Top 50 Call Center Interview Questions & Answers

The call center is a service desk, where the customer associate handles a large volume of calls to render services to the client.

The types of a call center are

• Inbound Call Center
• Outbound Call Center

Inbound Call Center: In an inbound call center, customer associate will receive the calls regarding the customer’s queries or demands. For example,  Customer is calling a Telecom Company to know the current tariff on internet service they provide.

Outbound Call Center:  In an outbound call center, customer associate will make calls to their customer, regarding business or sales related. Example: When you receive a call from a bank offering a personal loan.

This question is asked by the interviewer to know your awareness of the job profile. So based on your answer, they will decide what role or position they will assign to you. For instance, if you say that call center is about dealing with customer problems, they will put assign you customer associate Role. On the contrary,  if you answer that a call center is a new business zone, where youngsters are employed in numbers and get an opportunity to develop their career, they might put you in an HR department.

This question is an opportunity for you to showcase your talent and skill.  You can convince the interviewer by bringing to their attention the talent you got and depict how perfect you are for that job. Also, you can mention some innovative ideas or concept that can help increase organization profitability and credibility.
You can answer this question by saying that my past experience, my education, and my personality actually fits the job. I am a hard-working guy and a quick learner.  Also, I like the concept or idea that the company is working on, and that is what exactly I was looking for.

Any business depends upon the quality of the service offered to the customer.  To do so, you need to understand the customer’s need and problems. You have to think from their point of view and try to meet their demands and requirements. This is what “Customer Satisfaction” is.

The key features for customer service executive are-

• Professionalism
• Politeness
• Friendly
• Courteous
• Helpful

As I am an extrovert person and I like to interact with people, call center job is perfect for me. I like to resolve customer’s queries and face the challenges positively.  Also, the pace of work in the call center and team members friendliness always motivates me to work for call centers.

This is the common question you might face in an interview.  So, before the interview, do your homework and jot down your strengths like subject knowledge, computer skills, communication, etc.  Also, how you can relate your strength to your current job. For example,   you should have a good hold on some language like English, or you have some good marketing skill or have the ability to convince others as a good call center employee.

The first thing that I will do is to stay calm and listen to the customer’s problem and try to figure out what made him/her annoyed. The next thing I will do is ask politely to the customer to calm down. Then I will assure him/her to solve their problem. The last thing that I will do is to identify the root-cause that creates problem to the customer, fix it, and ensure it never happens again. Also, learning from the mistake can be used to improve the company process and policy.

Good listening skill, problem-solving, concentration, and patience are some key features that make a perfect customer associate.

To handle a pressure situation, I always try to keep the focus on work and avoid frustration.

If you are fresher and you don’t have years of experience, then you can mention something that can relate you with a call center.  Example, I have worked in desktop support, or I am holding a certificate for mass communication, etc. If you are experienced, narrate the same.

• By phone
• Public relationship
• Face to face

This question means how many words you can type in a minute. If you know the number, you can mention it but if you don’t know then just tell that you are good at typing skills.

If you have an experience of handling multiple calls, then narrate the same. In case you don’t have experience mention that once training is provided, I could handle multiple calls with ease.

This is a question often asked for call center jobs. Many multi-national companies outsource their work to other countries. Such companies demand for night shifts as their working hours might be our sleeping hours. So based on your preference, you can reply to this question.

Call centers always look for an employee with excellent communication skills, and you can rate yourself near 8-9 out of 10.

A call center is all about providing quality service to the customer. If you are good at handling customer well and offering a good service, then you can be successful in the call center.

• Greet Customer
• Introduce yourself to customer
• Ask the customer how you can be helpful to him/her
• Listen to the customer patiently
• Try to help the customer with the best possible solution
• Cross check with the customer if he/she is satisfied with the solution
• Make sure whether the customer need any further assistance

Any work in an organization requires teamwork. So, the answer to this question should always be positive.

The virtual call center provides a technology or software service, through which the customer associate or agent can connect to their customer from any location. This technology involves the host server and the equipment to run the call center. This service is rendered on a monthly or annual subscription. Agents can connect to the host server and can get access to the customer data. The benefit of a virtual call center is that you can work from home.

Depending on the situation, I could do multi-tasking or could tackle one problem at a time. But multi-tasking always has the upper hand because it increases your efficiency at the call center.

If the customer is not happy with the answer or solution, then I will ask the customer to hold the line and pass on the call to a manager or a team leader.

For improved customer service, my approach would be to take feedback from the customer and ask them how we can improve in solving their problem and render them a good service.

In the middle of handling phone, if the system crashes, then I will ask the customer to hold for some time till  I get power back up and if not then try to resolve his/her problem with my knowledge. The best thing in such a situation is to ask the customer to call back or note his contact details so you can call once the system is back.

The key attributes of a call center executive are

• Friendly attitude
• Ask the right questions
• Accurate answers to the customer query
• Professional phone relationship
• Be the face of the organization
• View a customer’s complaint as an opportunity to gain the customer’s respect
• Resolve complaints patiently

To deal with a demanding customer, you need to do the following things

• Listen to customer actively
• Rephrase their concerns
• Present a viable solution
• Take action and follow up
• Fix the problem at hand immediately
• Use the feedback
• Reduce the unpleasant situation by doing proper research and preparation

Customer service can be measured on the following basis,

• Number of repeat customers
• Number and type of customer complaints received
• Number of referrals given by current customers
• Sales figure if service is product based
• Customer satisfaction surveys
• Benchmarking service with competitors
• The rate at which number of customers enrolled in your service
• Number of returns

To turn down a request from a valued client, you have to

• Remain polite and well mannered
• Adhere to company’s policies
• Explain the situation or reason for denial
• Try to remain reliable to customer

To handle negative feedback from angry clients,

• Customer representative should be able to manage customer without being dominated
• He should not be overwhelmed by a disapproving customer
• Try to listen and understand customer issue before going after suggestions or solution

To improve customer interaction,

• Admit your mistakes even before your customer does and apologize
• Take follow up if a problem is solved
• Practice active listening, so your customer feel heard
• Try to identify a common interest or liking with the customer

• Apologize and offer a better option
• Act quickly and resolve the customer complaint
• Take responsibility for what made a customer unhappy
• Compensate customer with a better deal or free service

• Use internet service to contact a customer on social media
• Use mobile often to reach maximum customers by sending personalized context-relevant offers or services
• Customer Interactions must be relevant to customers interest to gain their trust and encourage them
• Analyze the customer data and behavior using a business intelligence tool to understand its expectation for the service you offer
• Use cloud platform to keep your service updated with the latest technology and with minimum expenses

Before implementing a CRM solution to your business, you need to take care of the following things

• CRM strategy: CRM only works when there is a clear picture of why the organization is doing it and how it helps to improve customer service
• Choose the right CRM partner: A best CRM solutions are flexible and have a full integration capability with any other systems in your business
• Identify the highest priority: Implement a CRM solution for the highest priority and return area first

To get responsive customer feedback,

• Offer feedback options on every page of your site
• Present visitors with easy feedback form by giving them a selective option
• Give visitors easy-to-use rating systems
• Give option for a newsletter to skip or to register
• Deliver feedback to the responsible person directly via email notification
• Avoid multiple choice of answers instead encourage customer for descriptive feedback

Departed customer analysis can help your organization in the following ways:

• Get valuable insight on why your customer departed from you
• Which competitor is being selected to replace your company service
• What was the expectation of your former clients
• Help to understand weakness and gaps within the product line or services.

Before conducting a survey for customer service satisfaction,

• First, consider the objective of the survey
• Make your survey accessible online
• Keep open-ended questions and keep survey narrative
• Consider negative feedback equivalent to the positive feedback it is equally important
• Select the survey method that can yield real information in real time
• Target putting questions that are relevant to service

For better customer service tools that are used

• Freshdesk
• Zendesk
• Assistly
• Zoho support
• Kayako
• UserVoice
• Conversocial
• Get Satisfaction etc.

The key aspect of improving customer service,

• Data analysis: Analyze the preferences of customers based on the data collections
• Automation of business process: To improve customer satisfaction and to speed up the business process implement the automation of the business process
• Self-service optimization: Explore new ways for customer interaction with your business
• Workforce effectiveness: Integrate new tools and technology to improve customer service

I have retrieved several support emails that we received from our clients and figured out that several questions were asked repetitively. I searched online forums and knowledge base to find out the solution for these questions. I made a document of the solution, which is now accessible to the customer. It was cost effective and helped reduce common repetitive questions from the client.

To build customer loyalty, you need to

• Track customer retention by surveying your customers
• Analyze the data to see how many customers are new and how many are returning for your service
• Focus on converting new customers into returning customers as a plan of your customer retention plan
• Encourage employees to build connections with customers
• Solicit feedback from the customer, so they feel that their opinions matter

While creating a customer newsletter, you need to include the following –

• General information about your company
• Purpose of the newsletter- Promotions, events, upcoming sales, and new services/ products
• Any photos related to the content
• Any discount or coupons that may be included in your offer

To deal with abusive customers,

• Give a positive response: Assure the customer that you are there to help him and tell them that you require specific information from them to carry forward
• Personalize the conversation: Personalize with the conversation and call the customer by name and refer to their company by the name
• Declare your intent and boundaries: Let your customer know that you can solve the problem, and their demands are reasonable. You should not allow the customer to continue if they are too much aggressive; it’s time to use other strategies
• Transfer the call: The best way is to switch on the call to the most experienced personnel or supervisor. Sooner you transfer the call, the customer will calm down –it’s natural psychology.
• Discontinue the conversation: Warn customer if he continues with abusive slang, you will end the conversation. If the customer is still abusive even after speaking to them politely, it’s better to discontinue the conversation by telling them to contact the customer service complaint department for further discussion.

To resolve the problem to customer’s Satisfaction, you need to follow the following techniques.

• Talk to the customer: Standard emails or letters might work in some cases, but often you can achieve more quickly with a phone call. It will make feel customer more personal and understand their complaint
• Figure out the problem and requirement: Listen carefully to your customers need carefully and ask them what they want
• Ask about wider issues: Ask open-ended questions like – is he happy with your service or product? What other feedback does he want to give?
• Offer something back: If a customer has a genuine issue with the service/product, and there is a chance of losing him/her, it’s better to give him some offer/discount/coupons, etc. to encourage him/her to stick to your service.
• Confirm your solution: In order to avoid dispute after coming up with a solution on the phone, it’s better to take follow up by email or letter
• Regular follow up: This is where most people miss… get a member of your staff to check that all is well. It will help to minimize the common problem faced by customers.

If you don’t know the answer to the questions

• Never say, “I don’t know.” Instead, say, ” Hold on while I look for the information.”
• Tell the customer it’s technical information and requires a specialist. I’ll get back to you shortly with some possible solution

You can also tell customer following –

• It’s a timely question and requires some time to gather XYZ information
• As per the latest information what we suggest to you.
• I can answer that in part, but like to consider it further and get back to you.

Do anything else that seems proactive while putting them on hold or passing a note to colleagues. You can also keep them engaged by asking questions

If a customer says that it took you long to resolve an issue,

• First, ensure to the customer, that you are not far from him, and was busy with his task all the time
• You have to give him an expression that he or she is the only customer you are worried for
• If required give him the explanation of the whole operational path and the areas where the task can get slower

To deal with a customer having a language barrier,

• Install translation aids on customer service workstations
• Offer chat, email or customer support options in their native language if possible on top of the phone calls
• Hire additional personnel with the language skills needed to work with this customer segment
• Enroll language barrier procedures that can be used when handling foreign customer calls

To deal with unreasonable customer demands,

• To avoid conflict with your potential customer, you can always offer him a reasonable option
• Pre-qualify your customer, before allocating anything to your customer make sure you understand well your customers demand
• Say-no without hesitation if the demand is illegitimate
• Keep your patience while dealing with such unreasonable customer demands

• Work with the customer not against him: Try to figure out the exact reason why he is not willing to pay without getting angry on him. Be friendly and try to come up with possible options and plans that might resolve the situation
• Communicate often in writing and document everything: Always start with a non-threatening written message asking for the prompt resolution by a specific date
• Don’t get personal or angry: Try to listen to customer with empathy it might be possible that your customer is in real financial crisis, so instead of losing your nerves try to handle a situation with empathy
• Turn to collection service at last: Turning down to an attorney or collection agency should be your last resort. Also, remember that a collector takes a hefty portion of any recovery while legal steps will include the cost of hiring an attorney and other hidden charges.

Personal ethics and integrity are indispensable to me while selecting my place to work. I will have to decline regretfully.