How to Hire Customer Service Specialists Who Work Remotely

Some organizations - healthcare suppliers, mortgage lenders, nonprofits, government agencies and more - saw a significant uptick in demand for their services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the roles these employers needed to hire for were customer service specialists, including call center reps.

As things stand, this is an ongoing trend. Robert Half's Salary Guide finds that call center staff and customer service specialists are among the hottest jobs in administrative and customer support. To thrive in this competitive business landscape, companies need to hire customer service specialists who meet or exceed industry standards.

But that doesn't mean these professionals are easy to hire.

Another challenge is that many companies still require team members to work from home. You won't be able to meet candidates in the office for in-person interviews, and many will be expected to offer remote customer service from day one.

Here's an overview of several common customer service roles, salaries, interview questions to ask, and tips to streamline the process of hiring remote employees.

Customer service specialist responsibilities

A critical first step you should take to hire customer service specialists is to create or update your job descriptions to ensure they contain the key details, duties and responsibilities of the respective role. Make certain they accurately reflect the kind of workers you want most. If you then include keywords from the job description in the job posting, you'll increase your chances of attracting candidates with the desired skills and experience.

While every company is different, here are four examples of customer service positions and their typical job duties:

1. Customer service specialist

• Performs data entry
• Receives and places telephone calls (or if online, receives or offers chat communications)
• Handles questions, provides information, troubleshoots and resolves issues

2. Senior customer service specialist

• Handles the responsibilities mentioned above
• Manages database records
• Acts as a resource for customer service escalations to a problem
• Provides status reports of issues and resolutions
• May train and/or supervise employees

3. Call center specialist

• For inbound call centers, responds to customer inquiries, processes orders and routes calls to appropriate departments
• For outbound call centers, calls on businesses and consumers - with or without an existing account - to offer products and services, obtains customer information and produces leads
• Manages a high volume of calls

4. Senior call center specialist

• Along with the duties of a call center specialist, this position must also have a deeper knowledge of accounts, products and services, and more work experience
• Proactively communicates with prospective customers and clients
• Upsells to existing accounts
• May provide training and/or management of a call center team

Customer service specialist salary ranges

Get the latest salaries and trends shaping the customer service hiring market from Robert Half's Salary Guide. You can localize your insights and get starting salaries for different roles and experience levels.

Job skills required

Customer service professionals should have a solid understanding of all the company's products and services. They should also be savvy at data entry paired with interpersonal skills, which are crucial in this role. These specialists should be great communicators so they can handle customer questions and concerns with a professional demeanor. If there's a chance applicants will start the job remotely but move to an office in the future, you also need to assess their flexibility and resilience.

Questions to ask customer service candidates

Job interviews are predominately conducted remotely now, and because many customer service and call center jobs are already remote by nature, interviewing job seekers by phone or video are ideal ways to assess their communication abilities and professionalism, key competencies needed to achieve success in the role.

Here are some questions to ask yourself during the interview:

• How is their demeanor during the interview?
• Are they polite, and do they listen closely to your questions and try to answer them fully?
• Do they ask additional questions of their own if they need more clarity?

In addition to assessing their communication skills and professionalism, here are a few questions to ask customer service specialist candidates, with added considerations.

• Can you tell me about a time when you've experienced great customer service?Does the candidate emphasize a quick resolution to a problem or warmth and empathy? Because everyone has a different idea of what constitutes good service, asking this question will help you determine if this candidate is a fit for your company's approach to the job.
• How have you dealt with frustrated callers? Dissatisfied callers are a major aspect of the job, so it's important to find out how the candidate approaches them. How would they diffuse the situation? What's the most important thing to do when you first get a call from someone who is upset?
• What do you know about our product or service? Does their reply indicate they have researched your firm to prepare for the interview? While a job seeker doesn't have to be an expert on your products or services, they should have a solid understanding of them.

How Robert Half can help you

If you need help finding the best talent to serve customers, Robert Half has you covered. We make it easy to hire customer service specialists who can work on-site, remotely or a combination of the two. Our highly skilled professionals can help you keep your organization moving forward and adapt to rapidly changing circumstances.

Robert Half is the world's first and largest specialized talent solutions firm. We offer:

• The largest database of candidates in the market - We have skilled administrative and customer support talent ready to start working ASAP.
• Seamless setup for any remote assignment - We can set up remote workers with a secure virtual workspace quickly and easily. If your firm allows VPN access, candidates can connect to your system using a secure device provided by Robert Half.
• Hiring flexibility- Whatever type of worker you need, permanent or contract-based, we can help move the process along. And fast. Our talent solutions professionals are well-versed in placing skilled candidates in on-site, hybrid or remote work environments. And whether you need one customer service specialist for a week or a team of 100 for an extended period, we can help you.

By hiring skilled customer service specialists, your company can continue to offer exceptional service while managing higher volumes of customer outreach.

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