A Guide on How to Hire Contact Center Employees

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February 11, 2021

A Guide on How to Hire Contact Center Employees

With the overwhelming number of applicants, the hiring process can be challenging. What`s more? As the employer, all you got to go with is a resume, a rehearsed sale pitch (for serious applicants), and an interview. Mind you; a completely blown interview doesn’t necessarily mean that the individual is good at best; they can be great actors at worst. However, no matter how tough the hiring process is, you should invest adequate time and effort if interested in finding great agents that’ll contribute to your brand’s overall success. This article is a guide on how to hire contact center employees.

 So, How Do You Hire Contact Center Employees?

Below are some steps from the HR at Call Criteria that you can rely on to boost your confidence in your capability to employ a call center agent/supervisor/managers/etc.

Hire to the employee and not to the job

Getting an individual experienced in everything you carry out is next to impossible. Therefore, you should analyze the qualities required to perform the specific task and seek out an individual with similar qualities.

Go for business-experienced employees

Regardless of your job level, please don`t waste time on clueless candidates regarding business matters. Rather, seek out individuals who had professional careers in the business environment.

Go for candidates who had a previous contact center experience

Hiring individuals with previous experience in contact center tasks is ideal; it will make your onboarding process easy, and it will boost your confidence in the agent; as they really know what they`re getting into.

Ask the candidates their most challenging contact center experience and how they handled it

They should be specific, not just stating hypothetical situations. Be keen on their response as it will help you gauge their troubleshooting skills – a critical aspect of phone work.

Be attentive to their communication style

Are they respectful? Working in a contact center is all a matter of customer` satisfaction. And, agents can`t achieve this goal if they`re unable to deduce customer`s knowledge level and skills and be in a position to talk to them without sounding smug.

Roleplay

Pretend to be a customer and pose a question to them (not necessarily about your brand), but one based on their resume can do. Be keen on how they handle you, your queries, etc. To make your selection even easier, pretend to be a stubborn customer, play as difficult as possible without being obnoxious. Observe to see how they can handle difficult interactions and frustrations.

Record the interview

This`ll provide you a chance to go through the interview again. It`s important to get to hear/see something you might have missed or, better yet, help reach an unbiased decision. Note, you should alert the candidate about it beforehand.

Get in contact with the references stated in the resume or during the interview

Whether professional or personal references, try as much as possible to contact them. This will help you understand the candidate`s personality and acts in a work setting. Moreover, it will help you verify if the interviewee was honest.

Make your decision

Based on the evaluation, you`ll be in a position to settle for the best candidate. Most importantly, don`t second guess yourself but rather, follow your gut.
In conclusion, hiring isn`t easy, but with a little preparation and research, you can be sure to get on with it. Just follow the simple steps outlined above, and find yourself great contact center employees.