Prepare Yourself for a Customer Service Job

Almost all businesses have a form of customer service job. It could be as minimum as a receptionist or as large as a dedicated call centre. The key to a customer service job is to create a positive relationship with the customers. The job of a customer care executive or manager is to ensure that the customer’s experience of the interaction with the business has been efficient.If you are preparing yourself for a customer service job in a call centre, you must consider the process for getting the job. You first act would be to send in a resume. Your customer service resume is your first impression on the interviewer. Resumes are a key to get interview calls. If you ignore this fact, you might end up with no interview calls. Before preparing anything for your call centre job, you must ensure that your call centre resume is perfect. Ensure that you make your resume as attractive and job specific as possible. A general resume would not get you the consideration you deserve.Second aspect is the interview questions. You will be asked a wide array of questions. These will include both standard questions and job specific questions i.e. related to customer service. Standard question like "tell me about you", "strength and weakness" etc would be asked. You must not give general answers to these questions. Interviewers have no interest in your life. They just want to know whether you are fit for the job or not. So answer in accordance to your profile. When you apply for a customer service job at a call centre, you must say you are a social person, you like to talk to other people and listen to them, you have problem-solving skills etc.You must also have the knowledge of your domain. Job specific questions would include: "what does good customer service mean to you?", and "what is customer service philosophy?" etc. if you know everything but not your own function, that could be a problem. So prepare for the job related questions also.Another aspect is the key competencies for a customer service position. You must possess these in order to make a good customer service representative. These include service orientation, patience, problem analysis, problem solving, accuracy and tolerance. Generally, an interviewer would put you in a situation to test one or more of these competencies. Remember, the interviewer is not your enemy, if he is being rude or biased, that is to understand your reaction and judge your temperament. They wish to know if you can be patient and tolerant. Do not lose your temper. That would be the end of the game.Before you go for the interview, do some research on the company. Know the company’s products and services and their future plans. Know their competition, and other facts about the company. Pre-interview background research will help you to ask some questions to the interviewer.To top it all, good communication skill and clear language is a key to any customer service job. If it is a call centre job you are applying for, you must remember that your customer can only hear your voice. Therefore, the interviewer would judge your communication throughout the interview process. You must listen carefully and answer precisely. Your voice must not be too loud or too low. Ensure that you speak clearly and slowly so that what you say is clearly understood.Follow up is important for customer service. After your interview is over, send a thank you mail to the company to demonstrate your customer service orientation.