How to Implement a Good Assessment Process for Recruiting Customer Service Representatives

When advertising for customer service representatives, it is common for businesses to receive hundreds of applications. To be exact, 2.8 million people in the US work as customer service reps, and the industry has a turnover of 30-40%, which is almost 15% more than the national average. 

Nevertheless, as in other jobs, it is not easy to sort through the amount of applications received for each opening position. This is why evaluating an applicants' soft and hard skills before the interview is best practice and will save you time and resources. It will also ensure only the best candidates get through to the interview stage. 

In this article, we explain how to do this. 

Language and Communications skills Assessment

Communication is at the heart of customer service. Your customer service representatives must speak fluently in your customers' language to ensure ease of communication and comprehension. And when the company has a global customer base; it is essential to hire multilingual customer service representatives. 

Testing language and assessing writing skills help you shortlist candidates for interviews with a specific language and writing proficiency standard.

Cover letters, Essay, and Competency Style Questions

There are several ways you can evaluate and assess prospective employees' language and writing skills. One way of assessing written skills is by setting essay style or competency-based questions as part of the application process. You could also request that candidates write a cover letter to support their application. However, the downside to this approach is that it can be time-consuming to review lengthy written documents, and you’ll be able to assess the written skills only. 

Specialized Tools

Another way is by using specialized tools designed for the recruiters to test candidates' oral and written language skills. 

Pipplet's screening tool allows you to test oral and written language skills at a distance. This helps you filter prospective candidates according to language level. Candidates can take the test online, and the results are received in as little as 24 hours. 

An advantage of using tests as part of the application process is that it will help to filter out applicants who are not committed to the process and driven to get the job, because it adds a layer that requires more time and effort. This approach ensures only the most passionate applicants make it to the interview stage. 

Testing Soft Skills

According to research by LinkedIn, 92% of recruiters believe that soft skills matter at least as much as hard skills, or perhaps even more. 

Why are such skills critical? 

And they are right: a recent study by the McKinsey institute claims that 70% of your customer's decisions are based on how they feel your business treated them. Indeed, it’s easier to train employees’ hard skills like using a CRM system, for example, than things like teamwork, empathy, patience, and humor. 

First, you should identify the soft skills you need in a customer service representative. This would typically include skills like problem-solving, teamwork, listening and communication, and personal qualities such as empathy, confidence, patience, and resilience. 

Then you can assess them. There are several ways you can do this. 

Personality Testing

An online personality test will allow you to get to know your candidates better before meeting them than you would be able to with a CV alone. Personality questionnaires can help you determine if a candidate will fit your company and have the attributes required to succeed in the role. You can measure specific behavior indicators with a personality questionnaire to reveal characteristics. It will allow you to assess whether a candidate has traits such as problem-solving, empathy, flexibility, motivation, resilience, and much more. 

Competency Multiple Choice Q&A

Another way to test the soft skills of your candidates is by including a competency-based questionnaire as part of your application process. This will allow you to craft questions based on the specific role advertised and your business environment. You can provide candidates with hypothetical scenarios and ask them to select their most likely response from a set of multiple-choice answers. The upside of using a competency-based questionnaire is that it should indicate how a candidate would respond in everyday customer service situations. 

Testing Computer Skills

Customer service has evolved in line with technological advancements. Today's client facing representatives must have sufficient technical skills to carry out their roles in an environment where tools such as live chat, social media, and CRM systems are commonly used to support customers. 

If your customer service representatives provide technical support to customers, you may also want to look for candidates with superior IT skills. 

Once you have outlined the technical skills that a customer service representative must have, it's a good idea to test prospective candidates during the application process. 

As with language and writing, you can use online tests to assess prospective employees' technical and IT skills. Doing so will save you time by filtering out candidates who do not meet the required standards before interviewing begins. 

Another way to test the technical aptitude of your candidates is by asking a series of targeted technical questions on your application form, which relate directly to the role. This will help you gauge whether a candidate has the theoretical knowledge and understanding of the systems and technology they will be using. However, the downside to this approach is that you won't be assessing the practical skills required. 

Filtering Candidates will Save you Time

Having a good evaluation process for assessing candidates' soft and hard skills will help save you time and resources. This ensures applicants are filtered out where the required skills, knowledge, and attitude are lacking. 

The best way to test the hard skills of your applicants before the interview is by using online tests designed to assess skills such as language, writing, and technical skills. As well as ensuring those shortlisted have the required hard skills to carry out the role. 

How Pipplet Can Help

It is essential to have a solid approach to the applicant evaluation for any role, including a customer service representative. Fortunately, Pipplet provides a language assessment solution that helps recruiters evaluate language and communication, both written and oral at the application stage.

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