Article • 15 min read
How to hire customer support agents in 8 steps
Struggling to find the right customer support talent? Our guide shows you step-by-step instructions on how to hire customer service reps who create exceptional experiences.
Laatst gewijzigd October 1, 2024
What if one conversation with your company’s customer service could turn a frustrated buyer into a loyal advocate for life? Businesses that invest in skilled, empathetic support teams build bridges—not barriers—to customer satisfaction.
Customer service is the heart of your brand’s customer experience (CX). If you’re not investing in top-tier talent, you’re setting yourself up for failure. You need folks who care as much about your customers as you do.
This guide is here to help you find those people. We’ll walk you through what to look for, where to find them, and how to hire a customer service representative so your brand is represented by the very best.
Why hire a customer service representative?
Service representatives are the backbone of exceptional customer experiences—even in the age of AI. With 80 percent of all customer service interactions predicted to be resolved by AI by 2027, according to our Zendesk AI-powered Customer experience Trends Report 2024, human agents will have more time to focus on building deeper customer relationships, making their roles vital to differentiated, competitive CX. As automated systems take on routine inquiries, the cases that reach human agents will be more complex, emotionally charged, and high-stakes.
In an age of chatbots, AI, and self-service options, your human agents become the specialized task force, tackling the most challenging and impactful customer interactions. Their role evolves from simply answering questions to being brand ambassadors, relationship managers, and problem-solving wizards all rolled into one. This is why the process of hiring customer support agents deserves thoughtful consideration and strategic planning.
How to hire customer support agents:
- 1. Determine your staffing needs
- 2. Define your ideal customer service agent
- 3. Create a clear and compelling job description
- 4. Leverage multiple channels to find applicants
- 5. Identify the most promising candidates
- 6. Conduct phone screens to evaluate personality and fit
- 7. Interview the top candidates
- 8. Assess skills using real-world examples
- Frequently asked questions
- Elevate your customer support team with Zendesk
1. Determine your staffing needs
The first step in hiring customer support agents is understanding your business’s staffing requirements. Begin by assessing customer demand patterns, such as ticket volume, service channels, response time expectations, and peak periods. This will help you estimate how many agents you’ll need and when you’ll need them.
Workforce management (WFM) tools can significantly improve your staffing forecast. These platforms use historical data to predict support needs by analyzing customer trends, seasonality, and preferred contact channels.
Lastly, consider your budget and resources. Hiring too many agents can strain your finances, while too few will negatively impact service quality. WFM software helps you strike this balance by providing real-time data on workload distribution and agent productivity, allowing you to refine your staffing strategy over time.
To accurately determine your staffing needs, consider the following ideas:
- Analyze ticket volume trends: Historical data provides a baseline for your staffing needs.
- Identify peak hours and days: Determine when your team is busiest to ensure adequate staffing.
- Consider seasonality: Plan for increased staffing during holidays, product launches, or marketing campaigns.
- Factor in response time expectations: Ensure you have enough agents to meet your desired service level agreements (SLAs).
- Balance budget with quality: Find the right staffing balance to avoid unnecessary costs or long customer wait times.
- Refine your strategy: Regularly adjust staffing based on real-time performance data from WFM tools.
2. Define your ideal customer service agent
Hiring a great candidate is like fishing in the ocean—you can cast your net wide, but good luck reeling in a trophy marlin. You need to set some early parameters to narrow the pool of potential candidates.
Before you post that job ad, take a moment to envision your dream candidate. What essential customer service skills do they possess? Key technical skills include industry knowledge, technical proficiency, and a customer service background. Soft skills like empathy, communication, adaptability, and a positive attitude are just as important to deliver excellent customer service.
Think about what kind of agent would best serve your customers’ needs. You might need someone with specialized knowledge if you have a highly technical product. Language skills might be more important if you serve a global customer base. Finally, ensure the candidate’s personality and work style fit well within your company culture.
To further refine your ideal candidate profile, consider these strategies:
- Analyze your top performers: Look at your current customer service superstars. What traits and skills do they possess that make them successful? Use these insights to inform your ideal candidate profile.
- Involve team members: Get input from current customer service reps, team leads, and managers. They can provide valuable perspectives on what it takes to excel in the role.
- Be realistic: Distinguish between “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves.” The perfect candidate who checks every single box is likely a unicorn who doesn’t exist.
- Consider future needs: Think about where your company and customer service function are headed. What skills and attributes will be crucial in the coming years?
- Use data: If available, analyze performance data to identify correlations between certain traits or experiences and success in the role.
3. Create a clear and compelling job description
Once you’ve defined your ideal candidate, the next step is to write a customer service job description that will attract them. A well-crafted job description:
Informs potential candidates about the role and your company
Sets clear expectations about responsibilities and requirements
Helps candidates self-select based on their qualifications and interests
Showcases your company culture and values
Writing a job description can feel daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Reuse content from previous requisitions or find examples online to tailor to your company’s needs. Involve others who will work with the new hire to refine the minimum requirements and bonus skills.
This collaborative process will clarify the role, expectations, and company culture, ensuring you attract the right candidate. Balance requirements and consider how the position fits into the company’s long-term growth.
Keep these best practices in mind when writing your job description:
- Use inclusive language: Avoid gendered terms or language that might inadvertently discourage diverse candidates from applying.
- Be concise: While you want to provide enough detail, avoid overwhelming candidates with lengthy paragraphs. Use bullet points and short sentences for readability.
- Highlight what makes the role unique: What sets this position apart from similar roles at other companies? Emphasize any unique aspects or opportunities.
- Focus on outcomes: Instead of just listing tasks, describe what success looks like in the role. This helps candidates envision themselves in the position.
- Optimize for search: Include relevant keywords that job seekers might use when searching for positions. This will help your listing appear in search results.
4. Leverage multiple channels to find applicants
When all the stakeholders have signed off on the job requisition, think about where you want to post it. Remember, your goal is not to attract a gazillion candidates—you want to attract the best candidates.
Go beyond your website’s careers page. Do a little research to find the job posting sites and aggregators that the people you’re looking for are already using. Consider niche job boards, industry-specific sites, and specialized boards geared toward customer service, like Support Driven or Customer Service Jobs.
Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of employee referrals. Encourage your existing team to share the job opening with their contacts. This method often brings in candidates familiar with your company, increasing the likelihood of a good fit while saving you time and resources.
When using multiple channels, keep the following tips in mind:
- Tailor your job posting to each platform: Adjust your job posting slightly for each channel to appeal to the specific audience. What works on an industry-specific job board might not be as effective on LinkedIn.
- Use multimedia: Incorporate images, videos, or infographics in your job postings where possible to make them more engaging and informative.
- Track your sources: Use applicant tracking systems or unique application links to determine the most effective channels for your recruitment efforts.
- Don’t just post and forget: Engage with potential candidates, answer questions, and actively promote the opportunity.
- Leverage employee networks: Encourage your current employees to share job openings within their professional networks.
5. Identify the most promising candidates
With your job posting out in the wild and applications rolling in, it’s time to start sifting through the haystack to find those shiny needles. When screening customer service resumes, focus on relevant experience, not just customer service roles, but any job that shows problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills. Look for commitment (length of employment), quantifiable achievements, and strong communication through clear, error-free writing.
Resumes provide experience, but cover letters give context. They reveal how a candidate collaborated, led, or applied their education. The cover letter is also your first introduction to their personality and professionalism, giving insight that resumes alone lack.
Remember, at this stage, you’re not looking for perfection—you’re looking for potential. A candidate might not tick every box, but if they show strong core skills, enthusiasm for the role, and alignment with your company values, they might be worth moving to the next stage.
Some red flags to watch out for in resumes, cover letters, and applications:
Unexplained gaps in employment
Inconsistencies or vague descriptions of responsibilities
Overuse of buzzwords without substantive examples
Spelling and grammatical errors (particularly important for customer service roles that often involve written communication)
Build an effective support team
Learn how to scale your support team with our guide on customer service structure.
6. Conduct phone screens to evaluate personality and fit
Phone screens are an efficient way to further evaluate candidates before committing to more time-intensive in-person or video interviews. Though brief, this step allows you to:
Quickly assess verbal communication skills—crucial for customer service roles.
Gauge the candidate’s passion and interest in the role.
Clarify any questions you have about their experience or background.
Evaluate cultural fit and personality in a low-pressure environment.
During the call, pay attention to what the candidate says and how they say it. Are they articulate? Do they listen carefully and respond thoughtfully? Do they show a potential for strong employee engagement? A strong phone screen involves a great conversation with a ton of enthusiasm and personality. Listen for candidates who have researched your organization and are excited about the position.
Remember, the phone screen is a two-way street. While you’re evaluating the candidate, they’re also forming impressions about your company. Be prepared to answer their questions and sell them on why your company is a great place to work.
At the end of the call, be clear about the next steps and when they can expect to hear back. Even if you decide not to proceed with a candidate, providing prompt and courteous feedback can help maintain a positive employer brand.
Here are some tips to conduct effective phone screens:
- Probe for empathy: Ask questions that reveal the candidate’s ability to understand and relate to customer feelings and perspectives.
- Tailor questions to the specific role: Consider the requirements and challenges of your company’s customer service agent role.
- Look for red flags: Be alert for signs indicating potential issues, such as lack of preparation or speaking negatively about previous employers.
- Assess soft skills: Pay close attention to the candidate’s communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and overall demeanor.
- Leave time for questions: Encourage the candidate to ask questions about the company, the role, and the team.
7. Interview the top candidates
In the interview stage, you will truly see if your top candidates are the right fit for your customer support team. Prepare thoughtful interview questions that encourage them to share real-life examples of their customer service skills. Ensure the environment is welcoming so they can showcase their best selves.
Consider conducting panel interviews. Involving multiple interviewers can provide diverse perspectives and reduce individual bias. For example:
- A customer service manager might focus on the candidate’s problem-solving approach and customer interaction style.
- A technical team member might assess the candidate’s ability to understand and explain complex concepts.
- An HR representative might pay particular attention to cultural fit and alignment with company values.
Be transparent about your company culture, values, and expectations. Give candidates a chance to ask questions before wrapping up each interview. Their questions can reveal a lot about their priorities and interest in the role.
Throughout the entire interview process, ask yourself, is this person:
Calm and personable
Excited about the position
Able to stay on track and fully answer your questions
Willing to provide specific, real-life examples
Well-mannered—maintains eye contact, doesn’t interrupt, shakes hands, etc.
8. Assess skills using real-world examples
Once you’ve shortlisted your pool of candidates, it’s time to put their skills to the test. While resumes and interviews can give you a good idea of a person’s background and cultural fit, nothing beats seeing how they handle actual customer support scenarios.
Assign each top candidate two test tickets based on actual customer interactions—one with neutral or positive feedback and one with negative. This combination challenges them to handle different emotions and show their problem-solving and communication skills.
Once they’ve tackled the tickets, review their responses carefully. Pay attention to their problem-solving approach, communication style, and overall customer service finesse. The most revealing part is how they respond to your feedback on their work. Candidates eager to learn and improve are likely assets, while those who react poorly may not fit your team.
Here are some tips to effectively assess skills using real-world examples:
- Include a time management component: Set realistic time limits for tasks to evaluate how candidates prioritize and manage their time under pressure.
- Assess multitasking abilities: Create a scenario that requires candidates to juggle and prioritize several issues simultaneously.
- Evaluate critical thinking and research skills: Present a scenario where candidates need to find information to resolve a customer issue. Observe how they navigate resources and find solutions.
- Test data entry and accuracy: Include a task that involves inputting customer information or order details to assess attention to detail and accuracy.
- Assess cultural sensitivity: If your customer base is diverse, include scenarios that require cultural awareness and sensitivity.
Hiring tip: Don’t rush the decision. Being hasty can lead to negative consequences, like poor customer service, decreased productivity, high employee turnover, and customer dissatisfaction. Take your time, reflect, and make the choice that sets your team and your customers up for success.
Frequently asked questions
Elevate your customer support team with Zendesk
Building a high-performing customer support team requires the right people and empowering them with the tools they need to succeed. With Zendesk, you can give your team everything they need to provide a personalized and efficient customer experience—all within a single, user-friendly interface.
Zendesk integrates AI to help agents work faster, up-level their skills, and anticipate customer needs. This means your team can provide a more competitive CX, leading to happier customers and a more productive team.
Ready to revolutionize your support team’s workflow? Explore the Zendesk Agent Workspace and discover how it can help your agents work smarter, not harder.
