Customer Service Manager Interview Essay

Written Interview questions for Transportation Customer Service Manager

1. Please describe your experience in the field of customer to include duties and responsibilities and the years of experience in the field.

Every position I have held has given me the opportunity to grow, implent and excel using my customer service skills. During my 4 years of experience as restauarant manager I was center of operations which made me the contact for customer, including their complaints. Although stressful at times, it was a very rewarding experience which taught me the foundation for which I’ve built upon over the last 13 years.

My responsibilities as a manager in the food service industry ranged from working as a waitress to payroll. There were

times an employee would call in sick and I would be left to fill in the gaps. I have waited tables, sliced meat at the deli counter, ran the cashier station amd mopped the floors at closing.
On a typical day I would begin the day by opening the store, preparing the cashier drawer and morning meeting of the employees. My responsibilites included maintaining budget, bookeeping which included daily deposits, ordering new stock, processing payroll, event planning, menu planning, hire and termination of employees, training of new employees, staff scheduling, marketing and advertising and problem solving.
I worked roughly a year in a customer service call center for a company which manufactured and distributed mechanical equipment. During my time spent in this position I routed calls to the appropriate destinations, answered questions concerning the equipment, assisted customers with orders, returns and resolving problems by clarifying issues and finding solutions, upselling accounts, and maintaining the call center database.
My time spent in the medical field has required me to use my customer service skills. In every hospital and the medical office in which I worked the patients were the customers. My responsibilities included both administrative and clinical tasks. I processed incoming phone calls, stood as a liason between Doctors and their patients by listening to their concerns, scheduled appointments which aligned with patients schedules and assisted customers with billing inquiries.
I was employed over 2 years as a Sales Representative for The Ledger Independent. I worked directly with customers to increase their use of advertising, maintin existing accounts, correct any errors and maintain customer satisfaction.
I consider myself to be a well rounded individual when it pertains to customer service because I have a variety of excellent experience.

2. Please describe how you would manage and prioritize responding to parent concerns about transportation to specifically include the criteria you would apply to the process.

Working with children and their parents can be touchy. In working with the public I've learned that each individual assumes their problem is of the utmost importance, especially when it involves their children. When speaking with parents understanding each individual situation is neccessary as well as ensuring them that their situation and their childs safety is top priority. It is very important to use empathy and understanding. When managing and prioritizing family complaints, the most critical situations need to be managed first. In the medical field I have learned that someone might have been waiting longer to be seen by a Doctor because an emergent patient was brought to the hospital. It is not that one person is more important, it's that the emergent patients condition has taken top priority. I would use these tools in dealing with overwheling amounts of requests while also ensuring each parents understants they have my full attention concerning their situation.

3. Please discuss your experience dealing with upset customers and how you can address their concerns without becoming confrontational. Describe in detail an instance when you experienced a confrontational customer and the decision making process that you applied to address the customers concerns. Were you able to accommodate the customer? If not, how did you resolve the issue?

I have always prided myself for staying calm, cool and collected in high stress situations.

I have encountered distressed customers and I feel it is important to individualize each situation and cater to the best of my ability to the needs of those customers. I consider myself to have a high tolerance for stress and I stay calm in these situations, take a deep breath and maintain my professionalism. For example, I once had a customer who became irate when his insurance company did not pay for a medical test he had performed. He was screaming and insulting the company for which I worked. I remained calm, apologized for the inconvenience and asked the customer to explain the situation. Without interruption I allowed him to speak and I in turn repeated the problem to show him that I had been listening and understood his situation. I have found it important to not interrupt the customer because they want to feel as if they have a voice and want to be heard. It is also important to be understanding and I explained he was not responsible for the costs incurred due to a clerical error in which we did not obtain a prior authorization. I then explained how I would correct the error. I made sure this solution was acceptable to the customer and the customer left satisfied. I believe it was due to my calmness and my ability to listen to the customers needs. In this particular situation I was able to resolve the customers

issue.

4. Please describe your past experience working independently to manage a project and achieve a specific goal or outcome.

When managing a project I have the ability to take charge of the project and work independently to ensure the project is completed in a timely manner by demonstrating initiative.

Setting priorities and goals are solid groundwork for completing any project. The last project I was assigned independently was to create a system to track defibrillator and pacemaker checks which were performed by the patient in their home. The checks were scheduled and the patient had complete them on a specific date. Then they were scanned into their chart and billed. I successfully created a system for documenting all of the above actions to ensure there were no missed checks, they were performed on the correct date, successfully scanned into the patients chart and billed correctly. This project took approximately one month to complete. I set my goals as stated above, I laid the groundwork by collecting the required information on each patient including which device they had implanted, how often the device was to be scheduled and which charges should be incurred. The outcome was a successful tracking system which performed it's duty.

5. Please discuss any experience you may have providing training or instruction to other

employees.

I have had many opportunities to both train and guide my fellow employees. While working as manager of a restaurant I trained all new employees. I also have had the opportunity to train several employees while working in the medical field. My time spent at the hospitals allowed me to use my expertise to train new Cardiac Monitor Technicians. I taught then to interpret heart rhythms and showed them the process for which to prepare the information they gathered for Doctors and Nurses. As a Medical Assistant I trained new hires and acquainted them to the office. I taught them the best practice to perform their jobs correctly and in a timely manner. When training was completed the employee was prepared, knew what was expected of them and met those expectations.