A. Thank you for the question. I am a man of word and sincere to my activities. I always try to keep promises and never let people go down even when they are making the mistakes. Besides, I like to travel in different places and book reading is another hobby for me. Moreover, I am a good cook and expert in preparing local dishes. I am ambitious to my career and want to develop the career in such a manner that will also benefit my employer by the same time.
Q. What are your strengths and weaknesses?
A. My honesty is my biggest strength and I am highly sincere to my work that even my enemies also adore my sincerity. I like to speak frankly and that is my weakness. I cannot hide my emotions when something wrong happens before me and for that case, I had to suffer in the past. In fact, I say an apple as an apple not a banana to gain my interests.
Q. What is a call center?
A. A call center is place where people of different strata make phone calls to get informed about different issues. This is mostly a service provided to the customers of any specific company or organization and the clients of the products or services make calls here. Often they make the calls to inform about any problem and sometimes the phone calls are also made from the call center to inform them about any specific offer or facilities. This is in fact a two way communication system and highly helpful for the growth of any organization who are providing service or product to their respective targeted consumers.
Q. What according to you is a job at a call center?
A. I think receiving the phone calls from the clients and answering them with the necessary information they need is the main task of a call center. Besides, it also serves some other purposes as well like informing the customers and clients about new products, special offers and discounts. Moreover, a call center is the way to communicate with the company directly and provide feedback about any specific product or services that the clients are enjoying. On the other side, calling clients to inform them about a product or service is also a task call centre agents often do in a call centre. Finally, providing customer support via phone is also included in the jobs in a call centre.
Q. What do you know about BPO?
A. BPO refers to Business Process Outsourcing. By this way, a company hires another third party from a foreign land. This is a cost effective method to expand business. Usually call centers, data processing and other online works are done through BPO. After its inception, it has become one of the most important modes of business expansion.
Q. What is the difference between a BPO and a call center?
A. In BPO, a company may hire a third party to perform some specific tasks and under the BPO, there might be different organizations. But a call center is a different thing. Only phone calls are made and received in a call center. The call center agents are responsible to make calls over specific issues. Interestingly, call centers could be established as part of BPO and may developed countries have set their call centers in the underdeveloped countries to reduce their costs.
Q. Why do you want to work in a call center?
A. I have built my career in call center and been working at a local call center for last three years. Since I have gathered a substantial amount of experience and know how to work efficiently in a call center, I want to continue my career in any call center.
Q. How do you rate your English skills?
A. I am well versed in English language. My reading and writing skills are up to the mark and I have also achieved 8.0 recently in my IELTS test. So, I think I can rate my English to 9 on the scale of 10.
Q. Do you get along well with co-workers?
A. Yes, I do. In fact I have to work in a team at my current office. I have been playing different roles in the team and often support the other team members. So, there are no problems for me to be a team player with my coworkers. Rather, it is a privilege for me.
Q. Why do you want to quit your present job?
A. To be frank, I want to work in a greater environment and unfortunately the call center I am working with has planned to quit the business. Thereby, it is the perfect moment for me to seek a better working environment where I could exercise my skills and sincerity to grow the business and myself as well.
Q. How would you manage your accommodation?
A. I am local resident here and live with my family. I live with my parents and siblings at the home which a few minute’s walk from the office. So, I think accommodation would not be a problem for me and I could easily continue the job if I am appointed.
Q. Do you think you can work under pressure?
A. Yes, I can work under pressure and actually I have been working so. In my current call center job, I am responsible for a good number of tasks and I have to perform everything smoothly but the times for the works are budgeted. So, I always have to work under pressure and thus I have become habituated with such working feature.
Q. How would you handle an angry call from a customer?
A. Firstly, I will try to listen his complain and make the customer comfortable with me. In my past experiences, I have dealt with a large number of clients who were angry and after a few minutes they turned cool. So, it is not a problem for me to handle an angry customer rather it is a pleasure for me to meet their demands.
Q. Would you leave us if another company offers you 5K more than us?
A. No, I will not. I am leaving the present job as the company failed to achieve its target and thus it is quitting the business. If there were scopes for me, I would have remained attached with them somehow but there are no such options. Without any specific reasons, I do not plan for leaving a job. I prefer to show my sincerity in my works and if I am sincere, my authority certainly will revise my benefits and salaries. So, it is unnecessary for me to switch into another job who will offer me a bit more than my present salary. Moreover, the immediate switching appears to me as unethical.
Q. Can you work in shifts/ rotational shifts?
A. Yes, I can. In fact, currently I have to work in shifts and the duties are rotational. Often I have to work in different shifts, sometimes I have to work in night or sometimes I have to work till midnight or sometimes I have to start work early in the morning. So, I do not have any problems in shifting duties. I am habituated with it.
Q. What motivates you to work in a call centre?
A. Communication with a wide range of people is the key motivation for me to work in a call center. Besides, the working environments and shifting duties are also attractive. A strong bond is also created among the coworkers in a call center. As a result, the working hours become cheerful and the works are done within seconds. So, for all these reasons, I like to work in a call center.
Q. What are the key factors that make someone a successful call centre agent?
A. To be a successful call center agent, firstly one has to be patient. There a large number of customers make phone calls and their mental states are different. Some of them will have some rough tone that may make the call center agent angry. But being cool, the situations have to be tackled. Besides, the agents should be witty and have the skill to solve problems smartly. Punctuality is the other feature for a successful call center agent. Moreover, the agent should be sincere and deal smoothly with every calls s/ he receives. If the things could be done perfectly, the call center agent will be a successful one.
Q. What are the differences between inbound process and outbound process?
A. Usually in inbound process, a call center agent is responsible to receive phone calls made by the customers or clients. They are unable to make phone calls. On the other side, when a call center agent is working on outbound process, s/ he is responsible to make phone calls to the customers to make them aware of different issues or let them informed about the updates of the complaint that they lodged with the inbound process.
Q. What will you do when a customer is abusive/ irritated?
A. I have handled many such cases and I ask them to talk about the issues they are having trouble with. I politely warn them to come back on the track. I try several times to bring them back on the track they are concerned with and if they try to abuse my politeness, I simply cut the connection.
Q. Rate yourself on communication skills.
A. I will rate myself 9 on the scale of 10. I can clearly communicate with everyone and make the message understandable to them. When I communicate with the clients on the call center, I try to focus on the specific issues instead of the other issues that they bring to make me confused. As a result, they become failure to make me puzzled and the communication becomes effective.
Q. What is your current CTC and what are your expectations?
A. AMy current CTC (Click to Call) rate is okay, but sometimes I have to spend more times with the clients as they do not want to understand the easier things. So, I have to take more times on making the issues clearer. I also expect to reduce the CTC time for me and want to keep the average talk time to around 1.30 minutes.
Q. Are you planning to go for further studies?
A. Currently I do not have any plan to go for further studies. Though I have completed my MA, I think this is not enough for the competitive world. Surely I will take another degree but that should be done in later stages when I will have enough time with me. If I start studying again, there are chances that my career will be hampered.
Q. What is back office?
A. Usually back office is the place where all the internal activities are done. This is considered as the brain or the central processing unit of the office. All the manufacturing activities are done here while the front office deals with the customer relations and sales and after sales activities. This is not mandatory that the back offices should be on the headquarters rather they could be set in some other suitable places.
Q. How to impress your customer?
A. There are different ways to impress the customers. Firstly, the call center agent should talk with the customer in such a manner so that the customer feels comfortable talking with the agent. Then the troubles should be identified by asking questions or sometimes the customers provide the information. Then a probable solution should be provided. When the customer gets all the necessary supports from the call center agent, it becomes easier to impress him or her.
Q. What are your goals as a telemarketer?
A. As a telemarketer, I should aim at increasing the sales of the company. Though it is a bit tougher to reach the clients on telephone always, if the agent has necessary skills, the goals could be reached. So, I think, the first goal is to select a group of customers and keep them in touch so that they could come to know about the company and its products or services. If the follow-ups could be done effectively, the sales get an increase.
Q. What does customer service mean to you?
A. Actually customer service means that I should provide some necessary information and appropriates services to the customers. Usually customers come or call to the customer service when they are in trouble with any specific issues. So, to solve their problems, they make calls or visit the customer service centers physically so that the problems are solved. Personally I believe that customer service is an act of being in a customer's shoes and viewing the problem from his/her perspective. After that providing the most efficient service as faster as humanly possible is the fulfillment of this act.
Q. How long will you stay in our company?
A. It is a difficult question to answer. I actually do not want to leave any company unless there are any specific issues. I try to build a longer relationship with the company. If your company provides me with the required benefits after my competency, certainly I will stay for a longer period with the company. But if there are poor facilities, then I will reconsider my decision for a longer stay with the company.
Q. Why did you leave your last position?
A. I was to leave the last position as the company is quitting the business. They dealt with some specific form of cosmetics products but they could not shine in the business. Some of the competitors started preparing the products locally with a lower cost whereas the company I was working for used to import the products. As a result, the prices of the imported goods were more than the local products. So, they experienced huge loss and planned for abolishing the company. Since there would be no company to work for, I had to leave my position.
Q. What do you expect from us, as an employer?
A. I expect, as an employer, you would provide me with a congenial working environment, proper facilities, payment on due time, flexible working hours etc. Besides, I also expect a periodical performance review for me from your side so that I could improve myself as an employee of your organization.
Q. Tell us about your qualities that affect this job
A. I am highly skilled to response over the queries of the customers and can satisfy them with providing the necessary answers. Besides, I can also manage the angry customers in a professional manner. Moreover, when the customers make phone calls to the customer service, I try to provide them with the best available information for their respective needs. As a result, the customers become happy which have a positive impact on the organization. By this way, I can affect the job in a positive manner.
Q. What do you know about our company?
A. This is one of the most reputed companies in the country and deals with multiple issues. The working environment is safer for the employees, especially for women. Besides, the company is also has a good reputation on the market for its quality goods and after sales services to the customers. In my personal life, I have also used some of the products of the company and found those are different from the same products of the other companies. In a word, the company is a perfect one to deal with the product and services.
Q. Are you able to work with multiple phone lines?
A. Yes, I am capable of working with several phone lines. In fact I had to perform so in my last job. Simultaneously I had to take phone calls, and talk with the customers over different issue. Sometimes I had to respond over several phone calls at a time and I asked the customers to wait for a moment while responding the other calls. By this way, I managed the calls but it was a bit troublesome for me. However, I am now able to handle multiple phone lines.
Q. Have you ever had conflict with your team leader or manager?
A. No, there were no conflicts with my manager or with the team leader as I am highly cautious about my duties or responsibilities. I never perform such things that may invite any complain against me. Besides, I have a very communication skill and if I see such issues that may make me guilty or if I sense so earlier, I try to avoid them very smartly. I am guilty, I admit my faults and thus the managers or the team leaders have nothing to say me. They smilingly warn me not to do that again. Thereby, there are no chances for conflicts at all.
Q. What do you do if the dialer puts a Do Not Call number through to you by mistake?
A. For outbound calls, if such thing happens, I will apologize to the receiver and simply put the number in the Do Not Call list again. In case of inbound calls, I try not to receive the call for some specific reasons. Usually the numbers that cannot be traced back are from some mysterious sources. So, the authority had forbidden us to attend such phone calls. If the customer makes such phones, it points out that the customers are unwilling to reveal their identities. So, such phone calls are considered risky and the best way is to avoid such phone calls.
Q. How do you handle a customer who starts yelling at you as soon as they pick up and find out that you are a telemarketer?
A. In that case, I have to adopt some tricky measures. I try to discuss about their personal interest and there is none who could avoid the chance to boast about them. So, when once they start talking about them, I try to bring my issue technically. So, when they become convinced with me and my expertise, they show some interest over my products. Though this is a time consuming process, in the long run it becomes effective.
Q. Tell me about a difficult obstacle you had to overcome recently at work? How did you overcome this?
A. I had to handle a customer who was extremely angry with the products he bought from the company. He was on the argument that the company is charging more than the average market rate. So, he wants to return the products and went to the store where he bought from. But the sellers advised him to make call to the customer care. Besides, he was angry as he had to wait in queue of calls. I heard silently everything and then made him understood about the facts. I explained about the excessive price of the products and the basic differences with the ordinary products. Fortunately, the man was at his home and I asked him to bring the products and compare that with another local product. I pointed out some issues which were absent in the local product. So, when he understood everything, he apologized for his extreme behaves.
Q. What is your typing speed?
A. My typing speed is outstanding. I can type over 60 words in a minute and have gained the speed for years.
Q. What is your average daily call volume?
A. I can attend around 300 calls in a day. But if the call lengths are a bit more than the usual level, the call volume decreases a bit. If I could complete a call within one and a half minutes, I could cross 300 calls in a day.
Q. What is your average first call resolution rate?
A. The average first call resolution rate for me is perfect. Neither I do make any unnecessary delay to receive the calls nor do I talk so fast that the customers cannot address their problems to me. I try to make the first call resolution rate to the desired instructed by my team leader. In the beginning of the call center career, the rate fluctuated to a great deal as I was inexperienced with the sector. Now there are no such problems with me and I am perfect guy to keep the first call resolution to the desired level.
Q. What is your average handle time?
A. Usually I try to handle the calls by one and a half minute. After receiving the call, I introduce myself and want to know about the problem from the customer. When the problems are described, I try to provide a suitable solution of the problem. To perform all the tasks, I do not take more than one and a half minute. But when the customers try to expand the issues, the call handling time varies but that should not be counted as average handling time.
