This Customer Service Test
Separates Good From Bad Hires

An elderly customer calls with a problem finding some product information on your company’s website. He is nice enough, just frustrated and hopeless because he can’t find what he needs. The information he’s looking for is too long and complicated to share over the phone. What are the best next steps?

The customer you are speaking with needs help solving a relatively common problem with his computer printer. Early on in the conversation, you realize he is not at home and can't provide the model number and other information you normally need to process this request. How do you proceed with the call once you discover this information?

You are on the support team for a cable/internet company and you have received the following email from a customer, Mike Smith:

I am very upset that your installation tech did not come to my home today at the appointed time. I took time off from work, all for no reason! I was told he should arrive between 12:00 and 5:00. He didn’t get here until 5:45. I could have just stayed at work since I normally get home at 5:30. This is not a good way to start my new service with you and I am already considering canceling!

A quick check of the notes on the customer’s account shows that the tech was scheduled to arrive ideally between 12:00 and 5:00pm, but didn’t get there until about 5:45 because of heavy traffic resulting from a car accident on one of the major crosstown roadways.

Please draft your response to this customer in the box below.

As a customer care representative named Jim for an online shoe store, you start a live support chat with Amy. She is a customer who wants to exchange shoes that don’t fit for the same shoes in another size. You greet the customer with your name and let her know that you will take care of her return immediately. Then, you offer to find the shoes in a better size for her. She replies, “No offense Jim, but I’d rather talk to a woman about women’s shoes.”

What are appropriate responses?

As a customer support agent for a music equipment company you receive an email from Fatema about a violin she bought last week for her son. She says the strings broke while he was playing in his school’s holiday concert and he was embarrassed to tears. She asks what you can do to make it up to him.

As part of your customer service work for QuikPizza, you monitor the restaurant's social media accounts to make sure that customers have positive experiences with the restaurant. When you come into work one morning, you see the following public post from the night before, which already has 138 likes.

Given that this message is on social media, how do you respond appropriately?

A customer phones to complain about a printer she purchased last week that stopped working. The customer tells you the brand of printer and it's clear she has called the wrong number because your company has never sold that brand.

What responses show appropriate customer service in this situation?

As a customer support agent, you receive the following email from an angry customer.

What are appropriate responses?