Introduction
As the position of a general customer service representative for the call center requires certain skills and knowledge, the applicant should have some experience in dealing with customers via the phone communication and solving the problems in a cost-efficient way for the company and customers. Besides, the speech of an applicant should be distinctive enough so that a customer can easily understand the speech of a newly-employed.
A second language learner can be hired for this position if he/she has sufficient language skills that would not prevent a customer from understanding the message and the essence of the information provided by the general customer service representative. As the applicant should know about the company and functions to be performed, it is necessary to make a general overview of the company, its history, and peculiarities of the position for which the applicant might be hired.
A person should be punctual due to the specifics of the work and dependable in being at work regularly with minimal exceptions for child care issues. Moreover, it is necessary to find out whether an applicant is planning to obtain this position for a period of five or more years or considers this to be a job for 2-3 years.
A List of Questions with Reasoning
- Do you have some experience in the area of cold calls?
- For what period of time you did you obtain the position at previous job?
- Was the communication with customers related to orders (due date, specifications, or terms of payment)?
These questions are aimed at making sure that the person is experienced in the sector of communication with customers via the phone.
- Die you experience difficulties with understanding someone’s speech?
- Are you capable of formulating your questions correctly so that customers understand exactly what the problem is?
These questions should help to investigate if a person has adequate comprehension skills and language skills in order to be able to speak and listen to customers without any difficulties.
- Are you punctual?
This information is necessary to see if an applicant is punctual.
- Do you have some serious health problems that can prevent you from being at work regularly?
Some applicants can consider this question discriminating but it focuses on the assessment of a person dependable being at work regularly.
- Do you plan to work at our company for a long period of time?
This is a direct question to find out if the person fits the requirements.
- Is there any possibility that you may want to discontinue your performance earlier than five years elapse?
This is a way for making sure that a woman would not leave due her maternal leave or a young man would not want to go to the army or to enter a college.
- Did you ever have conflicts with customers while speaking on the telephone?
This question will help to analyze the psychological conditions of an applicant.
Legal Issues in Questions
Some questions should not be asked because an applicant can take the company to court alleging some type of discrimination. The discrimination issues include separate lists of questions for men and women, questions that concern the ethnicity and origin matters, background and a number of children in the family asked in a question can become a reason for a law case. In this case, all applicants should be treated equally (Weiss, 2004, pp. 43-44).
It is necessary to ask whether the applicant understands all questions correctly (Steingold and Steingold, 2009, p. 20) in order to make sure that an applicant does not feel as being discriminated due to poor language skills or other factors that can make him/her take the company to the court.
References
Steingold, F. S., and Steingold, F. (2009). The employer’s legal handbook (9th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Nolo.
Weiss, D. H. (2004). Fair, square & legal: Safe hiring, managing & firing practices to keep you & your company out of court (4th ed.). New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association.