A customer service representative (CSR) is an employee who plays a significant role in customer success, thus, attracting more prospective clients. This person should possess solid intercommunication skills to resolve the customer’s problems and persuade him to stay with this company. The more customer service is developed, the better the company’s sales and reputation. When recruiting for such a position, the company should consider the candidate’s communication skills and patience to ensure that the professional generate better customer satisfaction.
The essential skill that CSR should possess is clear communication skills, including attentive listening. Since this professional interacts with the clients daily, trying to solve their problems, he should be able to handle customer frustration and miscommunication. For example, when a customer contacts a professional to know the working hours of a business, CSR answers in a precise and polite manner. Moreover, ensuring that CSR understands the customer’s concerns is facilitated by clarifying questions and paraphrasing. Thus, employees in customer service should be able to eradicate any minor uncertainties through positive communication and effective listening.
Our company requires professionals to engage face-to-face with clients when they seek help. Employees cannot avoid having in-person contact because many clients come to the business buildings to receive additional consultations, forcing CSR to control their body language. For example, should not cross their arms since it repels potential clients. If face-to-face communication happens, the clients expect positive body language and engaging gestures that psychologically manipulate their satisfaction (Help Scout, 2022). Therefore, during selection for this position, the company pays more attention to the candidate’s ability to interact with clients.
Since customers rely on service centers heavily, CSR is the first professional to identify the possible resolution, making patience and attentiveness other critical skills. Especially when customers cannot self-diagnose their problems, CSR acknowledges them before navigating a solution. CSR can rarely face impoliteness or vague feedback from frustrated customers when he should catch every detail to help the customers and patiently alleviate their concerns (Baranik et al., 2017). Consequently, problem-solving and patience ease a professional’s attempts to manually perform a solution to a customer’s problem and educate him on his future problems.
Apart from the skills listed above, an excellent candidate for CSR should demonstrate positive behavior and an empathic attitude toward customers when they have problems. Armstrong and Taylor (2020) suggest conducting personality tests “to make predictions about their likely behavior in a role,” thus, testing candidates’ ability to negotiate with clients in a stressful situation (p. 318). For example, it is expected that the professional gently recognizes the client’s feelings and provides thanks for his patience and understanding. Such behavior proves that the candidate possesses high emotional intelligence, which would help him during the client service.
Analyzing each candidate’s strengths and weaknesses helps to evaluate them and choose the most reliable one. The first candidate, Lily Wright, shows outstanding dominance in her career path as the CSR, working in two companies since 2006. Her handling of many complaints makes her stress-resistant and attentive, which matches our company’s list of skills. She has an advantage over others because she knows many ways of contacting clients, such as by telephone, email, and fax.
However, Lily Wright might have yet to experience face-to-face interaction, which indicates her inability to demonstrate positive body language and persuade clients through her gestures. Moreover, she does not have any professional certifications apart from a travel insurance agent, which would contribute to her knowledge in the customer service sphere. Her experience as a teller in the bank earlier makes her look less dedicated to CSR. Thus, Wright’s candidacy is associated with a long career in CSR, service orientation, and less experience in face-to-face interaction.
Williams is an excellent candidate as he demonstrates professionalism under pressure, which hints at his politeness and high problem-solving skills that match our company’s vision. However, his weakness is that his previous employers required him to perform tasks not under CSR’s responsibility, such as restocking inventory and accepting packages. Since our company requires CSR to interact with the clients only, Williams’s experience might not be relevant and helpful.
In contrast, Prakash completed three seminars, which greatly assisted his customer-first attitude. Moreover, Prakash interacted face-to-face with clients, developing his body language and solid communication skills. His ability to listen to the clients and clearly articulate their problems matches the company’s list of requirements. His weakness compared to Wright is less experience, as his career path started only in 2016. Nevertheless, throughout his career, he has stuck to client service, which makes him look like a devoted employer.
Considering every applicant’s skill and experience, Prakash is the most suitable candidate since he has had professional qualifications and demonstrated exceptional commitment to the company. In contrast, Williams lacks experience in interacting with clients and assisting in problem-solving. Meanwhile, Wright does not have the professional qualifications and knowledge to prove her superiority. Since Prakash has experience in call center and retail store settings, he knows how to deal with clients in various environments, making him a valuable worker.
To conclude, the company chooses Mishka Prakash based on his excellent characteristics, face-to-face contact with clients, and availability on weekends. Although he might have less experience than Lily Wright, he completed many seminars, which would compensate for this loss. Additionally, he is a productive relationship builder who increased customer satisfaction and quickly contributed to a 12% sales increase. These strengths make Prakash the most suitable candidate for the company’s growth in the future.
References
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2020). Chapter 28: Recruitment and selection. In Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practices (pp. 299–327). Library Genesis. Web.
Baranik, L. E., Wang, M., Gong, Y., & Shi, J. (2017). Customer mistreatment, employee health, and job performance: Cognitive rumination and social sharing as mediating mechanisms. Journal of Management, 43(4), 1261–1282. Web.
Help Scout. (2022). 21 key customer service skills and how to develop them. Web.