excellent customer service?

What you need to describe here is how you are willing to go out of your way to ensure you deliver a high quality service. Many customer service roles have general scripts and guidelines to follow when dealing directly with customers. However, an employer really wants to find those candidates who do more than just sit and read out pre-prepared scripts.

Again you can demonstrate your willingness to provide exceptional customer services by referencing a time when you went to extra lengths to make a customer happy. It may have been when you personally chased up a late order on behalf of a customer and took the time to call them back with your results and confirmed delivery dates rather than simply lodging a query for the sales department to deal with. Examples like this can show customers that they are really valued, and this helps to build better trust in the company as a whole.

Q: If you cannot answer a question from a customer, how do you handle this?

This can be quite a loaded question to answer from the interviewer. What they are really asking is if you can handle difficult situations well, and to see if you are willing to admit to a potential weakness and then make the effort to actively seek out a solution to solve it.

It is in your best interest to answer this question in a positive way. You can explain that in a situation where you don’t know the answer, you will do your best to ensure that the customer gets the appropriate help and advice from another team member or manager. You would explain that you would use this situation as a learning experience should you encounter the same question again in future.