Customer Service Training, Tips, Articles & Videos with Myra Golden
3 Bold Ideas to Help You Screen and Hire The Right Talent for Your Culture (And weed out employees who don’t fit)
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Companies with a defined and strong culture outperform their competitors by as much as 200%. Culture is what positions companies to innovate, deliver an exceptional customer experience and become an employer of choice. Company culture can make or break a company and one of the biggest threats to company culture is employees who are not a cultural fit for the company. Not only can wrong-fit employees threaten company culture, but research has shown that hiring the wrong employee can cost as much as three times the employee’s annual salary in replacement costs. It is imperative that companies defend culture by screening, hiring and retaining the right people. Here are 3 bold ideas to help you protect your culture by finding and keeping the right people.
1. Hire for motivational fit
Most companies screen applicants based on a skill set, experience and core competencies. Screening and hiring in this manner can lead to competent employees who are not a motivational fit. The result could be early burnout for the employee, negative impact on company culture and morale and frustration for managers who may have to deal with negative attitudes. A better way to screen and hire is to seek not only skill competency, but a motivational fit.
In order to excel and be happy, employees must be intrinsically motivated for the position. If you’re hiring a customer service representative, good motivational fit questions might include:
- What do you like most about being in a customer contact position?
- What do you want from your next job that you’re not getting from your current job?
- What part of your current job do you enjoy the most? The least?
- What are some of the things in a job that motivate you?
Strive to hire not just for skills, but also for motivational fit.
2. Keep your star employees. Ask everyone else to leave.
When Jack Welch was the head of GE, the bottom 10% of organizational performers were routinely asked to leave. Welch noted that in many cases, the bottom 10% went on to successful careers at companies where they truly belonged and could excel. An on-demand Internet media streaming company sees management’s job as hiring, developing, and cutting smartly so they have star employees at every level. The Keeper Test managers at this company use is: “Which of my people, if they told me they were leaving in two months for a similar job at a peer company, would I fight hard to keep?” Consider keeping and developing your star talent and helping everyone else find better fitting opportunities.
3. Pay employees to quit.
An online retailer famous for its customer culture pays employees to quit. All new hires of the company must attend 4-weeks of Customer Service Culture training. This training is mandatory, not only for customer service employees, but every position in the company. After the first 2-weeks of new hire training, employees are made an unbelievable offer. If they feel that the company is not a good fit for them, they can walk away with their salary for 2-weeks plus get a check for $1,000. Two weeks later, after 4 weeks of training, new hires are offered $2,000 to walk if they don’t feel the job is the best fit for them. A third and final payout if offered 3 weeks after new hire training and employees who don’t think they are in the right place can take a check for $4,000. The company pays employees to quit because they are fiercely protecting their culture. Weeding out employees who don’t fit the culture early on helps maintain the culture. The offer is so high because the company wants to provide an amount that enables the employee to make the right decision and not feel they have to stay in a culture that doesn’t fit just to avert a lengthy period of unemployment.
Paying employees to quit is certainly a bold idea. But can you envision this strategy (at a payout level that makes sense for your organization) saving you frustration and money down the road?
The right employees will support and strengthen your culture, while the wrong employees threaten the culture and cost you money. Defending company culture through rigorous screening, hiring and retention practices takes great effort and the rewards are performance and profits.
Sources cited
Golden, Myra, “Keep the Star Employees. Everyone Else Needs a Generous Severance Package Now.” 2010 Retrieved from: http://myragolden.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/keep-the-stars-the-others-need-a-generous-severance-package-now/
Michelli, Jospeh, A. “The Zappos Experience” McGraw Hill, NY, 2011.
Ren, John, F. Company Culture: What it is and how to get it. Retrieved from: http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/companyculture.htm
Hiring & Training the Right Customer Service Agents for Energy
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If you work in the utility or energy industry and you’re concerned about hiring and training the right customer service agents, you’ll want to watch this presentation.
Sample Interview Questions for Customer Service Reps
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: The information contained on this site is meant as general information only. It should not be used as a substitute for legal or professional advice.
There was a time when consumer affairs departments were solely reactive. The job was to answer questions and resolve problems. But increased competition and higher expectations from customers have led companies to require consumer affairs departments to take on a more proactive role. Consumer affairs representatives are spokespeople and even sales people in addition to problem solvers. Consumer affairs professionals have great influence on customer loyalty and purchasing habits. Therefore, the hiring, selection and performance of consumer affairs professionals is of extreme importance to the overall success of organizations. We have prepared a selection of interview questions to equip you to hire capable, right-fit employees for the critical consumer affairs role.
The following questions are designed to elicit specific examples of the core competencies of successful consumer affairs professionals. All questions are open-ended and call for the candidate to offer an illustration of their performance in each of the core areas. You should take detailed notes on the responses during the interview so you can go back and review in greater detail.
Consider setting the interview up like this: “I’m going to ask you some questions and what I’m looking for is specific examples that illustrate how you have responded to specific situations in the past. I’ll be taking notes as you talk, but you keep going. Feel free to take your time and think about responses before answering the questions.”
Customer Service – Clearly, any candidate for a consumer affairs position must have a customer service mindset. This includes anticipating customers’ needs, completely answering questions, having a positive attitude and understanding that the customer is the reason you are in business.
- What does giving “excellent service” mean to you?
- Tell me about a time when you went above and beyond the call of duty to serve a customer.
- What do you like most about being in customer service?
- What do you think is likely to be the difference between success and mediocrity in this position?
Tolerance for stress – Candidates must demonstrate a healthy response to stressful situations and an ability to maintain control in the midst of chaos.
- Describe for me one of the most stressful situations you’ve encountered in the workplace and how you responded to that situation.
- How do you deal with the stress of constant and heavy customer contact?
Decision-making skills – Consumer affairs professionals must be able to work independently and make decisions that balance the interest of the customer and the company and make decisions that are cost effective.
- Describe a situation in which you had to consider details/opinions from multiple sources in order to make a final decision.
- Describe the process you recently used to make a critical (bottom-line impacting, customer-impacting, etc.) decision in the workplace.
Creative problem solving skills – Tough challenges for customers’ demands quick and creative solutions. Your people need to be able to think out-of-the box, think on their feet and find creative ways to delight unhappy customers.
- Describe a tough challenge you faced that required you to think out-of-the box (challenge assumptions, break the rules) in order to solve the problem.
- What was one of the most creative ideas you’ve had recently?
Ability to effectively deal with difficult people – Customers can be difficult and your employees need to be able to respond to difficult behavior with diplomacy and tact. Ideally, you’ll want professionals who are skilled at defusing anger, creating rapport and influencing behavior.
- Customers can, at times, be difficult. Please give me a specific example of how you have handled a demanding, angry or irate customer.
Little need for control – People who have a great need for control or rigid structure might find consumer affairs work challenging. Consumer affairs work is unpredictable, chaotic and in a constant state of flux.
- Can you walk me through a situation in which you felt you had no control over the outcome and discuss how you felt about that? (What you’re looking for is the person’s need for control. Some of us have a great need for control and a situation in which we have no control is frustrating or stressful for us. Others can effectively adapt to situations in which they have little control.)
Motivational fit – In addition to the core competencies, you’ll want candidates who are a “motivational fit” for the job. Candidates should have a customer-centered mindset, be comfortable with high call volumes and high customer contact. Essentially, they must be intrinsically motivated to work hard and succeed in this extremely valuable position.
- What do you like most about being in a customer contact position?
- What do you want from your next job that you’re not getting from your current job?
- What part of your current job do you enjoy the most? The least?
- What are some of the things in a job that motivate you?
Can you provide a list of job competencies for call center agents for use in screening and hiring?
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Q. Can you provide a list of job competencies for call center agents for use in screening and hiring?
We are preparing to ramp up for our peak summer season and desperately need tools for screening and hiring call center agents. We currently require a typing test and a voice sample. What else should we consider as we hire not just to fill seats, but to retain employees? Also, can you point me to sample interview questions we might use?
Myra’s answer to: Can you provide a list of job competencies for call center agents for use in screening and hiring?
Here are 5 core competencies you should seek in consumer affairs professionals:
1. Tolerance for stress – Candidates must demonstrate a healthy response to stressful situations and an ability to maintain control in the midst of chaos.
2. Decision-making skills – Consumer affairs professionals must be able to work independently and make decisions that balance the interests of the company and the customer and make decisions that are cost effective.
3. Creative problem solving skills – Tough challenges for customers demands quick and creative solutions. Your employees need to be able to think out-of-the box and think on their feet to find creative ways to delight unhappy customers.
4. Ability to effectively deal with difficult people – Customers can be difficult and your employees need to be able to respond to difficult behavior with diplomacy and tact. Ideally, you’ll want professionals who are skilled at defusing anger, creating rapport and influencing behavior.
5. Little need for control – People who have a great need for control or rigid structure might find consumer affairs work challenging, as consumer affairs work is unpredictable, chaotic and in a constant state of flux.
Identifying core competencies positions hiring managers to accurately and quickly evaluate candidates against the requirements of the job and determine motivational fit for the position.
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I work with companies that are serious about delighting and keeping customers. My blog includes thoughts, articles, videos, and even rants about customer service. Thanks for stopping by. :)
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