U.S. companies are set to lose $83 billion every year because of bad customer retention strategies. Bad customer service costs companies over $3.7 trillion per year. In contrast, companies that deliver good service thrive because 86% of customers go out of their way to do business with companies that provide exemplary service.
About 65% of your revenue comes from repeat business. If you increase your customer retention rate by as little as 5%, you can boost your profits by 25% to 95%. The first step toward establishing a loyal customer base and improving retention is to build a superior customer service team. So, many companies implement top assessment solutions and use customer service assessment tests to recruit top talent.
What Attributes Do Customer Service Assessments Measure?
Customer service representatives wear many hats, and service-related jobs differ by organization. Here are some skills hiring teams look for when hiring customer service representatives:
- Positive Attitude: When employees are positive, their attitude rubs off on customers. Applicants should demonstrate that they can look at situations favorably and optimistically and approach problems with a positive outlook. This shows professionalism, increases customer satisfaction, and makes a good impression of your business on clients and prospects.
- Good Listener: Candidates who are good listeners can focus on what a customer says, size up a situation, and decide what action to take. This is important because it’s impossible to help a client unless you completely understand their problem so you can determine the best way to help.
- Empathy: Applicants should be able to show that they understand how people think and how they will react in a specific situation. If a customer has a problem, a customer service representative who displays empathy shows that they understand why the customer is upset and want to help.
- Emotional Intelligence: Great customer service representatives can relate to all types of people and are particularly good at managing frustrated and angry clients. They intuitively understand the customer’s point of view and can empathize with their situation, rather than take things personally and get upset.
- Problem-Solving: Candidates with good problem-solving skills are good at resolving issues and finding solutions. They can define problems, understand the underlying cause, decide on the best remedy, and decide what action is needed.
- Communication skills: Faulty and ambiguous communication can cause misunderstandings and confusion, leading to incorrect orders and lost business. Candidates who are good communicators can articulate messages clearly both verbally and in writing.
- Patience: Customer service representatives often deal with angry customers, so they need to be patient and able to work through complex situations without expressing frustration or irritation. They must also remain calm and demonstrate that they want to help, even if the caller is angry or abusive.
- Resourcefulness: Good customer service representatives are excellent problem solvers. Great ones go the extra mile by infusing warmth and personality into every exchange, inspiring customers to tell their friends. This is not an attribute that you can teach. Candidates either have it or they don’t.
- Adaptability: Customer service representatives need to be able to think on their feet and handle unusual requests. They cannot anticipate every problem a client might have, so if a situation is not covered during training or in the corporate policy manual, reps must use their best judgment to decide what to do.
- Technical Knowledge: Customer service representatives often talk to customers or prospects who are considering doing business with their company. So, they must understand their company’s products and services and be able to explain the value they offer.
How Customer Service Assessment Tests Help Companies
Customer service representatives are the face of your company and brand and play an essential role in helping you build a loyal customer base. These are a few ways customer service assessments help you hire top candidates:
- Expedite Initial Applicant Screening: Instead of wasting hours reviewing resumes, hiring teams can evaluate and rank applicants by reviewing their customer service assessment scores. They can then instantly identify the candidates who are best qualified and move them to the next step of the hiring process.
- Customize Assessments: HR professionals can create customer service assessment tests tailored to each job role. They can choose off-the-shelf customer service assessments from an assessment library and add and delete questions or build skills tests from scratch by selecting questions from multiple assessments.
- Decrease Hiring Errors: Hiring mistakes negatively impact productivity, harm staff morale, and are expensive. A bad hire can cost thousands of dollars when you include recruiting expenses, staff disruption, loss of customer goodwill, and potential litigation. Customer service assessment tests provide the information you need to make good hiring decisions.
- Reduce Unconscious Bias: Using customer service assessments minimizes the risk of unconscious bias impacting your hiring decisions because recruiters and managers make hiring decisions by using hard data instead of relying on gut feel.
Get Started with Customer Service Assessments
Customer service assessment tests provide HR teams with measurable data about applicants’ skills and abilities, helping them recruit candidates who can help their company improve service levels and increase customer retention.
Do you want to see how customer service assessmentshelp you build a strong service and support team? Contact eSkill to request a demo.
