I have recently applied to a job in call centre and i know the question there going to ask me will be:
“Why do you feel you would be well suited for work in a call centre?”
Problem is, i have no expeirience in this feild of work. I am just wondering what good answers to this question there might be?
Cheers
Don’t make it job specific, as they know you don’t have any experience in that field. Tell them why you are well suited to learn in a new environment, give some concrete examples of you exceling in an area in which you were brand new, and how you routinely bring donuts into the office.
Well, maybe not the last one, but that should get you started. Good luck! Interviews are stressful, but a great opportunity.
If it’s customer service at a call center, a good answer is something like " I like to solve puzzles, and I imagene every call is a puzzle where you try and piece together the problem from a sometimes confused description and then solve it." Of course, only say this if you really do enjoy puzzles.
Maybe a bit about enjoying working with people, helping people, your unlimited patience etc.
I’m extremely customer focused and enjoy talking with strangers and making friends of them when possible. I like helping people become acquainted with a product I believe in–OR–I like assisting people in straightening out a situation so that they go away happy even if they call up angry. (Depending on which kind of call center you’re applying for.)
Moderator’s Notes:
Merged duplicate copies of this thread - 8/13/02 @ 11:09am CDT
Great answer, TroubleAgain. I supervised a call center for a few years, and have interviewed many, many candidates.
The call center I supervised was primarily inbound sales, and I was looking for:
Listening skills. You MUST be able to hear what the customer’s needs are, and fully answer all questions and concerns. It’s so important to match the customer’s needs with product suggestions. In a customer service center this becomes even more important. You can never assume that you know what a person is going to say, even if you’ve heard 30 people in a row with what sounds like the same concern.
The ability to think on your feet. A supervisor or peer coach will not always be right next to you to answer questions. You need to have good common sense and good judgement.
Reliability. This is paramount to the success of the call center. If you’re scheduled for 9am, you need to be there logged into your phone ready to take calls at 8:59. No exceptions. If you have issues at home that will cause you to be late or call in occasionally, don’t even bother working in a call center, because you won’t last.
Rapport building. You have about 30 seconds to make a human connection with the person on the other end of the phone. You must be able to find something in common with a wide variety of people and make that connection.
Some questions to ask your interviewer:
What are the nature of the calls? Are they sales, service, or both?
What is your philosophy on talk-time? Is the goal to keep the customer on the phone in order to build rapport and make a sale, or is the goal to get the issue resolved quickly and move on? (Our sales call center’s average talk time is 5.5 minutes. Service is 4.5 minutes. Many call centers are much lower, around 2.5 minutes. If you get this response, run.)
What percentage of the day is spent on the phones? (Normal is 80%. Higher than that and you risk burn out pretty quickly. Off-phone time includes breaks, lunches, training, meetings, etc.)
What type of training will I receive prior to taking calls, and then ongoing refresher training?
Will my pay be commission based, goal based, or flat rate? What percentage of the call center hits the goal? (80% of the call center should be hitting the goals. If not, they’re not set properly.)
Ask about monitoring and coaching policies. You should know that your calls will probably be monitored and used as coaching tools to help you improve your performance.
Ask for a tour of the call center. Check out the desk areas, noise level, phones. If possible, ask to sit with a rep to observe for a few minutes. If you’ve never worked in a call center before, this is really necessary. You need to understand what you’re signing up for.
Working in a good call center with caring management and realistic goals can be a really fun and rewarding job. But all too often call centers are managed to unrealistic goals, and expect high turnover and burnout rates. Usually you will find that “in-house” call centers (those owned by the company whose calls you’re taking) are better places to work than outsourced call centers (that take a variety of calls from several clients). Outsourced call centers vary widely in work conditions and turnover rates, mainly because their contracts are based on call handling statistics. Their goal is to churn through as many calls per hour as possible. You want to find a place where their goal is to really give each customer a great experience.
Remember - call center employees are the true face of a company, so they’re looking for someone who will represent them well.
Good luck! Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.
M’Elf
d_aguiar@prodigy.net
you can also talk about how you can stay focused/on task in a noisy environment.
As a general plan, if you have no direct experience in the field for which you’ve applied, you most likely (hopefully?) have some experience in other fields that would translate well. Customer service in a retail or food service outlet can give you some experience w/customer service over all for example.
Time management techniques are a ‘transferrable’ skill as well.
record keeping etc.