5 Crucial Interview Tips for Customer Service Professionals

Performing well in an interview is especially important for customer service professionals. Interview skills overlap with customer service skills, so employers rightly assume that friendly, professional interviewees will provide good customer service.

Want to nail your customer service interview? Use your interview to showcase the skills you need to succeed on the job. 

By proving to interviewers you have the skills needed to succeed in customer service rather than simply telling them, you will stand out. Here are five interview tips for customer service professionals to help you ace your next interview:

1. Arrive Prepared

Customer service professionals always need to be prepared. To show employers you think ahead, print out copies of your resume and cover letter on high-quality resume paper and bring them to your interview. Then, give each interviewer a copy when you introduce yourself.

Having your resume and cover letter on hand also can help steady your nerves during the interview, because holding a portfolio looks professional and gives you something to do with your hands instead of fidgeting. 

Further, if you’re asked about your skills and freeze up due to nerves, you can easily glance at your resume. Having your skills on your resume — along with your experiences — right in front of you will help you come up with answers, so you’re never at a loss for what to say.

In the days before the interview, think through what questions you might be asked, and how you might answer them. You can do this by reading through lists of common interview questions and practising responses out loud. Brainstorm specific examples from your professional experience you can share that illustrate your skills and show you’re right for the job. 

2. Act Friendly and Sociable 

No one hires a shy customer service professional. If you’re shy, or even just nervous about the interview, you have to find some way to hide it. If you get nervous easily, you might want to practice deep breathing before the interview. Your voice, body language, and words should convey that you’re friendly and sociable. 

You want to convince the interviewer that you have strong communication skills and feel comfortable talking to anyone about anything.

As soon as you meet the interviewer, greet them with a warm smile. Even though they should know who you are, remind them by introducing yourself by name. 

Take the lead when it comes to social niceties, by saying something like, “Nice to meet you” or “Thanks for inviting me in.” This will reinforce that you have an outgoing personality.

It’s vital that you don’t just save your charm for the interviewer. Be friendly to everybody you meet in the office — not only the person who interviews you. People talk. If you interact with the front desk staff, or if an employee greets you and walks you to the interview, you want to impress them too, since your interaction might come up with the hiring manager. 

With everyone you meet, introduce yourself, smile, and ask how their day is going. You can even ask how they like the company, but don’t ask any questions you wouldn’t want them to repeat to your interviewer.

3. Be Honest and Confident

A difficult part of customer service work is staying upbeat in the face of angry, argumentative customers. 

Although you won’t face an angry interviewer, you might find some difficult interview questions tossed your way. Expect such questions, because employers will want to know how you react under pressure, or handle a situation where someone asks you a question you don’t fully understand (or don’t have an answer for).

If an employer asks what you would do in a particular situation and you aren’t sure, be both honest and confident in your answer. Don’t pretend you know something if you don’t. It’ll be obvious to the interviewer if you’re guessing, so don’t make up a fake answer to sound knowledgeable. Also, don’t say, “I don’t know” and become nervous and quiet. 

Instead, tell them you’re not completely sure, then quickly and confidently explain how you’d find the answer to the question. Emphasize that you’re eager to learn company policies, and will act in accordance with your supervisor’s instructions. 

4. Expect the Unexpected

In the same vein, be prepared for unexpected questions. Customer service professionals see it all when it comes to human behaviour. 

You have to remain calm and professional regardless of what a customer says or does. For this reason, interviewers might test how you react to something unpredictable.

This isn’t to say that you should expect the interviewer to be mean to you or try to trick you. That would be unprofessional on their part. 

But, they could put you on the spot by saying something along the lines of “Sell me this pencil.” If they say or do anything unusual, stay centred and maintain your professionalism at all times. 

Employers don’t just want to hear you tell them that you’ll provide good customer service to their customers. They want to see your customer service abilities in action and know that you can provide great service at all times. 

By maintaining your cool, keeping a smile on your face, and not letting anything undermine you even when dealing with something unexpected, you’ll demonstrate to the interviewer that you have what it takes to maintain composure and positively represent their company.

5. Ask Questions

Prepare a list of questions you can ask the interviewer. Asking questions shows your interest in the position and that you’ve come to the interview prepared. 

Additionally, asking questions signals that you’d ask questions if you ran into problems as an employee. When asking questions, don’t interrogate the interviewer. Two or three questions should be enough. 

Also, wait to ask your questions at an appropriate time (most likely at the end of the interview). Finally, don’t interrupt the interviewer to ask your questions.

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Takeaway

Remember, how you present yourself in a customer service interview is just as important as what you say. You want to project confidence and friendliness and make the interviewer like and feel comfortable around you. 

If you successfully model important customer service skills during your interview, you’ll be one of the interviewer’s top picks for the position. Check out these 40+ customer service interview questions and sample answers to help you prepare for your next customer service job interview.

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