Customer Service Interview Questions and Answers

Contrary to what many people believe, customer service is quite a dicey field of work. It is by no means, a child's play; rather, it is an area of work which requires certain specific skill sets, professional qualities and behavioral characteristics. Customer service personnel require loads of patience, politeness, the ability to think on their feet, good problem solving skills and much more. Often, interview questions for customer service jobs revolve around the aforementioned points or must-haves. For those of you who have an upcoming job interview for a customer service job, this article has a few sample interview questions and answers to help you prepare well.

Basically, the questions for customer service interviews will aim at testing and judging your job-specific skill sets, behavioral characteristics, etc. They would serve the purpose of giving the interviewer a good idea of how capable or suitable you are for a customer service position. In addition to all the common interview questions, here are a few sample customer service job interview questions for you to go through.

• What does good customer service mean to you?
• How would you differentiate between effective customer service and efficient customer service? What in your opinion, is more important of the two?
• How familiar are you with the concept of Customer Relationship Management (CRM)?
• How would you deal with an extremely irate customer?
• How would you serve or assist a customer whose language or accent is difficult to understand?
• Why do you think you are suitable for a customer service position?
• What are your weaknesses with respect to customer service? What do you intend to do about it?
• Have you any prior work experience in customer service?
• If you realize that the customer is wrong, or being unreasonable, how would you convey this to him or her? How would you deal with the situation?
• Under what circumstances would you escalate the customer's query or problem to your supervisor or boss?
• Given a chance to make or recommend a change in the company's operational practices (with respect to improving customer satisfaction), what would you suggest?
• If you find out that a currency note that the customer has handed over to you is a fake, and the customer refuses to accept it, how would you deal with the situation?
• If a customer shows up with a complicated problem five minutes before you are to leave for the day, what would you do?
• If you are faced with a technical product query or difficulty that you aren't well-versed or confident about, what would you do?
• If faced with abusive language from a customer, how would you deal with the situation?
• If a customer provides you with severely negative feedback or stinging criticism about your service or product, how would you take it?
• Do you believe in the statement 'Customer is the king'? What does it mean to you?
• What do you believe, are the keys to good customer service?

Answers to Customer Service Interview Questions
Well, I won't provide any sample answers as such (simply because every person has a different professional background, personality, behavioral characteristics, etc., so consequently, every person's answers would naturally be different.) Therefore, providing a sample or standard answer to every question and then asking you to mug up that answer would be entirely wrong and inappropriate. What I will do, however, is point out a few things that you should bear in mind while answering customer service interview questions.

• Patience and politeness is the key when it comes to good customer service. In this age of cut-throat competition, customer satisfaction, customer retention, and a continuous increase in its customer base, is what every organization aims at doing. Therefore, in these situations, providing customers with a good and above-satisfactory experience is of utmost importance.
• Quick analytical thinking and smart problem solving is another thing that is expected from a customer service personnel. The interviewer will in most cases, present you with hypothetical customer problems or difficulties, and quiz you on how you would deal with them. Be prepared for such eventualities.
• Be truthful in all that you answer. 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.

Well, these were a few examples of the questions as well as answers that are a part of almost every interview you will appear for, in order to get a job in the field of customer care. Prepare well, and be confident in answering. Also, never lie about your qualifications, as it may act against you. All the best!