Customer service positions require a specific set of behavioural characteristics, which can be difficult to find or identify in an interview. Proficiency in providing this service is related to an individual’s behavioural traits, basic proficiencies, and their own perspective on providing customer service. Putting the right people in the right front line jobs is vital. One way of ensuring you employ the right people is to scientifically assess candidates for suitability for a customer service job.
The Customer Service Profile, from Power Assessments International, was developed to help select individuals who will be successful in fulfilling the service needs of your customers regardless of their job titles.
The report covers the assessment taker’s Customer Service Perspective (and its alignment with that of the company), two basic work-related Proficiencies, and six important Behavioural Characteristics — Trust, Tact, Empathy, Conformity, Focus, and Flexibility. Employees who are well-matched to their position tend to have higher attendance records, less turnover, higher job satisfaction, and superior job performance. Both the employee and the employer share the benefits of enhanced person-to-job fit and strong customer service characteristics. The Customer Service Profile is designed to facilitate achieving the best possible job fit.
Our clients use the CSP to develop effective work teams, design optimal customer service departments based on their employees’ service perspective, help supervisors determine which approach will work best when working with a particular employee, and help develop customer service training plans. The Customer Service Profile instrument investigates three areas (Behavioural Characteristics, Basic Proficiencies, and the Customer Service Perspective) as a part of evaluating how an individual fits into a particular job. By reviewing broad areas of service perspective, behavioural characteristics, and basic proficiencies, we expand our ability to discover which areas will be most effective in determining job fit for a given position. By attending to each of these three areas, we enhance the opportunity to identify the factors that will lead to the best job fit.
Basic Proficiencies
A primary resource for us to be able to communicate is the ability we have to process information coming from the environment around us. In most training and customer service situations, that information is in the form of either words or numbers. The Vocabulary and Numerical sub-sections measure how well an individual understands the use of words and numbers and how well each is used as part of the communication process. These form the foundation of almost all problem-solving, communication, interaction, and learning skills used on the job. The individual’s scores from the Basic Proficiencies section represent the individual’s potential for these skills in light of the needs of a particular job. They also form part of the Overall Job Match Percentage.
- Vocabulary Proficiency – a measure of verbal skill through vocabulary
- Numerical Proficiency – a measure of numeric calculation ability
Behavioural Characteristics
Behavioural Characteristics help define whom we are by influencing the behaviours we exhibit. As the strengths and combinations of our Behavioural Characteristics vary, so does our performance on the job. The Customer Service Profile™ assesses a series of Behavioural Characteristics shown to be important in business settings in which customer service, both external and internal, is important. A brief description for each of the Behavioural Characteristics is provided in this section of the assessment tool.