If you’re interviewing for call center jobs, this article will help you get hired.

Along with the common interview questions all employers ask, there are some call center interview questions that you’re likely to hear specifically for that type of job.

So we’ll look at 12 sample questions – broken down into 5 different types – and how to answer them.

5 Types of Call Center Job Interview Questions to Be Ready For

1. Questions about your customer service experience

One type of question you’ll certainly hear for call center jobs is questions about your customer service skills.

This might include behavioral questions like, “Tell me a time you had to deal with a difficult customer?”

And you’ll also hear direct, fact-based questions like, “How many years of customer service experience do you have?”… or, “Have you worked in a call center before?”

Now, depending on the job, you might not need any prior call center or customer service experience.

Plenty of call centers interview entry level people.

So don’t panic if they ask this and you don’t have any direct experience.

Just be upfront, tell them you don’t have the exact thing they’ve asked about, and then try to explain why you’ll still succeed in this job and learn this job quickly.

2. Questions about your ability to work in a fast-paced environment

This is the next type of call center interview question you’re likely to hear.

Again, this might include behavioral questions. For example, “Tell me about a time you were working under a difficult deadline.”

They might also ask questions like, “What kind of work environments do you prefer?”

Since you’re interviewing for a call center job, which is usually a fast-paced job where they want speed, it’s best to tell them you enjoy that type of environment and do your best work in that environment.

If you want to get the job offer, you can’t give them concerns that it’ll be too fast and hectic for you to handle.

To recap, be ready to show you enjoy and thrive in fast-paced environment. And if you’ve worked in this environment before, prepare a couple examples of how you succeeded, challenges you overcome, why you enjoy it, etc.

3. Questions about your industry knowledge

You might also hear questions in your call center interview about their particular industry.

For example, they could ask, “Have you helped customers in the mobile phone market before?”

Or, “Have you ever worked in the business software industry?”

If they ask this, they want to make sure you’ll be able to succeed in learning their materials and being able to help customers quickly.

They want to know that you can understand their audience, technologies and products.

This is one of the top things any employer wants:

They want to hire people who can get up to speed quickly and start contributing results!

So if you have prior experience in their industry, tell them. If not, say no, and then explain why you think you’ll be able to learn the industry quickly in spite of this, and what steps you’ll take to make sure this happens (studying at home, etc.)

Or if you have been working in another industry, explain how you learned that industry in the past. If you successfully learned a different industry, it can help you prove that you’ll be able to quickly learn theirs too.

4. Questions about mental toughness

Being in a call center can be difficult and mentally draining.

You’ll have bad days.

You’ll have days where you do everything right and a customer still gets angry and yells at you.

So expect a few interview questions designed to make sure you can handle it mentally.

For example, they might ask you about a time you failed.

They might ask how you deal with failure or rejection.

Be ready to show that you’re capable of handling the ups and downs and that you can bounce back mentally if something doesn’t go your way.

5. Questions about WHY you want to work in a call center

Hiring managers for any call center job will want to make sure this is actually what you want to be doing.

They don’t want to hire someone who’s going to quit or change their mind after being trained for a month or two.

So they’ll likely ask, “Why do you want this job?”

They might also ask, “Which other companies are you interviewing with?”

If they ask this, they’re looking to see that you’re applying for other jobs of this type, or other similar jobs (customer service, etc.).

You don’t want to tell them you’re looking at 10 HR jobs and just one call center job.

That’s going to be a big red flag and will make them worry that you don’t really want a call center job.

One more question they might ask on this same general topic: “How did you hear about this role?”

So be ready for that, too.

Practice Before Your Interview!

We’ve covered a lot here.

As a final step, make sure to go practice.

All of these topics are very important to hiring managers, so don’t talk to an HR person or hiring manager without practicing these call center interview questions.

You’re likely to hear most or all of these questions in a phone interview, or early in the face-to-face interview process, so be ready.

Call Center Interview Questions – Quick Review

1. Be prepared for interview questions about prior customer service/call center experience
2. Be prepared for questions about your ability to work in a fast-paced environment
3. If you do not have prior experience in a call center or other similar customer service environment, be prepared to explain how you will succeed
4. Expect interview questions about your knowledge of their industry; they will want to know how much training you’ll need and how quickly you’ll get up to speed
5. Be prepared for questions about mental toughness and past failures, since call center jobs can be tough mentally
6. Be ready to explain exactly why you want to work in a call center; they’re going to ask why you applied for the position
7. Be prepared for fact-based questions (how many years have you done ___) AND behavioral interview questions (tell me about a time you ___) for each of the topics above

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