The business landscape has rapidly shifted, transitioning to a model where consumer activities increasingly take place online. Online transactions make help desks, call centers, and other means of assisting customers doubly important.

The labor market has been booming in the United States. But employers may still need help hiring call center workers to expand their businesses. This article will provide guidelines and essential tips for call centers that need to find excellent employees.

Reaching the Right Audience for Your Job Posting

Wisely hiring new employees requires careful thought. Use reputable job posting sites and tailor your listing to the workers you want to attract. Even if your company needs a hundred new call center workers, it is better to target a specific segment of the job-seeking population.

Create an Ideal Employee Persona

One of the best ways to target your job posting is to create an ideal employee persona. Experienced employees have a better chance of quickly getting up to speed and becoming productive. For example, you may be looking for a call center team member with three to five years of experience.

It would help if you focused on employees willing to work for the desired hourly or salaried rate within a specific geographic area. Alternatively, you may be ready to hire employees to work remotely from any location.

In addition to these basic requirements, you will also want to consider the range of skills your ideal candidate possesses. Technical skills like knowing customer service software should combine with interpersonal skills like patience, diplomacy, and the ability to work as part of a team.

The right employee knows much about your field or can learn quickly. Many customers may need to understand what they want or need when they contact a call center. The employee must think on their feet and present creative solutions. Simply reading from a script is not enough to succeed, no matter how complex your customer service software may be.

Target Advertising

After creating your ideal employee persona, it is wise to target your advertising to attract these individuals. At talroo.com, we can set up a programmatic job search for your company. Our system is more effective than other alternatives and will provide excellent results. Our company can also offer job advertising services.

Hold a Hiring Event

Hiring events attract many candidates, giving your company a broad range of applications. These events raise companies’ public profile and help to attract the best potential employees. Our company can manage these events in-person and online. By reaching candidates where they are, there are fewer barriers to hiring from a larger employee pool.

Interviewing Tips and Techniques for Call Centers

Hiring call center workers requires screening many candidates. Call center work can be challenging, and it is not for everyone. Consider interview questions that separate experienced, teachable, and unsuitable candidates into distinct groups for your review.

Sample Interview Questions

Here are several sample questions that will help your company sort potential workers. You will want to customize this set by adding your questions.

1. What Does Ideal Customer Service Mean to You?

When answering this question, potential employees should demonstrate that they understand the basics of taking care of the customer. Ideally, they will refer to their skills and how they apply these at work.

2. Give Me an Example of a Time When You Have Received Excellent Customer Service.

Personal stories are a window into the employee’s attitude but beware of candidates who have an ax to grind. They may show that they do not have the patience and diplomacy needed to be a great call center representative.

3. What did you like most and least about your previous job?

Again, be cautious about candidates who vent about their previous job, as negative attitudes will stay with them. Qualities like getting along well with co-workers, solving new problems, and having personal contact with customers at previous jobs could be great applicants.

4. How Do You Approach Conversations With the Customer?

The best candidates may mention that they approach customer interactions with patience and an open mind. As stated earlier, only some customers know what they need when they call customer service.

5. What Skills Would You Consider Necessary for a Call Center Employee?

Customers may need guidance in using a website or app, requiring teaching skills. They may need to vent their feelings about the product, and employees must be patient listeners. Customers may have problems the worker cannot answer and need a referral to a higher-level employee.

6. How Do You Handle Conflict in the Workplace?

Conflict could arise between customers and employees or between individual employees. This interview question could provide a window into the candidate’s personality and people skills.

7. Are You Familiar With Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software?

Consider selecting candidates with experience. Training candidates to do so may be a daunting task if they have never used CRM software. Employees skilled with another type of software may find it easier to learn the programs you use.

8. Allow the Candidate To Ask You Questions of Their Choice.

Letting the candidate ask questions shows that you care about their needs. You can also get to know candidates by what kind of questions they ask.

Be Willing To Go Off-script

You may have an established set of questions you want to present to your candidate. But it is wise to explore new questions depending on how the interview progresses. Potential employees may have insights about the job or themselves as call center workers.

Avoid Questions That Trap the Candidate

While some interviewers believe that questions intended to throw off the candidate can show how they react in an unpredictable situation, they can make the best potential employees uncomfortable. It is better to ask open-ended questions that give scope for creativity. 

Another tactic that may provide helpful information about your candidate is presenting situations with no truly positive answers, also known as “no-win” questions. The “no-win” question will be valid if the candidate knows that the interviewer does not expect them to solve the problem. Instead, the candidate will provide the creative thinking steps that could produce the best compromise.

Take Comprehensive Notes

You will have a large pool of potential employees if all goes well. Notes allow you to compare employees at a glance, reminding you of their interviews and considering their strengths and weaknesses. Taking well-organized notes helps to organize applications and prioritize the qualities you want in a candidate.

Special Considerations for Virtual Interviews

Virtual interviews have their own set of challenges. It is harder to understand a candidate’s body language and state of mind while interviewing over the phone or via video chat. Rather than relying on your perception of a candidate’s personality and skills, ask more targeted questions in a remote interview. Include questions that touch on the employee’s values and inner thoughts.

Tips for Hiring Call Center Workers

Here are comprehensive tips for hiring call center employees:

Check References

Always call candidates’ references. Candidates tend to present themselves in their best light when completing resumes, cover letters, and applications. Interviewing all references from previous jobs will give a complete picture of the candidate’s ability to meet their responsibilities.

Complete Background Checks

Companies should always run background checks on potential employees. Background checks cover a candidate’s driving record, credit information, and criminal history. Knowing a candidate’s past can help to predict future problems. Some companies choose not to take a chance with people with negative background check entries.

Consider Work-from-Home Issues

Hiring call center workers can come with challenges. Suppose the candidate has too many distractions in the home or does not have work-from-home experience. You will want to ensure they can mitigate these conditions for maximum productivity. Some candidates do better in a physical office.

Hiring Management Employees

Most of these tips will help when hiring managers for your call center, but there are a few specific issues to address:

• Call center managers have stressful jobs, so you should ask interview questions addressing how they handle a high-pressure environment.
• Make sure that your candidates have relevant experience. Call centers can quickly become chaotic without a quality manager at the helm.
• Ask questions about their managerial style. A hands-on management style is best for a call center.

Maximizing Call Center Hiring Success

Hiring call center employees in today’s changing business environment can be difficult, and skilled employees are looking for work. If you use our techniques for hiring call center workers, you should be able to find enough people to keep your business running.

When your company needs many new call center workers, you may need to go beyond traditional hiring methods. Talroo can help your company succeed in today’s challenging labor market and ensure that you have both productive and effective employees.