The Making Of A Customer Care Dream Team

Recruiting customer care professionals is no simple task. After all, the reputation of your contact center and the satisfaction of your customers are directly linked to the quality of customer care put forth by your employees. As such, it is of the utmost importance to be aware of the important characteristics that your potential new hires must demonstrate and the process that must take place to ensure you are choosing suitable individuals.

Assembling an exceptional team of customer care professionals takes time and dedication. I believe that certain individuals inherently possess the communication skills needed for the role. So contact center leaders must be strategic when interviewing and recruiting new talent. In other words, you mustn’t judge a book by its cover in this situation because someone might look good on paper, but it’s his or her ability to demonstrate superb interpersonal skills that matters most.

When you are interviewing potential candidates it’s important to dissect the interaction and reflect on it afterwards. It’s crucial that you leave the meeting feeling that this person exhibited a high level of social intuitiveness, understanding and professionalism.

Here are a few ways contact center supervisors can ensure they are choosing the right people to create the best possible customer care team:

• Audit Phone Skills: Just because you have a wonderful conversation with someone in person doesn’t mean his or her conversational skills will translate over the phone. As such, before extending offers to potential candidates make sure you audit their phone skills. Create a hypothetical situation for the candidate that will enable you to make informed decisions based on their problem solving skills, professionalism and empathy. Perhaps proving more than one version of a situation will help you to gain the clearest understanding of their capabilities.
• Set Goals: Before interviewing potential Communicators make sure you consider the gaps you’re looking to fill in your current customer care strategy. This way you will know exactly the type of individual you need to make a sound addition to your team. As well, it might help you to recognize an interviewee’s strengths that you might not have consider if you didn’t have a solid plan entering the meeting. For instance, contact centers work with a myriad of demographics and markets; as such it’s important to understand individual’s background and the markets that he or she might have an affinity for should they be hired.

Hiring the right group of professionals requires strategy and dedication, especially in this industry. So make sure you do your due diligence to ensure you pick the right employees the first time around.

Steve Brubaker began his career at InfoCision in 1985. In his current role as Chief of Staff and as a member of the Executive Team, he is responsible for HR, internal and external communications, and manages the company’s legal and compliance departments. Brubaker is a member of a number of professional organizations, including the DMA and PACE. He also donates his time to serve on several university boards, including the Executive Advisory Board for The Taylor Institute for Direct Marketing at The University of Akron and The University of Akron Foundation Board. He has also been honored with a number of awards and recognitions for his contributions to the call center industry, including the ATA’s highest honor, the prestigious Fulcrum Award.