Organizations understand the importance of providing good service and know it improves client retention. So, they have increased their investment in customer service. However, service levels still do not meet customer expectations. Over 50% of consumers have not noticed any improvement in customer service, and 23% have said it has gotten worse.
When you provide clients with an excellent service experience, they often become loyal to your brand. A Zendesk report shows that customers are 81% more likely to make subsequent purchases from your company if they had a good experience during their first transaction.
A good part of an organization’s success depends on its ability to earn repeat business because almost 65% of a company’s business normally comes from repeat customers. This is significant because even a 5% increase in customer retention can boost profits by 25% to 95%.
This is why many companies implement an industry-leading skills testing solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM to identify and hire top talent.
How to Test Customer Service Skills
Traditionally, HR teams have relied on hiring tools and practices such as interviews and resumes to evaluate candidates’ skills. However, this is not an effective way to identify top candidates because the information can be inaccurate.
Over 77% of applicants lie on their resumes and during interviews. This means applicants who appear perfect for a job during an interview may fail miserably once hired because they lack the required skills and experience. Customer service assessments minimize the chances of this happening because test results show which applicants are qualified and allow HR teams to eliminate unqualified applicants.
Examples of Customer Service Assessments
Customer service skills tests are screening tools that measure candidates’ skills and abilities that pertain to the job. They are written and validated by subject matter experts (SMEs) and reviewed by one or more other SMEs. The review process is critical because it ensures the skills test provides relevant and accurate information about the candidates’ abilities and verifies that each skill test complies with federal and industry fair hiring laws and standards.
Every customer service skills test includes questions in multiple formats, such as multiple-choice, true/false, simple select, and select all that apply. The topics that are covered can vary depending on your job requirements. These are some examples of customer service assessment questions you could use in specific instances:
If the primary focus of a job is completing and processing orders, you need to recruit detail-oriented applicants with accurate typing skills. So, in this case, your customer service assessment could include questions from a test such as eSkill’s Form-Fill Data Entry Typing and Attention to Detail skills tests and questions from the Customer Service skills test.
If the employee is required to answer customers’ inquiries and solve order and delivery problems, applicants should be excellent listeners with good problem-solving skills, who can work with angry or difficult customers. In this case, you can choose questions from the eSkill Customer Service Skills Test and add questions from the Emotional Intelligence and Problem-Solving Skills tests.
When candidates have completed the required skills tests, hiring team members can review the results and rate the responses. Candidates who score high enough—according to the standards you set—move to the next step in your hiring process, and the others receive a message thanking them for applying.
Other Examples of Customer Service Assessments You Can Use
The eSkill Assessment Library contains hundreds of validated job- and subject-based skills tests. The ones you should use depend on the job you are trying to fill.
The Customer Service Skills Test is a popular choice for screening customer service representative applicants because it covers topics like adaptability, communication, problem-solving, teamwork, and collaboration.
Skills tests like the Chat Simulation and Emotional Intelligence Skills Test are good choices because virtually all customer service representatives in every industry sector need to know how to use common Chat applications and work with people effectively.
Most, if not all, customer service representatives use computers to complete job-related tasks. So, skills tests that measure computer proficiency are popular with hiring teams. Examples of customer service assessments in this category include MS Word®, MS Excel®, and Data Entry Operator.
If none of the available skills tests meet your needs, you can create customized assessments by adding or deleting questions from off-the-shelf skills tests and choosing questions from multiple tests. Let’s say you are hiring a customer service representative for a medical organization who needs strong computer skills and good math skills. In this case, you could build an assessment using questions from the Customer Service, MS Word, MS Excel, and Basic Math skills tests and add questions from the Medical Terminology Skills Test.
Examples of Customer Service Assessments to Get Started
Implementing an assessment solution like the eSkill Talent Assessment PlatformTM will help you improve the quality of candidates you hire, ultimately leading to better customer satisfaction and lower churn.
Do you want to see examples of customer service assessments you can use to build a top-flight customer service team? Contact us to request a demo.