24 Best Customer Service Interview Questions

The first step in building a high-performing customer-focused customer service team is always to hire excellent individuals. The wrong team members will quickly degrade your customer experience, regardless of how fine-tuned your procedures are, how reliable your data is, or how well you’ve set up your automated responses. And to select the best person you should have a strong list of customer service interview questions.

How can you determine whether that bright and motivated candidate for customer service will be a committed and effective team member? Unfortunately, there is no surefire way to determine a candidate’s suitability for customer service and support.

The best interview questions elicit helpful information because they make candidates use their experiences and quick thinking. You can save time and effort by not employing the incorrect individuals, which is done by watching how they respond to interview questions, which says a lot about how they would behave in real-life scenarios.

This article will explain the screening criteria and the interview questions you can use to assess a candidate’s suitability for your team.

20 Customer Service Interview Questions to ask Candidates

The 20 customer service interview questions listed below will help you gather the information you need to recruit top talent.

1- What do you consider good customer service? 2- What about this position appeals to you? 3- Which company provided you with the best customer service ever? 4-Can you share an instance where you had subpar customer service? 5- Do customer service and customer support differ?

Using the first five customer service interview questions, you can identify applicants who share your fundamental beliefs about the importance of customer service in an organization. Does your candidate have the same standards as you for what constitutes excellent service?

The best applicants will be able to articulate the importance of customer service to a company and provide specific instances of both good and poor service. They ought to be ready to discuss your particular business and how good customer service may help its success.

Beware of persons who genuinely desire a different position but consider customer service the quickest route to employment. They won’t be as likely to have considered what providing good customer service means to a company. To filter out such person use these 9 customer service interview questions.

6- Could you share an occasion when you were pleased with the level of service you provided to a client? 7- Have you ever violated the rules to help a customer? 8- Tell me about the circumstances and the result. 9- Can you give an example of a moment when you had to refuse a significant request from a client? 10- Have you ever had to deal with a stubborn customer? What were your reactions, and how would you react now? 11- What is the most excellent method to assist a client who has interacted with numerous agents but hasn’t received the required assistance? 12- Have you ever had a client give you a bad review for past work? 13- How did you respond to that criticism? 14- Tell me about a consumer you had trouble understanding, and describe how you handled the situation.

The following customer service interview questions assess the candidates’ emotional intelligence, empathy, and reflectiveness. You must hear concrete, authentic accounts of prior service experiences in the candidate’s answers. Even a very young candidate might be able to draw on prior retail expertise.

The best applicants will give specific examples from their personal experiences and be able to respond to queries about those examples in more depth. Seek those who are humble and willing to accept responsibility for their errors. Watch out for persons who only supply hypothetical instances or cases where the client or a colleague was at fault or who give both. 

15- Can you describe when you had to use your judgment with a customer because there wasn’t a clear policy to follow? 16- How did you arrive at your solution, and what resulted? 17- Describe a moment when a client reported a technical problem for which you had no solution. What strategy did you use, and how did it turn out? 18- Can you give me an instance when your product or service had serious issues and had to respond without having all the information?

Customer service interview questions from 13–15 assess a candidate’s capacity for problem-solving, a crucial skill always subject to development. The most qualified applicant will be able to explain how they handled situations for which they didn’t have a quick solution. Request instances of how they took the lessons they learned from those experiences and used them to solve other problems.

Candidates who assert they have never been puzzled or can only present situations where a teammate or colleague provided the solution should be avoided. 

19- Can you describe a situation in which you had to persuade a client or teammate to alter their methods of operation (for instance, adopt a new procedure or change their vocabulary) and how you achieved it? 20- Can you provide a specific instance of how you handled informing a consumer when your product or service resulted in a serious issue? 21- How do you choose what details to include in customer responses and what to omit?

The purpose of these questions is to gauge the candidates’ communication abilities. No skill is more critical for those working in customer service than being able to speak effectively and with the right amount of detail. Your top candidate has the chance to stand out in this part by describing how they communicate with or write to customers.

The best candidates will be able to discern the needs of a consumer and adapt their communication techniques to suit various audiences. Be wary of candidates who can only describe one method of communication; they may be excessively rigid. 

22- What recent new skills have you acquired? 23- What made you decide to learn that skill, and how did you do it? 24- Could you share an occasion when you helped out your team?

This list’s last questions gauge candidates’ attitudes and work styles. With the help of these questions, you may learn more about the prospect and how they will interact with others.

Are they constantly trying to improve their skills? Will they assist both their clients and their coworkers? People who can converse casually and discuss their interests generally excel in customer service positions. 

Tips for Making the Most of Your Customer Service Interviews:

You always risk asking the same questions, getting the same answers, engaging in the same small talk, and promptly forgetting all the crucial details while interviewing new customer service personnel.

Think outside the box, create a plan, and follow it religiously to avoid all of these issues. Your encounters will be more memorable, you won’t be left fumbling for questions, and you’ll be able to standardize the conditions under which you access applicants. Taking a strategic approach results in less fuss, greater concentration, and the finest possible hire for your customer support team. 

These are some valuable tips for conducting better customer service interviews:

1. Encourage candidates to use a storytelling approach.

It can be challenging to directly address the abstract set of talents that great customer service employees possess. Therefore, you need to locate conversational side doors to elicit these attributes by posing queries that call for a narrative response. These inquiries invite applicants to relate a relevant incident from their time on the job, but they also call for them to convey a story in a clear, narrative way.

2. Listen to how they listen.

A prepared problem solver is one who actively listens. They are patient enough to listen to a customer’s concerns and respond appropriately rather than automatically jumping to a solution based on what they anticipate hearing. Service reps can present the same response in various ways depending on the customer’s attitude; therefore, assessing whether your potential teammate can adjust their tone is critical.

By posing complex questions during an interview, you can obtain this info. If a prospect thoughtfully responds to each question you’ve posed, they are serious and attentive listeners. Additionally, it’s a vital sign that you’ve identified someone who will treat clients nicely when they visit your business.

3. Throw a twist into your interviews.

Standard questions don’t capture the true nature of customer service. They won’t catch anyone off guard, they don’t demonstrate a capacity for success under duress, and their constrained framing yields constrained responses. That’s not ideal since you’re looking for originality, and work isn’t something you can choose from. Instead, add a few twists to your must-ask queries. Additionally, you can change the way you do interviews.

4. Get real answers from references.

If appropriately used, references can be essential to the interview process. Being open and honest with someone chosen specifically to write favorable evaluations can be challenging. Still, the correct approach and a few insightful questions can go a long way.

To avoid a simple “yes” or “no,” it’s also crucial to ask for particular examples when framing inquiries, like: “Tell me about a time when this person settled an intra-team issue.” will take you much further than asking, “Do they get along with others?”

Ready to Get the Best Out of Your Interviews? 

The challenging aspect of interviews is that you only get one chance to make a good impression and learn what you need. In a poor interview, even strong candidates would struggle to stand out. The most excellent interviews are planned conversations that elicit candidates’ attitudes, strengths, and difficulties rather than rigid question-and-answer sessions.

It’s alright to let candidates sit quietly before they respond to a question; try not to rush to fill the space. It may allow them to gather their thoughts, but it may also cause them to divulge more information than they had planned. It’s acceptable to pose related questions at various intervals throughout the interview. The best anecdotes frequently emerge after candidates have time to reflect on an earlier question.

You offer them the finest opportunity to demonstrate their character and abilities to you by going over essential topics again. You’ll uphold your end of the deal and provide the conditions for applicants to show who they are, how they operate, and whether they are the individuals you’ve been seeking with a thoughtful approach and insightful questions.