Top Interview Questions with Sample Answers:

1. Tell Me Something About Yourself

Most applicants answer by giving out their address, age, birthplace and other personal information.
These aren’t what the interviewer wants to hear.
The interviewer wants to know whether you’re fit for the job.
Therefore, talk about the experiences and skills you have that relate to working in a call center.
If you were employed, talk about what you learned from your previous job experiences.
You might ask, what if your previous job experience wasn’t related to call center?
Simple. Highlight the skills you learned from your previous job and relate it to the skills required in a
call center. Find the connection.
2. Tell me something about yourself that is not written in your resume
The interviewer simply wants to know the person behind the formal attire. He’s facing a stranger with
just a piece of paper in hand to tell them who that stranger is. The paper isn’t enough. He needs to
know more about you. Something about yourself that makes you memorable.
Hobbies and interest.
Skills
Experiences
Dreams and goals
Anything positive about yourself
3. Why should we hire you?
Sample:
"You should hire me for the following reasons,
Firstly, I know that if I’ll have the opportunity to work for this company I’ll be giving my very best.
Certainly, I will not have problem with my attendance and will be performing well.
Secondly, I am a person with a good work principle. I give my best effort to achieve quality result.
Lastly, I am fit for this job because I have the basic skills needed to perform Customer Service tasks
or responsibilities
4. why do you want to work in a call center?
Sample:
“I want to work in a call center because of two reasons:
First, because Call Center provides tremendous career growth opportunities. Here you can climb the
ladder of success for it provides training and avenue for growth to employees.
Second, because Call Center provides avenue to master communication skills and to develop skill-
set further. One of my goals is to develop my English communication skills to the fullest potential and
I can’t see any better way to reach this goal than to work in a call center."
5. What is your idea of a BPO or call center?
Note: Being inexperienced in the call center industry is not an excuse. If you say you have no idea
what is a contact center, call center and BPO, then you’re giving the interviewer a good reason not
to like you.
I suggest that you begin with this statement:
As what I’ve researched online…”
“Before I decided to apply, I researched…”
“According to a friend who is a call center agent…”
Why? Because you want to emphasize that you took the time to research the job description and
isn’t just applying to get any job.
Interviewers want to hear that you’re applying because you specifically want to be a call center
agent. Extra point for you.
Sample:
“As what I’ve researched online, a call center is where call center agents either make or receive
phone calls to answer customer’s questions about products and services or to sell something and
conducts surveys.”
“Before I decided to apply, I researched the employees’ job description in a contact center and I
found out that a contact center is where you handle calls, emails and chats to answer customer’s
questions or resolve customer concerns"
6. Where do you see yourself five years from now?
If you have plans leaving the company soon, or even in the next 5 years, don’t tell the interviewer
that. The company wants employees who stay for as long as possible. So give them that.
Sample:
“If I’m lucky to be a part of [company name], five years from now, I’d like to see myself promoted to a
higher position, probably become a team leader to ensure the quality of work from my team. I find
that I get along with any types of personalities so I’m definitely looking forward for a position where I
constantly interact with people. I also do great with tasks that require me to sit alone in a cubicle. So
basically, I could accept just about any position. The only thing for sure is I want to advance my
career here at [company name], and not just in any other company. Your company is definitely my
first choice.”
7. SITUATIONAL QUESTIONS
It’s the “what would you do?”/ “what did you do?” question. You’re given a certain situation, then the
interviewer asks you what did you do or would you do if you are in that situation.
It could be something you did in the past. Or something that could happen in the workplace- the
“what if?” questions.
Example:
What would you do if you have a rude boss or colleague who’s affecting your productivity at work?”
Step 1: Professionalism
Ask yourself: What would a professional employee do in this situation? Of course, he’d talk to the
boss/colleague instead of punching him in the face or grabbing her hair.
Step 2: Use the format
-What’s the situation?
In this question, the situation has been given: a rude boss or colleague.
- What is your solution?
“I would personally talk to him/ her and try to work out our misunderstandings. I’d say, ‘Hey, I’d like
to talk to you about yesterday. When you said “I’m dumb” because I wasn’t able to calm the
customer down, I was honestly hurt. I’d like to explain and make you understand what really
happened…
If we can’t work things out, then I will bring it up to another higher person who could take care of the
situation. If I’m having issues with him/ her, chances are, I’m not the only one. There could be others
who felt the same but just didn’t have the courage to speak up.”
- What is the result?
This way, everyone in the office could harmoniously work together instead of emotionally taxing
themselves on unnecessary issues.”
9. Knowledge about the Job Questions:
☆What is customer service?
Here is a selection of sample answers you can use to respond to questions about customer service.
Be sure to tailor your own answer to fit your experience, and the company you are interviewing with:
Sample 1:
•There are many components to customer service, and you need all of them to truly satisfy
customers. Customer service involves being a kind, courteous, and professional face for the
company. It also involves listening carefully to customer wants and concerns. Beyond listening,
customer service is doing everything in one’s power to efficiently and accurately serve each
customer. Finally, customer service is clearly explaining solutions to clients. All of these components
of customer service lead to happy and loyal customers, which I know is the ultimate goal of your
company.
Sample 2:
•Customer service is listening to customers and helping to resolve their issues so that they remain
happy and loyal. Listening is such a critical, and sometimes overlooked, part of customer service.
Having worked in a call center for five years, I have plenty of experience listening carefully to the
needs of my customers before efficiently working to solve their problems and explain the solutions.
Most customers already begin feel taken care of once you listen carefully to their concerns. Asking
clarifying questions, repeating their concerns, and simply quietly listening are helpful ways to
demonstrate that you are listening and that you care about their problems.
☆What is good customer service?
Note: To give you idea so that you can make your own answer check passages below:
•Good customer service means helping customers efficiently, in a friendly manner. It’s essential to
be able to handle issues for customers and do your best to ensure they are satisfied. Providing good
service is one of the most important things that can set your business apart from the others of its
kind.
•Good customer service involves giving customers a good first impression of the business, with a
friendly greeting and helpful attitude, as well as a good lasting impression. Determining the
customer's needs and solving problems quickly will lead to satisfied or happy customers.
Other Questions commonly asked during interview:
+ What are your strengths and weakness?
+ What are your short and long term goal?
+ What motivates you to work?
+ What can you contribute to this company?
+ What are the characteristics or skills that you have that make you a perfect fit for this job?

Do you have any questions?

1. What is the company's vision?

2. How do you instill the company's vision to every employee? Making sure that they too work with a
vision.

3. How's the company's turnover?

4. What are the 5 common reasons why employees leave the company?
5. What are your personal principles and how are you applying them in your day to day life, either at
work or on personal level.
Tell me about YOURSELF?
Here are 7 good answers to this interview question:
1. Don't talk about your personal life. Instead talk about your qualifications, experiences, and why
this job role is for you.
2. Tell them a story, not your life story but your professional story including your work history clearly
and concisely.
3. Focus on your achievements. These could be quantifiable accomplishments like saving time or
money in a previous role.
4. Reveal what you know about the role. Talk them through what they require and what you bring to
the table.
5. Reveal any additional skills you have and what additional problems you could solve for the
company.
6. Everything you answer, keep asking yourself, what's in it for them! This alone will put you in a
better mindset to answer.
7. Ask them questions after you answer. It puts you in control of the conversation and leaves a good
impression.
Don't just be yourself, but be your best self. Be authentic and lead with your best foot forward.

• Tell me about yourself, including your hobbies

• Why do want to work in a call center industry?

• What is an excellent customer service

• How would you handle a situation wherein you were blamed for something you didn't do?

• How would you handle a customer who have talked already to 6 agents and still his/her problem
hasn't been resolved yet

• Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?

• Can you give a difficult situation and how would you simplify the process to solve it (not sure po if this
is the exact question pero something na ganito pong question)

Call Center Tips for Beginners

Let’s be honest: working as a Customer Service representative can be a real challenge, especially if
you are just starting your first job in this area. But what can you do to make it less stressful? Here
are our 10 Call Center tips for beginners:
1- Take notes
One of the most important call center tips is to always takes notes while on a call. This is a great
exercise for becoming an active listener, as it helps you focus on the conversation as you make sure
that you are not missing out on anything that the other side is saying. It also helps you collect all the
details and ensure that you are not forgetting anything. Just remember to not write down sensitive
information or cardholder data on a piece of paper, which can be a dangerous practice according to
the industry payment standard PCI-DSS.
If your company has a call recording service integrated into their Call Center infrastructure, notes
might not be necessary as all your calls will be recorded, stored, and accessible for reproduction at
any time. However, if you aren’t recording calls yet, you might want to check our cloud-based call
recording solution Recordia.
2- Confidence
As you’ve probably heard it many times, confidence is key – and this applies to practically everything.
Try to sound confident and relaxed, and don’t let the other side know that you are a beginner, as
they might start to doubt your abilities to solve their issue – even if you are perfectly capable.
3- It’s OK to not know something
Many customer representatives are afraid to confess when an issue is out of their control, and will try
to give inefficient answers just for the sake of giving an answer. Whether you are a beginner or not, it
is OK to encounter a problem or a question that you are not capable of responding.
Try to be resolutive, but don’t panic if something is out of your control – instead, let the customer
know that you will try to find the best solution for his issue, and you will call him back as soon as
possible.
4- Analyze
Just like anything else, customer support takes practice, and you will get better as you deal with
hundreds of different people and experiences. These experiences are an excellent source of
information as they help you improve your skills and provide better service. Especially if you have all
these conversations recorded and stored securely for reproduction.
One of the most effective call center tips is to use these recordings to analyze your skills and identify
weaknesses – you never know how good or bad you’re performing until you see yourself from an
outside perspective.
5- Address your customer by name
Addressing your customers by their name is a great way to provide better experience and make
them feel understood. To do it properly, listen to your customer as he will let you know how he likes
to be addressed.
For example, if the customer presents herself as “This is Jane Smith”, you can either politely ask her
“May I call you Jane?”, or directly call her Ms. Smith.
6- Be patient
Among the most important call center tips for beginners is to be patient. Instead of hurrying up to
give an answer as soon as the customer finishes his first sentence, try to be an active listener. Do
not start explaining yourself before making sure that the customer is done describing his issue, as it
will look unprofessional and he might get even more frustrated.
During the call, remain patient, listen actively, and ask questions until the issue is fully described
before responding. If you don’t hear all the necessary details, you might not be able to provide the
most adequate solution for you customer’s problem.
7- Transferring the call
Getting transferred might be a frustrating experience for customers, as it sometimes looks that
employees are shifting them from one department to another because they prefer passing the
responsibility to someone else.
To transfer the call adequately, one of our top call center tips is to follow these steps: first, explain
the reason behind the transfer and to whom you are passing on the customer. Second, ask them if
they don’t mind being transferred. Third, ensure that the person who should pick up the phone is
available, and explain them the nature of the call along with the name of the person on the other
side.
By following these steps, you will not only show that you are a real professional, but the user will
also feel less frustrated when dealing with customer service.
8– Exchange experiences with colleagues
Exchanging your customer experience with your colleagues is a great way to discuss different
perspectives and see if you could have resolved an issue in a more efficient way – especially if you
are a beginner.
Even if you aren’t a beginner, getting to know your product takes time, and colleagues that are more
experienced than you can give you great advice. In addition, customer representatives experience
conversations with customers differently, and everyone can learn a lot from each other.
9- Positive attitude
Keeping a positive attitude is extremely important for a successfully resolved problem and a satisfied
customer. At times, it can be truly challenging, but maintaining composure reflects confidence and
reassures the user that you are capable of finding a solution.
10- Organization
Customer service requires a lot of organization, and agents need to be well-prepared in order to
deliver quality service in the least amount possible. Take your time to explore all the tools, platforms,
and systems that your company has set up, and practice different situations to learn how to switch
easily between databases. You need to be able to navigate quickly between different windows in a
CRM database, so make sure to organize your resources in the most efficient way possible.

MOST COMMON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Tell me about yourself.
This is one of the first questions you are likely to be asked. Be prepared to talk about yourself, and
why you're an excellent fit for the job. Try to answer questions about yourself without giving out too
much, or too little, personal information. You can start by sharing some of your personal interests
and experiences that don't relate directly to work, such as a favorite hobby or a brief account of
where you grew up, your education, and what motivates you. You can even share some fun facts
and showcase your personality to make the interview a little more interesting.
If it feels daunting to generate this information from scratch, you can rely on a simple formula to
construct your answer. The ‘present-past-future’ formula is a way to share key background points
while ending on a high note. Begin with a brief overview of where you are now (which could include
your current job along with a reference to a personal hobby or passion), reference how you got to
where you are (here you could mention education, or an important experience such as a past job,
internship or volunteer experience) and then finish by touching on a goal for the future.
Bonus points if you’re able to identify how the position you’re applying for aligns with how you
envision your future.
No matter how you choose to respond, write out your answer in advance and then read it aloud to
ensure it sounds natural. Try to keep it short and sweet, as you don’t want to come across as the
type of person who endlessly drones on about themselves.
2. Why should we hire you?
Are you the best candidate for the job? Be prepared to say why you're the applicant who should be
hired. This is not the time to be modest (although neither should you be conceited). Make your
response a confident, concise, focused sales pitch that explains what you have to offer the
employer, and why you should get the job. This is another good time to review the qualifications and
the requirements in the job listing, so you can craft a response that aligns with what the interviewer
is looking for.
3. What is your greatest strength?
This is one of the questions that employers almost always ask. When you are asked about your
greatest strengths, it's important to discuss the attributes that will qualify you for the specific job and
set you apart from the other candidates. Take the time before the job interview to make matches
between your qualifications and the requirements as stated in the job announcement. This way, you
will have examples ready at hand to demonstrate your suitability for the job.
It can be helpful to remember the tip “show, don't tell.” For example, rather than stating that you are
an excellent problem solver, instead tell a story that demonstrates this, ideally drawing on an
anecdote from your professional experience.
4. What is your greatest weakness?
Another typical question interviewers will ask is about your weaknesses. Do your best to frame your
answers around positive aspects of your skills and abilities as an employee, turning seeming
“weaknesses” into strengths. For example, you might say something like, “I’ve always struggled with
perfectionism – I truly want to do the job correctly the first time, but this sometimes means that I
devote more time to a project than is necessary. I’ve learned to balance this drive with the equally
important responsibility of meeting deadlines.”
You can also share examples of skills you have improved, providing specific instances of how you
have recognized a weakness and taken steps to improve yourself.
5. Why are you leaving or why have you left your job?
When asked about why you are moving on from your current position, stick with the facts, be direct,
and focus your interview answer on the future, especially if your leaving wasn't under the best of
circumstances. Always try to put a positive slant on your response; it’s better to give the impression
that you’re more motivated by the possibility of new opportunities than by trying to escape a bad
situation. In addition, it’s important to avoid bashing your current organization, colleagues or
supervisor.
An employer is not likely to want to bring on someone who talks negatively about a company.
6. What are your salary expectations?
What are you looking for in terms of salary? It seems like a simple question, but your answer can
knock you out of the contest for the job if you overprice yourself. If you underprice yourself, you may
get shortchanged with a lower offer. Review the best way to answer questions about salary so you
get the fair pay that you deserve.
7. Why do you want this job?
This question gives you an opportunity to show the interviewer what you know about the job and the
company, so take the time before the interview to thoroughly research the company and its products
or services, company culture, and mission. Be specific about what makes you a good fit for this role,
and mention aspects of the company and position that appeal to you the most.
8. How do you handle stress and pressure?
What do you do when things don’t go smoothly at work? How do you deal with difficult situations?
What do you do when something goes wrong? The best way to respond to this question is to give an
example of how you have successfully handled stress in a previous job.
Avoid claiming that you never, or rarely, experience stress. Not only is this difficult to believe, but it
could also lead the interviewer to conclude that you’ve only worked in low-pressure environments
and therefore aren’t equipped to handle a difficult situation. Rather, formulate your answer in a way
that acknowledges workplace stress and explains how you’ve overcome it, or even used it to your
advantage.
9. Describe a difficult work situation or project and how
you overcame it.
The interviewer wants to know what you do when you face a difficult decision. As with the question
about stress, be prepared to share an example of what you did in a tough situation. It’s important to
share details around this example in order to make the story believable and engaging. That being
said, avoid talking negatively, or extensively, about other people. This can detract from what the
interviewer really wants to know about, which is how you can successfully perform in a challenging
situation.
10. What are your goals for the future?
This question is designed to find out if you’re going to stick around or move on as soon as you find a
better opportunity. Keep your answer focused on the job and the company you’re interviewing with,
and reiterate to the interviewer that the position aligns with your long-term goals.

What are your weaknesses?

Well, you know, I'm more of an introvert and sometimes I notice that I am shy to share my ideas when
there's a room of people.

“I am sure my experience in life is different from yours. I hope we can teach each other one thing or
another.”