What Do Customer Service Assessment Tests Measure?

The most important elements of a positive customer experience for most Americans is prompt service and product knowledge according to a recent PWC study. However, a Bloomberg report shows call center wait times have tripled due to the Great Resignation. This is significant because 61% of consumers are likely to change brands if they have a single negative customer service interaction.

This problem is not unique to call centers. Other customer-facing businesses are also struggling with large-scale resignations and talent shortages, mainly due to inefficient hiring practices and excessive bad hires.

To improve hiring outcomes, organizations can partner with a leading skills testing solution provider such as eSkill to develop customer service assessments that help them quickly identify candidates who have the required knowledge and experience.

Why Use Customer Service Pre-Employment Tests?

Recruiters have learned they can no longer rely on traditional applicant screening techniques such as reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. The information is often unreliable because more than 77% of applicants exaggerate their qualifications and experience. This means a new hire who seems like a dream come true could end up being their worst nightmare. 

Customer service assessments help them virtually eliminate the chances of this occurring because they provide hard data that confirms which applicants have the required skills, abilities, and talents. Customer service pre-employment tests also help organizations ensure compliance with fair hiring practices and standards by minimizing the chance that unconscious bias could influence hiring decisions.

How to Test Applicants’ Customer Service Skills

Customer service assessments include different types of questions such as multiple-choice, simple select, select all that apply, and true/false. You can use pre-prepared assessments or build customer service pre-employment tests that match your needs by choosing questions from multiple skills tests. The topics covered can vary depending on your needs and the job requirements.

For instance, if a job’s primary focus is inputting and processing orders, you can include questions from the Form-Fill Data Entry Typing and Attention to Detail skills tests and relevant questions from the Customer Service skills test. If the job requires handling customer inquiries and problem resolution, you can choose questions that assess listening, empathy, and problem-solving abilities and include questions from the Emotional Intelligence skills test.

Once applicants complete and submit customer service pre-employment tests, your team can sort them by score and review cumulative scores and section-specific data. Then you have the information you need to create a shortlist of candidates capable of delivering the quality of service your customers deserve.

Which Customer Service Assessments Should You Use?

The eSkill Assessment Library contains hundreds of validated job- and subject-related skills tests. These include customer service pre-employment tests and assessments that evaluate other essential abilities. These are some examples of skills tests you might use.

• Customer Service: Questions evaluate candidates’ listening and empathy skills, teamwork and collaboration, problem-solving, and sales abilities.
• Basic Computer Skills: If a job requires good computer skills, this assessment test candidates’ knowledge of MS Office® applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Emotional Intelligence: If a job requires a lot of customer interaction, this test evaluates applicants’ social intelligence, empathy, and ability to use their emotions productively.
• Email Etiquette: If applicants will communicate with customers by email, this assessment shows you if they can format and write email messages using correct grammar and spelling and if they understand email etiquette.

The best way to verify whether candidates can do a job is to ask them to complete tasks they would perform during a typical workday. So, you should also consider including one or more of the following simulations in customer service assessments.

• Inbound/Outbound Call Center Simulations: Tests applicants’ ability to answer and handle customer calls and inquiries promptly and efficiently without getting flustered.
• Multitasking Simulation: Shows you whether candidates can handle multiple tasks promptly, accurately, and efficiently.
• Chat Simulation: Confirms that applicants can receive and respond to customer inquiries promptly and politely via chat.
• MS Office Simulations: Presents applicants with typical job-related tasks that require them to use MS Office applications such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

If a job requires extensive phone interaction with customers or requires fluency in a foreign language, you should also consider including video response questions. You record questions, and applicants record and upload their responses so you and your team can evaluate and rate their answers.

Get Started with Customer Service Pre-Employment Tests

Customer service assessments help minimize hiring mistakes by allowing you to identify top applicants with a high probability of performing a job well and being an asset to your company. If you hire better-qualified candidates, you will improve the quality of customer service you provide, which will lead to better customer retention and less staff turnover.

Do you want to learn how customer service pre-employment tests can help you recruit top customer service representatives? Contact us to request a demo.