Customer Service Manager Interview Questions and Answers

Plan for common customer service manager interview questions and be confident
that you are ready to impress the interviewer as the right job candidate.

Before your interview find out as much as you can about the company, your
interview answers should be relevant to the stated objectives and needs.

Demonstrate
your insight into what the job demands and how you can bring real value to the
customer management position.

11 Essential Customer Service Manager Interview Questions and Answers

What do you consider the criteria for a successful customer service
department?

Key factors include a good understanding of the needs of the customer and
having the right skills, resources and processes in place to meet these needs.

From a customer service management perspective criteria include:

• clear
  communication of objectives and expectations to staff
• consistent performance
  management
• empowering staff to meet customer demands
• ensuring staff are
  sufficiently engaged
• listening to feedback from staff and customers and
  effectively acting on it

Tell me about a customer service policy that you developed and
implemented.

Talk the interviewer through a policy you developed, structuring your answer
around these recognized steps.

• Clearly identify the goals for the policy
• Ensure correlation between the customer service goals and the company
  mission and objectives
• Identify the specific processes that will result in goal
  accomplishment
• Develop standard operating procedures and guidelines for the processes
• Train your staff in the implementation of the new customer service
  policy

Customer Service Manager Interview Questions - Team Management

How would your customer service team describe you as a manager?

Focus on the strengths and skills required to successfully manage a customer
service team including:

• clear communication
• organizational and planning skills
• 
  people development and empowerment
• motivational skills
• problem-solving
  skills

Support your answer with examples of actual feedback you have received
from team members.

How have you motivated your team to achieve demanding performance standards?

Provide examples of the types of motivation you have used and their
effectiveness. Examples include:

• cash incentives
• training programs
• career
  development
• time off
• recognition

Focus on identifying and meeting individual
motivations with specific rewards tied to the employee's interests and needs.

Other factors to discuss in your interview answer include providing the right
resources for the team to do their job including:

• skills
• knowledge
• support
• equipment

A team that is not armed with the right resources will find it
difficult to do their job and stay motivated. 

Time spent individually with each team member listening to them and
developing them is another strong motivational tool. Taking the time to encourage them
in their work and providing constructive, factual and sincere feedback are
motivating factors.

What is your preferred management style?

Focus on utilizing different management styles to increase effectiveness in
different situations and with different employees. Why do certain management
styles work in particular scenarios? 

"I find that it is most effective to have a variety of management styles
and to use them appropriately.  I have to adapt according to the team
member and the situation.  However one aspect of my management style that
remains consistent is that I employ a hands-on approach.

I get a better
appreciation for what my team does by spending time on the front lines, it
builds a strong relationship with them and keeps me informed. I have found a
participative approach to management helps build commitment and consensus among
employees "

Give me an example of how you have managed an under-performing staff member.

What process did you follow to understand the reasons for the poor
performance, gain commitment to the need for change and resolve the issues?

Approaches include:

• developing a program of required actions for the team member
  to follow
• providing training, coaching and mentoring
• allocating necessary
  resources

Find out how to answer behavioral interview questions like this.

Customer Service Manager Interview Questions - Process Management

What have you done to improve work processes in the customer service
division?

In your answer describe receiving feedback from customers to identify areas
for improvement, looking at every touch-point in the customer life-cycle and
implementing actions to improve the process.

"I identified that customer satisfaction with our email support
was not what it should be. The rule of thumb has been providing a
response within 24
hours. However with the pace of everything increasing online I understood that
we needed to achieve more impressive response times. I instituted a response
time of 4 to 8 hours as the standard. This has set us apart from our competitors
and improved customer satisfaction"

Tell me about the cost efficiencies you introduced in your last job.

Discuss how you identified the opportunity for cost saving and how you
implemented appropriate measures to improve operational efficiency. Examples
include:

• cross training employees to handle different functions
• scheduling employees according to call and query volumes
• introducing new technologies and applications
  
• providing information via an interactive website or other digital
  channel

What solutions have you employed in response to customer service problems you
identified?

"I identified that we were not getting the feedback we needed
from customers. To ensure we knew about all the experiences our customers have
we had to create an easily accessible way for them to give us feedback.

One
way we resolved this was with an email survey at the end of a service call. By
creating a means for customers to provide immediate feedback it was easier to
learn what needed improvement."

Customer Service Manager Interview Questions - Information Management

What metrics do you consider the most important factor in measuring customer
satisfaction?

Describe the metrics you use and why.  Common metrics include:

• first response time
• first contact resolution
• problem resolution time
• resolution rates
• escalation rates
• customer retention
• referrals
• call volumes

How have you used data to improve the level of customer service?

How do you employ this data to achieve your customer service goals?

"I measured the number of repetitive support emails that were coming in
and identified that a number of questions were consistently asked. I researched
the benefit of setting up a comprehensive knowledge base online to address these questions. It
was cost effective to do this and has proved an efficient way of reducing these
repetitive emails sent by customers."

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