Hiring good customer service representatives is always a boon for any business. Customer service is a frontline position and employees who can skillfully engage customers will help them leave satisfied and willing to give you their business again in the future. Finding good candidates for customer service representatives can be tricky, though, just like finding the top candidates for any field. Fortunately, tricky doesn’t mean impossible. Here are some tips for finding amazing customer service representatives in Toronto.

Who Should You Hire? A Look at Required Skills

Communication Skills

It never hurts to start with the basics, especially since communication is a huge part of customer service. Candidates who can maintain eye contact, speak clearly, have good diction and word use, possess the ability to explain concepts and directions are cornerstone abilities that should be checked out. Being able to talk calmly under pressure or stress is also going to be important since customer service frequently involves people who are frustrated with problems and those who are not always courteous.

The Ability to Learn

Your customer service representative candidate will need to learn things during their time with your company. They may need to learn about your products, your corporate culture and style, your customer interaction policies, troubleshooting scenarios, and more. The ability to learn is not the easiest trait to detect or assess during an interview, but there are some ways to do it. For instance, you could make a note of how often a candidate asks for more details or information since it shows a personal initiative for improving understanding or making sure they understand something.

Empathy

Customers do not enjoy being made to feel like they don’t matter or that their problems aren’t being taken as seriously as they perceive them to be. Finding customer service representatives who can express empathy towards a customer’s situation means you will be building a team that makes customers feel comfortable, understood, and cared for.

Experience

People who consider customer service to be a career rather than a simple entry-level job are more likely to provide better performance. Learning about a candidate’s work history and any past customer service experience can help you assess enthusiasm for the field. A candidate who hasn’t changed jobs often and stayed with an employer for long stretches is likely one who takes pride or enjoyment from the work and will be a better asset to your company than someone who has bounced around a lot—which suggests that they don’t like customer service.

How to Find Customer Service Representatives

References and Referrals

A candidate that gets referred to you by someone you trust is more likely to be a good fit for two main reasons. The first is that the referrer already has an understanding of both your needs as an employer and what the candidate would be like as an employee. Since the referrer wants the result to reflect well on themselves, they are incentives to refer candidates they personally believe will work for you. Secondly, the candidate is likely to be more excited about working for you since the referrer will have validated your company to them just as they validated the candidate to you.

Employment Agencies

Employment agencies can help you in hiring customer service representatives the same way that referrals can, but on a larger scale. While a referrer may only know at best a small handful of potential candidates, employment agencies have access to large pools of applicants. Recruitment agents are able to look through resumes and otherwise pre-screen individuals so that only the most interested and the most capable are sent for your consideration.

Resolve Recruit Inc. is one of the leading employment agencies in the Mississauga, Brampton, and Toronto areas. We match skilled workers with employers across a variety of industries, with an emphasis on bilingual talent. Learn more by contacting us at sales@resolverecruit.com or call (905) 568-8500.