Hiring for Customer Service: A Guide to Recruiting Top Talent

Those conducting customer-facing positions are of critical importance to the success of any business. They are often the only point of contact for customers and ultimately represent the brand. This point can be easily overlooked in the context of broader company operations. Leadership teams may encourage certain values and behaviors, but those in frontline roles have the most opportunity to convey this culture to customers.

This article highlights the critical stages of customer service representative recruitment. Doing so illustrates the function of each step and how these efforts can converge to enhance future customer-satisfaction levels. 

Define what skill-set you need 

First and foremost, businesses must understand the kinds of talent desired and what pre-ordained experiences they expect candidates to have. Through this methodology, employers can locate candidates who have the right technical skills and personality traits conducive to the business' ethos. 

Providing an applicant's style is compatible with company culture, judgments can then be made on technical capability. CSRs should embody all key competencies usually associated with interactive customer roles. Core strengths such as good communication, approachability, patience, and attentiveness should be considered a given. 

However, it's also vital not to over-filter the selection lens. Companies grow by receptivity to new approaches, so demanded skills shouldn't be overly prescriptive. Indeed, opening doors to those with slightly less sector experience can provide platforms for innovation and dynamism. Those who have worked in different industries or alternate professions may inject new energy and enterprise. Therefore, recruiters should balance the potential to inspire, and specific knowledge already acquired.

The Benefits of Multilingual Language Skills 

Whether you operate in a single country or internationally, there is a need for multilingual customer service staff. We live in multicultural societies; by offering customers the opportunity to converse in their native tongue, you break down barriers. 

These skills are particularly beneficial to technical industries like consumer electronics, gaming, and digital services. Customers often need to use more of their thought power to solve the problem they may be calling about. E-commerce is another industry that benefits as customers may reside overseas, be visiting the country of operation, or perhaps not speak fluently in the operational language. 

Multilingual customer service representatives eliminate obstacles by making services accessible and increasing customer satisfaction and retention. Satisfied customers are also likely to recommend the company to friends and family. Seamless customer experience is key to any business and serves as a growth accelerator, taking the business to new heights. 

[Get inspired 💡] How Amazon is leveraging its multilingual customer service, thanks to Pipplet

Create an attractive job description 

This process of creating a job description can take considerable levels of time and focus. It's essential to clearly, and concisely, articulate what defines the business. In essence, a job description is a sales pitch to prospective applicants. For companies in their formative stages, with little brand exposure, positioning this with impact can be challenging. 

It's worth considering elements of the role that overlap with existing internal positions. In this way, businesses can extrapolate key features they know to be already relevant to the advertised job. Furthermore, configuring job descriptions to current internal processes provides a platform for onward consistency and operational slickness.

Recruiters should also consider the deployment of language and tone. Successful enterprises embrace diversity and ensure business literature is written in inclusive handwriting. It's imperative that gender-neutral and generally sensitive terminology is applied. Studies have also shown that emphasizing job 'must-haves' can dilute interest from female applicants. A Harvard Business Review study even suggested that of the reasons why women wouldn't apply for a particular role, the 'must have' element accounted for 78% of responses. Therefore, in similarity to points raised earlier, fixation on specific skills and knowledge should be avoided. 

Spread the Message Where it Counts

The location of job advertisements hugely influences applicants' caliber, type, and volume. Simplistically, the more astutely positioned a job posting is, the more relevant the applicant profile. 

Marketplace giants such as Indeed provide the apparatus to hit huge audiences, but this rarely materializes into effective applicant leads. In the customer service bracket, quality over quantity should always be championed. Job board sites can often garner far better candidate matches to role remits. Sites such as Support Driven and CX Accelerator should be appropriately reviewed as options. 

There's also space for more tailored, deliberate approaches through channels such as LinkedIn. This allows recruiters to effectively vet candidates before contact and search through captive pools of candidates. This also facilitates personalizing messages, which resonate more with potential applicants. 

When reaching out, recruiters should demonstrate personability and restraint. A transparent, honest, and human interaction will correlate to well-informed decisions on job suitability. 

Applicant Evaluation

Candidate evaluation processes should emerge long before the interview stage. These capability checkpoints operate as excellent tools for minimizing wasted time and costs.

→ Read our complete guide about pre-employment tests 

Customer representative roles need individuals to read, digest, and manipulate information accordingly. These disciplines will need to be translated to written and verbal customer exchanges in challenging circumstances. By positioning a subtle request into adverts, recruiters can identify those who've reviewed thoroughly via the content of their response. 

It's also worth incorporating a basic screening question to help judgments on communication skills. By presenting an open question, away from technical aspects of the CSR role, a firm grasp on interactive tone and capability can be acquired. A simple, written exercise can illuminate recruiters on how individuals conduct themselves in customer relationships. 

[Get inspired 💡] How 5CA Streamlines The Hiring of Multilingual Customer service agents, with Pipplet

The big interview

Designed to identify the best talent, interviews should not focus too linearly on the daily operational functions of a Customer Service Representative. Although this provides a formal opportunity to discuss job specifics, considerable attention should be attributed to value-based conversations. 

Probing questions based on conceptual understanding, rather than one-dimensionally focused on technical knowledge, allows businesses to interview more effectively. Here, interviewers need to frame candidate responses in the context of business culture. In this scenario, recruiters for CSR positions will be keen to observe answers delivered with empathy and emotional intelligence. 

Asking questions like, 'What does good customer service look like for you?' Invite candidates to apply deeper rationale and more reflective cognitive approaches. These topics will always trump question-sets exclusively focused on the task. 

Questions that encourage story-telling are also a helpful ploy to help coax out a candidate's true customer service capability. Apart from showcasing their ability to sell a narrative, this can also serve as a vehicle to demonstrate charisma and engagement level. 

Onboarding

When a decision is finally reached, with applicant and business-aligned, onboarding can begin. Getting this right is an essential step towards successful integration, subsequent strong performance in the role, and future retention.

If recruitment has been executed well, new employees should be receptive to the company’s principles. However, procedures, processes, and policies should be appropriately explained and emphasized. 

A full debrief on products and services offered is essential, with a good holistic understanding of the business department activity. Colleagues must grasp other functions, which may help form solutions for customer issues moving forward.

Tethering them to a trusted employee for some time may also be beneficial, as they will often provide context on new surroundings and the company culture. 

Probationary Period

Most companies offer a probationary period to new employees to ensure they are a good fit and excel at their position. This is the final step in the recruitment process before a full contract is offered. This time should therefore be utilized optimally.

Ongoing support and training should be offered to the new customer service agent to perform the required tasks efficiently and effectively. While the applicant may have previous experience in customer service-based roles, they may not know the processes of their new organization or the products they are offering support on. 

Ongoing training is essential in technical customer service roles, where new and emerging products and hardware evolve. Product training with each new update allows representatives to offer the best service more quickly, and deal with more customers in a day while keeping customer satisfaction high. 

As mentioned, in the onboarding section above, a buddy system should be extended throughout the probationary period, offering the new customer service representative a trusted single point of contact for queries, constructive criticism and advice. 

Once the probationary period is completed, the probationer may be offered a contract to stay with the company, should their work be of a satisfactory standard. This is the point at which feedback can be given on their work to date to help them further excel and progress. 

[Get inspired 💡] How Shopify is Improving Multilingual Support with Pipplet

In Summary

Hiring a customer service representative should be an involved and expertly coordinated process. The service-orientated core skills that all candidates should be equipped with are essential to in-role success. However, it's also imperative that individuals fit the bill in company culture and direction.

By sculpting accurate and inclusive job descriptions and marketing the role to appropriate audiences, recruiters can source viable candidates for interviews. At this stage, a competency and values-focus approach highlights those aligned to the business vision. 

However, the interview is not the termination point of analysis. Efforts should be made to support shortlisted candidates through a test project, examining their credentials in real-world scenarios. This process allows the organization time to assess the candidates in a live setting before offering employment. 

Finally, a well-structured onboarding schedule encourages individuals to embrace business processes and routines. This will enable the successful candidate to navigate their probationary period with minimal discomfort, allowing them to integrate and excel. 

As the leading language assessment solution on the market, Pipplet is on-hand to assist recruiters in screening candidates for all departments, including customer service.

For more information on how Pipplet can help you recruit top talent, click the link to discover more.

[Discover] Pipplet pre-hiring tests for Customer Service Representatives