How to Up Your Hiring Game with Call Center Skills Tests

Call center managers know keeping customers happy and building brand loyalty requires excellent customer service. However, hiring qualified customer service representatives can be challenging because they “wear many hats.” They need good verbal and written communication skills as well as multitasking and time management abilities. They also need the ability to discuss products and services with customers and be pleasant and agreeable, even with difficult (and often rude) callers.

Studies show 61% of consumers will change brands if they have even one negative experience. So, call centers HR professionals implement an industry-leading assessment solution such as the eSkill Talent Assessment Platform^TM so they can use call center skills tests to identify top applicants for customer service positions.

Why You Need Call Center Skills Tests

Call center recruiters can no longer rely on traditional applicant screening techniques such as reviewing resumes and scheduling interviews. Over 77% of applicants said they have exaggerated their qualifications and experience on their resumes, and 65% admitted that this was especially true when applying for a highly desired job.

This means hiring a candidate with a perfect resume who interviewed well could be a mistake that costs thousands of dollars. According to the US Department of Labor, a bad hire can cost 30% of an employee’s first-year earnings, and a Gallup study shows turnover costs US companies $1 trillion annually.

Staffing skill tests minimize the possibility of this happening because they show which applicants are best qualified. This enables HR teams to focus on top candidates and eliminate unqualified applicants. Using call center skills tests also minimizes the chance that unconscious bias will influence recruiting, which may help businesses avoid legal challenges.

How Call Centers Use Staffing Skills Tests

eSkill offers a variety of call center skills tests to measure candidates’ communication and listening abilities, empathy, adaptability, and problem-solving abilities. These tests employ multiple-choice, simple select, select all that apply, and true/false questions.

HR teams can use pre-prepared assessments or build customized skills tests tailored to their needs. For example, if customer service representatives are primarily responsible for processing and checking orders, recruiters can use questions from the Call Center Operator and Customer Service skills tests and add questions from the Form-Fill Data Entry Typing and Attention to Detail skills tests.

If the job is heavily focused on answering customer inquiries and problem resolution, they can build an assessment using questions that measure communication and listening skills, empathy, and problem-solving abilities and include questions from the Emotional Intelligence Skills Test.

Once candidates complete and submit call center skills tests, HR teams review the results, identify top candidates, eliminate those who do not meet the job requirements and create a shortlist.

Which Call Center Skills Tests Should You Use?

eSkill clients have access to an extensive library that contains hundreds of validated job- and subject-related skills tests. Some specifically pertain to call center operations and customer service, and others can be used to evaluate related abilities. These are examples of staffing skill tests that call centers use.

• Call Center Operator Skills Test: Evaluates candidates’ ability to answer customer inquiries, resolve problems and complaints, and explain the value of products and services.
• Customer Service Skills Test: Assesses critical customer service skills such as listening, written and verbal communication, empathy, problem-solving, and dealing with difficult callers.
• Basic Computer Skills: Measures computer proficiency and verifies candidates have good knowledge of MS Office® applications, including Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Emotional Intelligence: Evaluates candidates’ empathy and social intelligence skills, whether they interact well with customers, and their ability to use their emotions constructively.
• Email Etiquette: Verifies that applicants can create email messages using correct grammar and spelling and confirms that they understand email etiquette best practices.

HR professionals know the best way to verify candidates can do a job is to present them with situations they will encounter on the job. Therefore, they include simulations such as the following in call center skills tests.

• Inbound and Outbound Call Center Simulations: Indicates whether applicants can handle customer calls and inquiries promptly and efficiently without getting irritated or rattled.
• Multitasking Simulation: Shows you whether candidates can manage multiple tasks simultaneously and complete them all promptly, accurately, and efficiently.
• Chat Simulation: Confirms that applicants can receive and respond to customers’ chat inquiries promptly and politely.
• MS Office Simulations: Presents applicants with typical, on-the-job situations that require them to use Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Call center HR teams know some attributes, such as verbal communication and foreign language skills, cannot be measured accurately using written call center skills tests. So, they include video response questions and request applicants to record and upload responses so they and other hiring team members can evaluate and rate the answers.

Get Started with Call Center Skills Tests

Call center skills tests help you avoid costly hiring errors by enabling you and your team to identify top candidates who are likely to be successful in a job at your company. Better-qualified candidates are more productive and provide a higher quality of service, which may result in improved customer retention. Skills testing can also reduce employee turnover, helping you build a more cohesive team.

Do you want to learn how call center skills tests can help you improve quality of hire? Contact us to request a demo.