Customer service has long been considered a ‘soft skill’ by the corporate community. Unfortunately for employers, customer service skills are notoriously hard to teach to people without the right personality and/or motivation for direct customer interaction. With that in mind, many Human Resources departments are charged with hiring employees already grounded in good customer service. This isn’t always easy, however, because there is a huge demand for employees with good customer service skills; and identifying these skills through the traditional interview process is difficult at best.

Employees in every business, large or small, interact with people on a daily basis. Whether working with customers, vendors, creditors, investors or other employees, good service can make or break a company. Over time a company may be able to determine whether or not their representatives are providing good service by conducting customer surveys and analyzing direct customer feedback. The problem is that surveys take time to administer and by the time the resulting data is analyzed, a recently hired employee may have already caused irreparable damage to the customer relationship or company brand.

So how can an employer identify candidates qualified to build a high performance customer service organization prior to offering them a position? .

The answer is through pre-employment customer service skills testing. These skills tests, administered through a variety of comprehensive online tools, verify the employees’ potential and understanding of the processes and concepts associated with good customer service skills, and demonstrate the candidates’ ability and willingness to apply these skills in the workplace. These pre-employment tests can weed out candidates unable to communicate clearly, identify personality weaknesses that would make customer interactions challenging, and help determine their potential success in the posted position.

Customer service skills testing can result in three huge savings for employers: time, money, and resources. Validated and reliable skills tests can help employers differentiate between candidates that have the potential to quickly acclimate to the position they are trying to fill, and those jobseekers that are simply not a good job fit.

Customer service skills testing helps reduce costs by allowing the HR Department to screen out unsuitable candidates before the company invests both time and money in training people without the necessary skills to succeed in the position. These skills test results can also help reduce training time and ensure a shorter on-boarding period for new hires.

Customer service is often the defining element that separates a world class organization from the average company. Customer service skills testing is a solid investment in people, time, and funding. Customer service skills tests can help ensure that the new employees you hire are well-suited to the job, confident in their work, and professional in their interactions. What a great way to generate confidence and loyalty from your customers.

Click here to learn more about Customer Service Skill Tests.