Why do you — as a brand as a company — need live chat service?  And for that matter, why do you need these dedicated team of virtual customer service reps who attend to your clients 24/7?  How do you spot the talented, reliable, and hardworking ones from those who just might disappear without even giving notice? How do you formulate the best interview questions and answers before you hire live chat agents? In the virtual world, freelancers have been known to just jump from one gig to another, crippling customer service operations in the speed of the transition. This is something that you’d want to avoid at all costs because your customer base is your lifeline. Your relationships with them are integral to your revenues coming in. The happier your customers, the more probable that they will continue to engage your services, the more business you enjoy.

Live chat support is one way by which your customers remain connected to you. At any given time, they will want to contact you; this happens especially if they need help in using your product. If the product they bought from you breaks down, they want to be able to talk to someone who can help them right away. If they don’t understand the instructions in the manual, they want to be guided. And they just don’t want anybody. They want to interact with a fellow human being who will walk them through their difficulty. This person doing the live chat will not just have the necessary knowledge to answer their questions, but the compassion, patience, and presence of mind to lighten or alleviate an already tough situation. This person must also be on call at any given time. Imagine your customer typing at the chat box on your website or calling your brand’s hotline, and receiving no response. The resulting PR nightmare could lead to loss of consumer confidence and a decrease in sales. To prevent that, you need to hire live chat agents.

Now that you’ve gotten an idea of the qualities you are looking for, what are the most revealing interview questions you can put to candidates? What are the most compatible answers that they can give that you should take notice of?  We at HOPLA have come up with a list of the most important Q and A that can serve you as a guide before you hire live chat agents. It is a result of years of experience, study, and constant observation to see what works and what does not in the busy workplace.

Question 1 before you hire live chat agents

Has to delve into the candidate’s willingness to help people — meaning, a lot of them. During a live chat, the agent is always fielding one question after another. There is almost no rest. After one call is over, he has to attend to another. Most of these calls are cries for help, requests for assistance, and angry complaints. A lot of these customers want their problems solved ASAP.  To hire live chat agents, you must ask them their experience and emotions in providing assistance. The genuine desire to help must be present. So is the readiness to solve problems. The live chat agent must want to help the customer at the other end of the line, and not just placate them. It is the only true and powerful motivation that will help him succeed.   

Question 2 before you hire live chat agents 

focuses on the candidate’s ability to communicate, especially during the stressful moments. He or she has to show grace under pressure. While willingness to help is an excellent motivator and can help both agent and customer go the extra mile, excellent communication skills will actually be the key in solving the problem. The agent is on a live call. He must be able to articulate clearly, either verbally or through the chat box, the solutions the customer is asking for. He must be able to explain these solutions to the customer’s satisfaction. He must be able to explain even the most technical details in a way that the least technical person can understand. Before you hire live chat agents, test their communication skills. Ask them to verbalize their thoughts and see how they can reason or defend their position. Have them read technical, medical, and scientific manuals, and then explain them in their own words.

Question 3 before you hire live chat agents

The third question would have to do with the candidate’s ability to multitask. Live chat online can be a pressure cooker. The live chat agent might be doing several things at the same time. He can be answering the customer over the chat box, clicking through the database to look for a document, fielding the next several calls over the hotline, and emailing tips to a colleague who is just new on the job. Before you hire live chat agents,  you must dig deep into a candidate’s ability to handle several tasks or projects at the same time. Ask them about their experience in meeting all the deadlines of said projects. Inquire how they prioritize those tasks. Finally, should one crisis erupt during his process of multi-tasking, ask again how they would balance those responsibilities, to ensure that not one of them suffers.

We in HOPLA have managed remote teams of talents who excel in various fields, including live chat agents. Our rigorous screening process helps us spot the agents who are qualified, competent, and with the potential to be loyal. If you need to know more, call us now.