Customer Service Recruitment
Accurately Identify Future Top Performers With SGTech Solutions
Customer service professionals are on the front lines for your business day in and day out. In a world where an increasing number of purchases are made strictly with technology, it’s highly likely that a customer service rep will be the one and only human representative of your brand that a customer ever interacts with.
Great customer service can make up for weak branding and poor marketing, but all the advertising dollars in the world can’t make up for bad customer service. A recent American Express survey on customer service trends found that 33% of people would consider switching companies right away after experiencing poor service.
In a world where automation has become increasingly prevalent, especially for call center recruitment, meaningful human touch matters more than ever before. Your customer service representatives have the opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction and boost revenue every time they speak to a customer.
How important is customer service to your brand? Experienced customer service representatives leverage their roles to engage and retain customers, achieve higher profitability, expand accounts, and create incremental value. But poor customer service, costs businesses $62 billion every year according to NewVoiceMedia. An astonishing 93% of customers say they would take action after a bad experience, compared with 65% of customers who say they would recommend a company to their friends after a positive experience.
Customer Service As Part Of The Bigger Picture
When hiring for customer service roles, try to think of the customer service department as more than just an individual department in your operation. Instead, look at customer service as a key piece of your larger company strategy.
While all employees represent your brand to some extent, your customer service professionals are your figurative mascots; speaking and acting directly on the company’s behalf. How you use them and how you curate the talent in this department can shape and mold your brand perception among your customers and within the larger marketplace.
Ideally, you’ll seek out candidates who can also adopt this big-picture approach. They’ll see themselves as more than just cogs in the wheel; rather, they’ll embrace the opportunity to help determine the wheel’s direction and its success in getting to its destination.
When narrowing down candidates, look for those who approach service as part of a bigger philosophy on work rather than just a skill. Interview questions like, ‘what do you find most rewarding about your job,’ ‘what role do you play in your organization’ and ‘what core values are most important to you’ are useful in shedding light here.
Social media isn’t just for marketing; it’s the new frontier for customer service, with 63% of consumers saying they expect companies to offer customer support via their social media channels. A whopping 90% of social media users say they have already used it as a medium to connect with a brand or business.
In light of this, your customer service hiring must zero in on candidates who are fluent in social media norms and best practices—which are often different or additional skills than those of your average customer service rep. Furthermore, your social media marketing and customer service departments can’t be siloed; they must communicate and strategize to strike the right balance between promotional content and support resources.