How to Assess Customer Service Skills During the Interview Process

Organizations know providing top customer service is critical because 61% of consumers say they would change brands if they had a negative customer service experience. Unfortunately, improving service quality is much easier said than done.

Although companies have increased their investment in customer service, they are not meeting customers’ expectations. Studies show over 50% of consumers have not noticed any improvement, and 23% say customer service is worse. 

Recruiting candidates to fill customer service representative roles is difficult because representatives wear so many hats. They must be good verbal and written communicators and excellent multitaskers, demonstrate good time management, and understand the products and services their company sells. They must also be friendly and understanding and have a thick skin when it comes to working with difficult or rude customers.

Therefore, business leaders choose to implement a leading assessment solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM. Hiring teams need the ability to create customer service skills assessments to recruit qualified candidates to fill essential customer service jobs.

Why Customer Service Skills Assessments Are Important

HR professionals have long relied on job applications, resumes, and interviews to identify top candidates. Unfortunately, this information is often inaccurate.  Over 77% of applicants admit to lying on their resumes and during interviews or say they have exaggerated their qualifications and experience.

Therefore, a candidate whose resume looks perfect and who sounds great during an interview could be completely unfit for a job because they lack the required skills and experience.

Customer service skills assessments lessen the chance of this happening because the results show which applicants are best qualified and allow HR teams to eliminate applicants from consideration if they lack the required skills and experience. Because decision-makers rely on hard data instead of gut feel, skills assessments also minimize the chance that unconscious bias will taint hiring. Thus, organizations avoid legal challenges and can ensure compliance with fair hiring practices.

How to Assess Customer Service Skills

Clients and prospects often ask us how to assess customer service skills. All eSkill clients have access to an assessment library with hundreds of validated job- and subject-based skills tests. Many can be used to evaluate essential customer service skills such as verbal and written communication, listening, adaptability, empathy, and problem-solving abilities.

Hiring teams can use the pre-prepared assessments as-is or customize customer service skills assessments by adding or deleting questions. They can also build an assessment from scratch by choosing questions from multiple skills tests.

For example, if a new hire will be responsible for inputting and verifying orders, they can select questions from the Customer Service Skills Test and add questions from the Form-Fill Data Entry Typing and Attention to Detail skills tests.

If the job focuses on answering customer inquiries and resolving order and shipping problems, they can build a customer service skills assessment using questions from the Customer Service Skills Test and add questions from the Listening, Emotional Intelligence, and Problem-Solving skills tests.

Once candidates have completed and submitted customer service skills assessments, HR professionals can quickly identify top candidates and eliminate the ones who do not meet the job requirements.

Which Types of Customer Service Skills Assessments Are Most Effective?

Customer representatives need abilities in a variety of areas. We typically recommend that HR teams use customer service skills assessments and tests such as:

• Customer Service Skills Test: Includes questions on various customer service skills such as listening, empathy, problem-solving, and communication.
• Basic Computer Skills: Tests computer proficiency to ensure candidates have a good command of MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Emotional Intelligence: Helps hiring teams evaluate candidates’ empathy and social intelligence skills, determine if they can build rapport with customers, and use their emotions productively.
• Email Etiquette: Shows whether applicants understand basic email etiquette and can format and write email, text, and chat messages using correct grammar and spelling.

HR leaders know one of the best ways to verify candidates can do a job is to ask them to complete tasks they will be expected to perform. So, many add simulations to customer service skills assessments. The eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM includes the following simulations:

• Inbound and Outbound Call Center Simulations: Confirms applicants can answer and handle all types of customer calls and inquiries promptly, efficiently, and politely.
• Multitasking Simulation: Shows whether candidates can handle multiple tasks simultaneously without compromising accuracy and efficiency and without getting flustered.
• Chat Simulation: Helps verify that applicants can use popular Chat applications to receive and respond to customer inquiries.
• MS Office Simulations: Presents candidates with specific job-related tasks that require Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Get Started with Customer Service Skills Assessments

Customer service skills assessments help businesses like yours avoid expensive hiring mistakes by helping hiring teams identify top applicants with a high probability of success in a job. When you hire top candidates, you improve the quality of customer service your company delivers, which leads to improved customer retention and profitability.

Are you ready to learn how to assess customer service skills so you can build a service team that will delight your customers? Contact us to request a demo.