Assessing Customer Service Operators

Situation

A large financial services call centre wanted to find ways of decreasing the turnover of customer service operators and improve employee selection and performance. They sought to investigate the possibility of integrating certain assessments in their selection process, to enable them to create a profile for recruiting new employees who would be successful customer service operators.

Approach

JvR Psychometrics conducted the Customer Service Aptitude Profile (CSAP) on the company’s customer service agents. The CSAP is a questionnaire that measures traits that are critical to success in customer service. It puts emphasis on motivation and aptitude while identifying individuals who are likely to follow through once they have got the job.In addition,performance rating data for the call centre agents were also provided and these data were used as an indication of performance in the analyses conducted with the Customer Service Aptitude Profile.

Results

The results from the CSAP indicated that when selecting customer service agents in the financial services sector, the profile should consider individuals with high scores in Planning and Patience. Higher scores on Sales Disposition, Achievement, Motivation, and Personal Diplomacy would also be useful.As a result, a fairly clear profile with relative highs and lows was obtained, confirming that the CSAP seems to be the best choice to include in a battery of assessments for selecting customer service agents in the financial services sector. Further, the results from the CSAP can be used to identify why current customer service representatives may not be working up to their full potential, this feedback can be used for development purposes.