Customer Service and BPO Interview Questions and Answers: 60 Questions from Easy to Hard
This guide is for freshers and working agents in India preparing for customer service, customer support and BPO interviews in voice, chat, email and non-voice processes, domestic or international. It has 60 questions with sample answers you can say aloud, in three levels: the basics every fresher is asked, the real call and chat situations agents with one to four years handle every day, and the metrics, staffing and coaching questions asked in team leader and quality rounds. The metric answers show the full working, so you can explain AHT, FCR, CSAT, NPS and service level with numbers. Practise each answer aloud in your own words, then take the mock test.
- 60 questions, 3 levels
- Updated
- CoreHRx Jobs
- 993 open Customer service jobs
What customer service and BPO interviews cover
- An HR and communication round: tell me about yourself, why this job and shift comfort, often with an English assessment such as reading aloud, listening or a typing test.
- Process basics: voice and non-voice work, inbound and outbound, domestic and international, and how to greet, hold, transfer and close a call or chat.
- Role plays: an angry customer, a delayed refund, a caller who wants a supervisor, or someone trying to change account details without verification.
- Metrics: AHT, FCR, CSAT, NPS, service level, adherence and occupancy, with small calculations for experienced roles.
- For team leader and quality roles: coaching, attrition, calibration, staffing with shrinkage, root cause analysis and client reviews.
How to prepare (freshers and experienced)
- Freshers: practise a one-minute introduction aloud until it sounds natural, and record yourself to check your pace, clarity and filler words.
- Read English aloud for 15 minutes a day and practise typing; chat and email rounds often test typing speed and accuracy along with grammar.
- Role-play common cases with a friend, such as a wrong delivery or a refund delay, using the same flow each time: listen, empathise, check, solve and confirm.
- Experienced agents: know your own numbers, such as AHT, CSAT and quality scores, and keep two stories ready of difficult cases you solved.
- Team leader candidates: revise the metric formulas, shrinkage and the idea behind Erlang C staffing, and prepare one story of improving a team with before and after numbers.
Common mistakes and interview-day tips
- Speaking too fast or putting on a fake accent. Interviewers want clear, correct and well-paced English.
- Saying you never get angry or stressed. Describe a real method you use to stay calm instead.
- Promising in a role play what no company policy would allow, such as an instant full refund. Offer what a real process could deliver and set clear expectations.
- Being unsure about night shifts or travel. Decide before the interview and answer clearly.
- Forgetting data privacy in scenarios. Whenever account details come up, mention verification and that you would never ask for an OTP, CVV or password.
Customer Service interview questions: Easy questions (freshers)
20 questions1. Tell me about yourself. How should a fresher answer this in a BPO interview?
Keep it under a minute: your name and city, education, any customer-facing experience, and why this job. For example: I am Sneha Patil from Nagpur and I finished my BCom this year. On weekends I worked at a mobile shop, where I explained recharge plans and calmed customers whose phones were late from repair. I enjoy solving people's problems, I type fast and I am fine with rotational shifts, so customer support suits me. Speak slowly and smile. Do not recite your resume or add family details nobody asked for.
2. Why do you want to work in customer service or a BPO?
Give a reason linked to the work, not just that you need a job. A good answer: I like talking to people and I feel good when a confused customer ends the call satisfied. A BPO also builds skills that last, such as clear communication, patience, typing and using a CRM, and there is a clear growth path to quality analyst, trainer or team leader. Add one real example from your life that shows this. Avoid saying you chose it because it is easy to get, or that you plan to leave soon for something else.
3. What is a BPO, and what is the difference between a voice and a non-voice process?
BPO means business process outsourcing: a company hands work such as customer support, collections or back-office tasks to a specialist firm or to its own support centre. In a voice process you speak to customers on calls, so pronunciation, tone and listening matter most. In a non-voice process you work through chat, email, social media or back-office tickets, so written English, typing speed and accuracy matter most. Many centres also have blended roles where one agent handles both calls and chats.
4. What is the difference between an inbound and an outbound process?
In an inbound process customers call you: for example, a customer in Indore calls a telecom helpline because his recharge has not reflected. You solve queries and complaints, and metrics such as AHT and CSAT matter. In an outbound process you call customers for sales, payment reminders, surveys or verification. Targets there are often conversions or collections, and you must respect calling-hour rules and do-not-disturb choices. Inbound needs patience and product knowledge; outbound needs confidence with rejection.
5. What is the difference between a domestic and an international process?
A domestic process serves customers in India, usually in English, Hindi or a regional language, mostly in day or evening shifts. An international process serves customers abroad, for example in the US, UK or Australia, so shifts follow their time zone and night shifts are common. International calls need clear neutral English, awareness of local culture, date and currency formats, and the client's often stricter compliance rules. Do not fake a foreign accent; interviewers want clarity, correct grammar and a steady pace.
6. How do you open and close a customer call professionally?
Open with the greeting your process sets: greet, say the brand and your name, and offer help, for example: Good morning, thank you for calling, this is Rahul, how may I help you? Then take the customer's name and use it. To close, summarise what was done and what happens next, ask if anything else is needed, and thank them: Your refund request is raised and you will get an SMS within 24 hours. Is there anything else I can help you with? Never cut a call abruptly or skip the closing to save time.
7. What is the correct way to put a customer on hold?
Ask permission, say why and give a time: May I place your call on hold for two minutes while I check your order details? Wait for the customer to agree, then use the hold button, not mute, so the customer hears hold music and knows the call is still connected. Come back within the time you promised, or return and ask for more time. Thank them when you return: Thank you for waiting. If you need several checks, offer a callback instead of long holds. Unexplained holds are a common reason for low quality scores.
8. What is empathy in customer service? Give a few empathy statements.
Empathy means showing the customer you understand how the problem feels to them, not only what the problem is. It calms people so they listen to the solution. Examples: I understand how worrying it is when money is debited and the order is not confirmed. I am sorry you had to call again for the same issue. I can see why this is stressful just before your trip. Use one statement that fits, then move to action. A common mistake is repeating a scripted I understand your concern on every call, which sounds robotic.
9. What is active listening, and how do you show it on a call?
Active listening means giving the customer your full attention so you understand the real issue before you answer. On a call you show it by not interrupting, using short acknowledgements such as I see or Right, noting key points in the CRM, and then paraphrasing: So the parcel shows as delivered, but you have not received it, correct? Paraphrasing catches misunderstandings early and the customer feels heard. A common mistake is starting to type a solution after two sentences and then solving the wrong problem.
10. What is AHT? Calculate it from the data given.
AHT, average handle time, is the average time one contact takes, from answering it to finishing its after-call work. Here the total is 24,000 + 2,400 + 4,800 = 31,200 seconds, and 31,200 / 100 calls = 312 seconds, which is 5 minutes 12 seconds. Hold time and after-call work are part of AHT, a point many freshers miss. A lower AHT lets the same team take more calls, but it must not come from rushing customers or skipping steps, because that only creates repeat calls.
Calls handled 100
Total talk time 24,000 s
Total hold time 2,400 s
Total after-call work 4,800 s
AHT = (talk + hold + after-call work) / calls handled11. What is CSAT? Work out the CSAT score from this survey.
CSAT, customer satisfaction score, is the share of surveyed customers who say they are satisfied. On a 1 to 5 scale most processes count only 4 and 5 as satisfied. Here 180 + 120 = 300 of 400 responses are 4 or 5, so CSAT is 300 / 400 = 75%. A 3 is neutral and does not count. Note that 75% is not the same as the average rating, which here is 4.0. CSAT is usually asked right after the contact, so it reflects that one interaction. Always check which ratings your process counts as satisfied.
Survey: How satisfied are you? (1 to 5)
Rating Responses
5 180
4 120
3 50
2 20
1 30
Total 400
CSAT % = ratings of 4 and 5 / total responses x 10012. What is FCR, and why do companies care about it so much?
FCR, first contact resolution, is the share of issues solved in the first call, chat or email, with no need for the customer to come back. If 410 of 500 issues were solved the first time, FCR is 82%. It matters because a repeat contact doubles the cost for the company and the effort for the customer, and repeat callers are often the angriest. As an agent you improve FCR by asking questions until you understand the full issue, solving related problems in the same call, and giving clear next steps.
13. What is a CRM, and why must you log every interaction in it?
A CRM, customer relationship management system, keeps each customer's details, past contacts, orders, complaints and notes in one place. You log every interaction so the next agent knows what was promised and the customer does not have to repeat the story. Good notes are short and factual: Broadband down since 10 am, router light red, ticket raised for a technician visit, callback promised by 6 pm. Notes are also used in audits and disputes, so never write opinions or rude remarks about a customer.
14. What is a support ticket, and what statuses does it usually move through?
A ticket is the record of one customer issue with a unique number, so it can be tracked until it is solved. A typical flow is: New when created, Open or Assigned when an agent or team picks it up, Pending or On hold while waiting for the customer or another team, Resolved when the fix is given, and Closed after the customer confirms or a set number of days pass with no reply. Always give the customer the ticket number and the expected time. Closing a ticket before the issue is really fixed is a serious mistake.
15. What are the basic rules of chat support etiquette?
Greet within the first few seconds, use the customer's name, and write short, clear sentences in proper English, not SMS language. Reply quickly; if you need time, say so: Please give me two minutes while I check your order. Use canned responses as a base but edit them to fit the question. Do not type in capital letters, which reads as shouting. When you handle two or three chats at once, keep notes for each so you never send a reply to the wrong customer, a mistake that can also expose someone's data.
16. How do you structure a good customer support email?
Use a clear order: a greeting with the customer's name, one line that shows you understood the issue, the answer or action taken, the next step with a date, and a polite close with your name and the ticket number. For example: Dear Mr. Iyer, I understand your order 4521 arrived damaged. I have arranged a free replacement, which will reach you by 12 March. Keep paragraphs short, check spelling and attachments, and answer every question the customer asked, not only the first one.
17. A customer tries to read out the OTP he just received, or offers his card CVV, so that you can finish faster. What do you do?
Stop him politely before he says it: Please do not share your OTP, CVV, PIN or password with anyone, including me; no genuine agent needs them. Then complete the request through the safe process, such as a link or the IVR where he enters details himself. If he has already said it, do not write it anywhere, inform your team leader as your process requires, and advise him to block the card or change the password if needed. Protecting customer data is a zero-tolerance area, and a breach can end your job.
18. Are you comfortable with night shifts and rotational shifts? How do you answer this honestly?
Answer honestly, because shifts are a real part of the job and interviewers check this. A good answer: Yes, I understand support runs round the clock and I am comfortable with rotational and night shifts. I have discussed it with my family and I will plan my sleep and travel. If you have a real limit, such as an exam month, say it clearly now rather than later. Show you know how to manage it: fixed sleep hours, light meals at night and logging in on time, since one late login affects the whole team's plan.
19. What do you do when you cannot understand the customer because of a bad line or a language you are not comfortable in?
Never pretend to understand. For a bad line, say: I am sorry, your voice is breaking, could you please repeat that? If it does not improve, offer a callback on the registered number as your process allows. For language, use simple words, speak slowly, and confirm key details by spelling them, for example B for Bombay, P for Pune. If the customer prefers another language, tell them and transfer to a language queue if one exists. Guessing an order number or address leads to wrong actions and repeat calls.
20. What do you do if a customer asks something you do not know the answer to?
Do not guess, because a wrong answer creates a complaint later. Tell the customer you will check: Let me confirm the correct information for you. Then search the knowledge base, ask your team leader or the subject matter expert on the floor, using a proper hold. If it cannot be answered on the call, raise a ticket or escalation and give a clear time for the callback. After the call, learn the answer so you can solve it yourself next time. Interviewers like candidates who admit a gap and then follow up.
Ready to check yourself? Take the free Customer Service mock test
Customer Service interview questions: Medium questions (1-3 years)
20 questions21. A customer in Lucknow calls angrily: his broadband has been down for three days, he works from home and wants to cancel. Walk through how you handle the call.
First let him speak without interrupting; angry customers calm down once they feel heard. Then acknowledge and apologise: I am really sorry, three days without internet when you work from home is serious. Take ownership instead of blaming another team. Check the account, the outage status and old tickets, explain what you found in plain words, and give a concrete action with a time, such as a priority technician visit tomorrow morning. Offer what policy allows, such as a credit for the lost days, and only then discuss cancellation.
22. A customer starts using abusive language on the call. What is the right way to handle it?
Separate anger from abuse. Anger at the problem is normal, and you keep helping. Personal abuse or threats are handled by the process's abuse policy, which usually starts with a calm warning: I want to help you, but I will not be able to continue if this language continues. If it goes on after the warnings your process allows, tell the customer you are ending the call, disconnect, note the exact reason in the CRM and inform your team leader. Never abuse back, argue, or hang up without a warning.
23. A customer demands to speak to your supervisor in the first minute of the call. What do you do?
Do not refuse, and do not transfer blindly. Acknowledge the request and ask for a chance: I will certainly arrange that if needed; could you tell me the issue so I can either fix it now or brief my supervisor? Often the customer only wants someone with authority, and if you solve it the call ends well. If they still insist, or the issue is beyond your authority, follow the escalation process: brief the supervisor fully so the customer does not repeat everything, or book a supervisor callback within the promised time.
24. What is an escalation matrix? Explain with an example.
An escalation matrix is a written table of who handles a problem at each level, when it should move up and how fast. In this example the agent tries first, a team leader or subject matter expert takes over if the agent cannot fix it, the process manager handles repeat or high-value cases, and the client's nodal team handles legal or regulator complaints. It stops two bad habits: escalating everything, and sitting on a case that should have moved up. Always record each escalation with its reason.
Level Who When Time limit
L1 Agent First contact On the call
L2 Team leader or SME Agent cannot resolve, 4 hours
customer asks for senior
L3 Process manager Not fixed at L2, repeat 24 hours
or high-value complaint
L4 Client nodal team Legal notice, regulator As per client
or media complaint25. A customer in Jaipur says her refund has not come six days after cancelling. The policy says 5 to 7 working days. How do you handle it?
Six calendar days can be only four working days, so first check the refund status and the date it was processed. If it is still within the limit, explain clearly: Your refund of Rs 2,499 was processed on Monday; banks can take up to 7 working days, so it should reach you by next Wednesday. Share the refund reference number she can show her bank, and note the call. If the time has already passed or the refund failed, raise an escalation now with the details. Never promise a date the policy cannot keep.
26. Calculate the NPS from this survey, and explain how NPS differs from CSAT.
NPS, net promoter score, measures loyalty: would the customer recommend the brand? Promoters are 130 of 250, which is 52%, and detractors are 50 of 250, which is 20%, so NPS is 52 - 20 = 32. Passives count in the total but not in the subtraction. NPS runs from -100 to +100 and is written as a number, not a percentage. It reflects the whole relationship, including price and product, so an agent cannot control it alone; CSAT is better for judging one interaction. Do not count a 7 or 8 as a promoter.
Question: How likely are you to recommend us
to a friend? (0 to 10)
Score 9-10 (promoters) 130
Score 7-8 (passives) 70
Score 0-6 (detractors) 50
Total responses 250
NPS = % promoters - % detractors27. The client's target is a service level of 80/20. What does that mean, and did the team meet it in this interval?
80/20 means 80% of calls should be answered within 20 seconds. With the common formula, calls answered within 20 seconds divided by calls offered, 820 / 1,000 = 82%, so the target is met. If the contract counts only answered calls, it is 820 / 940 = 87.2%, which looks better, so the formula must be agreed with the client. Abandonment here is 60 / 1,000 = 6%. Service level is tracked per interval, usually 15 or 30 minutes, because a good daily average can hide a peak hour when most callers were waiting.
Interval 9:00 to 9:30, target 80/20
Calls offered 1,000
Answered within 20 seconds 820
Answered in total 940
Abandoned 6028. Your AHT is 420 seconds against a target of 360. Using this break-up, how would you bring it down without hurting quality?
First see where the time goes: hold is 70 of 420 seconds, about 17%, and after-call work is 90, about 21%, so these two are the quickest wins before touching talk time. Cut hold by learning the common answers and keeping the right screens open; cut after-call work by typing notes during the call and using note templates. Hold of 40 and after-call work of 60 give 260 + 40 + 60 = 360, the target, without rushing anyone. Then listen to your longest calls to find where you over-explain.
Your average per call (seconds)
Talk time 260
Hold time 70
After-call work 90
AHT 420 Target 36029. AHT and FCR often pull in opposite directions. How do you balance them?
A short call that does not solve the problem just moves the work to a repeat call, so the real cost goes up. If a customer must call twice, the total handle time roughly doubles, the customer is angrier and CSAT drops. So resolution comes first and speed second: ask the right questions, solve related issues in the same call, and confirm the fix before closing. Then remove wasted time, such as long holds, slow tools and over-explaining. A good team leader always reads AHT together with FCR and CSAT, never alone.
30. What does a quality analyst check when auditing your calls, and what is a fatal error?
Quality analysts listen to a sample of your calls or read your chats and score them on a sheet like this one: opening, verification, understanding, correct resolution, soft skills, hold and closing, and notes. A fatal error is a mistake so serious that the whole audit scores zero however good the rest was, such as sharing account details without verification, rude behaviour, wrong information or a missed mandatory disclosure. Ask for feedback on low scores and listen to your own recordings; most agents improve fastest that way.
Parameter Weight
Opening and verification 10
Understanding the issue 20
Correct resolution 30
Soft skills and empathy 20
Hold, transfer and closing 10
CRM notes 10
Total 100
Fatal (audit = 0): data shared without
verification, rude language, wrong
information, missed mandatory disclosure31. You move from a domestic process to a US voice process. What changes in how you speak and work?
The basics stay, but several things change. Speak clear, neutral English at a steady pace, and avoid Indian-English phrases a US caller may not follow, such as do the needful or I will revert. Address callers formally, as Mr. or Ms. with the last name, unless they ask otherwise. Use US formats: dates as month, day, year, prices in dollars, and their time zone for callbacks. Spell details with the phonetic alphabet, A for Alpha, B for Bravo. Shifts run at night in India, and client compliance rules are usually strict.
32. How do you verify a caller before sharing account details, and what must you never ask for?
Follow the verification steps your process sets, such as checking that the call is from the registered mobile and asking for details like date of birth, registered email or a recent transaction. Share account details only after the checks pass, and only with the account holder or an authorised person on record. Never ask for the full card number, CVV, PIN, net banking password or an OTP meant for a transaction. If verification fails, refuse politely and guide the customer to the app or a branch. Skipping verification is usually a fatal error.
33. A caller says he is the account holder's son, knows her name and address, and urgently wants the registered mobile number changed. What do you do?
Refuse politely, because this is a classic social engineering pattern: urgency, a believable story and partial details. A change of registered mobile or address can be made only by the verified account holder through the secure channel your process defines, often with document checks. Explain: For your mother's safety, she needs to contact us herself or visit the branch. Do not hint at which details are missing. Note the attempt in the CRM and report it as your fraud process requires, since changing the mobile is a common first step in account takeover.
34. In a chat, the customer stops replying in the middle of the conversation. How do you handle it?
Follow the process's inactivity rule, which usually means a polite prompt after a set time and then a final message before closing. For example, after two minutes: Are you still with me? I am here to help with your exchange request. After the next gap: I have not heard back, so I will close this chat; your request number is 7845 and you can reply anytime to continue. Save clear notes so the next agent can pick up. Do not close without a warning, and do not leave the chat open forever, because it blocks a slot another customer needs.
35. A customer posts a public complaint on social media about a late delivery and tags the brand. How should the support team reply?
Reply quickly in public, but move the details to a private channel. A good public reply: Hi Ankit, we are sorry your order is late. We have sent you a direct message so we can sort this out. Never ask for an order number, phone number or address in the public reply, because everyone can see it. In the private chat, verify, check the status and give a real date. Once it is solved, a short public update shows others it was handled. Do not argue, paste the same reply to everyone or delete criticism.
36. You realise after the call that you gave a customer wrong information about a plan's validity. What do you do?
Own it quickly. Tell your team leader, confirm the correct information, and call the customer back on the registered number if your process allows callbacks; otherwise send a correction through the approved channel. Keep it simple: I want to correct something I told you earlier; the plan is valid for 28 days, not 30. If the wrong information caused a loss, such as an extra charge, raise a request to fix it, and update the CRM note. Quality teams treat hiding a mistake as far worse than the mistake itself.
37. A customer calls to cancel her broadband subscription, and your process expects a retention attempt. How do you do it without being pushy?
First ask why she wants to cancel and listen, because the reason decides the offer. If it is price, show a cheaper plan or an available discount; if it is a service problem, fix or escalate it first; if she is moving city, check service at the new address. Make one relevant offer, explain the benefit in a sentence, and respect her answer. If she still wants to leave, process it smoothly and confirm the date and any final bill. Pushing repeated offers creates complaints and hurts NPS more than one lost customer.
38. The CRM goes down in the middle of your shift while calls keep coming. What do you do?
Inform your team leader at once so IT and the client can be told, and follow the downtime process, which usually has an offline template or sheet for capturing calls. Tell customers honestly: Our system is slow right now; I have noted your issue and we will call you back by 5 pm with an update. Capture only what is needed, keep the sheet secure, and never write card details or OTPs on paper. When the system is back, enter every case and make the promised callbacks. Do not guess answers about an account you cannot check.
39. What is schedule adherence? Calculate it from the data.
Schedule adherence shows how closely you follow the plan the workforce team made: logged in, on break and in other states at the right times. Here you were out of adherence for 35 of 420 minutes, so adherence is (420 - 35) / 420 = 385 / 420 = 91.7%. Each process sets its own target. It matters because staffing is planned in 15 or 30 minute slots; if three agents stretch their breaks at the peak hour, service level drops for the whole team. Tell your team leader before taking unplanned time off the phone.
Scheduled time on calls 420 minutes
(8 hour login minus 60 minutes of breaks)
Time out of adherence 35 minutes
(late login, long break, unplanned aux)
Adherence = (scheduled - out of adherence)
/ scheduled x 10040. How do you deal with stress after back-to-back angry calls?
Remind yourself that the customer is angry with the situation, not with you personally. Between calls, take a slow breath and a sip of water during after-call work, and do not carry the last call's tone into the next greeting. Use your breaks to rest rather than scroll your phone. If a call shook you, tell your team leader; good teams expect this and may give you a short break. Over time, strong product knowledge reduces stress the most, because you can solve more problems with confidence.
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Customer Service interview questions: Hard questions (experienced)
20 questions41. 120 calls are forecast in a 30-minute interval with an AHT of 240 seconds. How many agents do you need for 80/20, and how is it worked out?
First find the workload: 120 x 240 / 1,800 = 16 Erlangs, so 16 agents would be busy all the time with zero waiting. Calls arrive randomly, so you need more, and the standard tool is the Erlang C formula, which gives the service level for each agent count. Here 19 agents give about 71%, short of target, and 20 give about 81.7%, so 20 agents must be on the phones. Then add shrinkage: at 30%, 20 / 0.7 = 28.6, so schedule 29. Erlang C assumes nobody hangs up, so it slightly overstates the need.
Interval 30 minutes (1,800 s)
Calls forecast 120
AHT 240 s
Target 80% answered within 20 s
Traffic (Erlangs) = calls x AHT / interval
Agents Service level ASA Occupancy
19 70.9% 29.9 s 84.2%
20 81.7% 15.4 s 80.0%
21 88.7% 8.2 s 76.2%42. What is occupancy? Calculate it, and explain why very high occupancy is a problem.
Occupancy is the share of an agent's available time spent actually handling contacts. Here it is 357 / (357 + 63) = 357 / 420 = 85%. Some idle time is unavoidable because calls arrive randomly. Occupancy that stays very high, say above about 90%, leaves agents no breathing space between calls, which leads to fatigue, more errors, lower CSAT and higher attrition. Very low occupancy means overstaffing and wasted cost. It is mostly a result of staffing and volume, not effort, so do not use it to judge individual agents.
Agent's available time in one day
Handling contacts
(talk + hold + after-call work) 357 min
Idle, waiting for the next contact 63 min
Occupancy = handling / (handling + idle) x 10043. The plan says 40 agents must be on the phones throughout a shift, and shrinkage is 30%. How many agents must you schedule?
Shrinkage is the share of paid time when agents cannot take contacts: breaks, training, coaching, meetings, leave and absence. With 30% shrinkage only 70% of scheduled agents are on the phones, so you need 40 / 0.70 = 57.1, rounded up to 58 agents. A common mistake is 40 x 1.3 = 52, but if 30% of 52 agents are away, only about 36 remain, short of 40. Track planned shrinkage, such as training, separately from unplanned shrinkage, such as sudden leave, because the unplanned part usually breaks the plan.
Agents needed on the phones 40
Shrinkage (breaks, training,
meetings, leave, absence) 30%
Scheduled = needed / (1 - shrinkage)44. Your team's CSAT fell from 85% to 72.5% in one month. Using this split, where would you look first and what would you do?
Split the score before acting. Refunds fell from 82% to 55% and grew from 500 to 600 surveys, so they caused most of the drop; other queues slipped from 86% to 80%, a second and smaller problem. Next, read the refund comments and listen to low-rated calls: there may be a new refund rule, a payment partner delay or an unclear script. Fix the cause with the operations team, brief agents with one clear message, and watch the daily score. Telling everyone to be more polite rarely works; most drops start with a process change.
Last month This month
Queue Surveys CSAT Surveys CSAT
Refunds 500 82% 600 55%
Other 1,500 86% 1,400 80%
Overall 2,000 85% 2,000 72.5%45. An agent in your team has high AHT and low quality scores. How do you coach him?
Start with calls and data, not opinions: listen to five or six of his calls together and let him spot the gaps first. Find the cause, which may be weak product knowledge, slow use of the tools, or fear of difficult customers. Agree on one or two specific goals with a date, such as answering billing queries without long holds. Practise with role plays, then do side-by-side listening and short daily check-ins, and praise progress quickly. If nothing improves after fair support, move to a documented improvement plan.
46. Your team loses three or four agents every month. As a team leader, how do you reduce attrition?
First find the real reasons from exit talks, skip-level chats and data: is it the first month, night shifts, one tough queue, unfair audits or a lack of growth? Then fix what you control. Hold regular one-to-one talks, recognise good work in front of the team, publish fair rosters early, coach rather than shout, and show a clear path to roles such as SME, quality analyst or trainer. Watch for warning signs like rising absence or a sudden drop in quality. Some attrition is normal; the goal is to stop losing good agents for avoidable reasons.
47. Repeat contacts are high. Using this data, how would you find and fix the root cause?
This is a Pareto view: two reasons, refund status and delivery delay, cause 720 of 1,200 repeats, which is 60%, so start there. For refunds, find out why customers come back: listening to calls may show agents give no reference number or only a vague timeline, so the fix is a clear script plus an SMS when the refund is processed. A 5 whys exercise takes you past the symptom to the cause. Then track the same reasons next month to prove the change worked, instead of declaring success after one training session.
Repeat contacts last month, by reason
Reason Contacts Share Cumulative
Refund status 420 35.0% 35.0%
Delivery delay 300 25.0% 60.0%
Wrong item 180 15.0% 75.0%
App login 150 12.5% 87.5%
Others 150 12.5% 100.0%
Total 1,20048. There are different ways to measure FCR. Which ones do you know, and what are their weaknesses?
One is agent marking, where the agent ticks resolved; it is easy but biased, because agents tend to mark their own contacts as resolved. Another is repeat-contact tracking, where an issue counts as resolved if the same customer does not come back on it within a window, such as 7 days; it is objective but misses customers who gave up, and the window chosen changes the number. A third is a survey question, Was your issue resolved?, which gives the customer's view but only from those who reply. Strong teams combine repeat data with surveys.
49. CSAT, NPS and Customer Effort Score: what does each measure, and when would you use which?
CSAT measures satisfaction with one interaction, asked right after it, so it is best for judging agents, scripts and processes. NPS measures loyalty to the brand, whether the customer would recommend it, so it reflects product, price and every touchpoint, and suits relationship surveys every few months. Customer Effort Score asks how easy it was to get the issue solved, and helps find friction such as repeated transfers. A mature process uses CSAT for daily coaching, effort for journey fixes and NPS for leadership tracking.
50. Your team's AHT dropped sharply in a month but repeat calls went up. You suspect agents are gaming the metric. How do you check and fix it?
Look for the patterns gaming leaves: many calls under 30 seconds, calls ending soon after a hold, transfers with no reason, tickets closed and then reopened by the same customer, and very short after-call work with empty notes. Compare agents on repeat-contact and short-call rates, then listen to their calls. Handle proven cases through the disciplinary process, since dropping a customer on purpose is serious. The lasting fix is the scorecard: balance AHT with FCR, CSAT and quality so nobody wins by cutting customers off.
51. You are setting up an email ticket queue for a fintech support team. How would you design priorities and SLAs?
Define priority by impact and urgency, with examples agents can match, and give each level a first-reply and a resolution target as in the table. Money stuck or suspected fraud is P1, a single customer's service problem P2, billing and changes P3, and general queries P4. Agree whether the clock runs in business or calendar hours and whether it pauses while waiting for the customer. Set alerts before a breach and an escalation path for each level. Review the mix monthly, because if everything becomes P1, priority means nothing.
Priority Example First reply Resolve
P1 Money debited, order failed 1 hour 4 hours
P2 Service down, one customer 2 hours 8 hours
P3 Wrong bill, plan change 4 hours 24 hours
P4 General query, feedback 8 hours 72 hours52. Calculate the resolution SLA compliance for these tickets, and say what you would report.
A ticket meets SLA if it was resolved within its priority's target. T102 (6 h against 4), T104 (9 against 8), T107 (30 against 24) and T110 (80 against 72) missed, so 6 of 10 met: 60% compliance. Report it by priority as well: P1 is only 1 of 2, and one missed P1 matters far more than a missed P4, so an overall percentage alone hides the risk. Also show how far over target each miss was, the reasons, and the open tickets that are close to breaching, so the team can act before the next miss.
Targets: P1 4 h, P2 8 h, P3 24 h, P4 72 h
Ticket Priority Resolved in
T101 P1 3 h
T102 P1 6 h
T103 P2 7 h
T104 P2 9 h
T105 P2 5 h
T106 P3 20 h
T107 P3 30 h
T108 P3 18 h
T109 P4 40 h
T110 P4 80 h53. As a team leader, you find an agent taking photos of customer screens on his phone. What do you do, and how do you prevent it?
Act at once: stop the activity, inform your manager, the information security team and HR as the process requires, and make sure nothing is deleted, because the phone and system logs may be needed for an investigation. The client may need to be told under the contract, and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 puts duties on companies that handle personal data. To prevent repeats, enforce a no-phone, clean-desk floor with lockers, mask card and ID fields in the CRM, give access only to needed screens, and block USB and printing.
54. A bank customer whose complaint was not resolved says he has complained to the RBI Ombudsman and also posted on social media. How should a senior team handle it?
Treat it as the top level of the escalation matrix. Pull the full history: every call, chat, email and ticket with dates, so the facts are clear. Check whether the original issue was handled as per policy and timelines, and fix it at once if it is still open. Replies to the regulator usually go through the bank's nodal or grievance team, not the agent, so pass the case on with a clear summary. On social media, acknowledge in public and move the details to a private message. Then find why it reached this stage and close that gap.
55. You are taking a new batch of 15 freshers from training to the floor. How do you plan their nesting period?
Nesting is the protected period after classroom training when new agents take live contacts with extra support. Start them on simpler contact types with a buddy or SME close by, relaxed AHT targets, and a few audited calls each day with feedback the same day. Raise targets in steps, for example weekly, based on quality and not only speed. Keep a tracker per agent for quality, AHT and attendance, and coach the bottom few early. Hold short daily huddles on the top errors. Attrition is often highest in the first months, so make agents feel supported.
56. Last year's festive sale week brought 18,000 contacts against a normal 10,000. A normal week this year has 12,000. How would you forecast and prepare for this year's sale week?
Use the ratio, not the difference: last year the sale week was 18,000 / 10,000 = 1.8 times normal, so this year's forecast is 12,000 x 1.8 = 21,600 contacts. Adding last year's extra 8,000 to 12,000 gives only 20,000 and would under-staff. Refine it with the client's sale dates and offers, and plan by day and hour, since volume usually peaks on the first days. Prepare with a leave freeze, overtime, cross-skilled agents, extra chat capacity, IVR and app messages for order status, and a daily check of forecast against actuals.
Normal week Sale week
Last year 10,000 18,000
This year 12,000 ?
Uplift = sale week / normal week (last year)57. Management wants a chatbot to handle a large share of chat volume. How would you decide what to automate, and how would you measure it?
Start with the data: find high-volume, simple, rule-based queries such as order status, plan details or invoice download, and keep complex, emotional or high-risk cases, such as fraud, complaints and refund disputes, with people. Measure containment, the share of chats fully solved by the bot, but also check whether those customers come back within a few days, the bot's CSAT, and how often people ask for an agent. Always give an easy path to a human with the chat history passed on. A bot that blocks customers only moves angry contacts to calls.
58. As a team leader, how would you run calibration so that quality scores are fair and consistent?
Pick a few calls each week, including borderline ones, and have each quality analyst and team leader score them separately before the session. Compare scores parameter by parameter; where the gap is large, discuss it against the written guideline, agree the correct score, and add that example to the guideline so the decision sticks. Track how far each auditor's scores drift from the agreed ones over time and coach those who drift. Invite agents sometimes so they see the standard. Calibration fails when the senior person simply announces the score.
59. Your process missed the client's service level target for two weeks and penalties apply. As a manager, how do you handle the client review?
Go in with facts and a plan, not excuses. Show the gap by day and interval, the root cause, for example a volume spike from a product launch the forecast missed plus attrition and slow hiring, and what is already fixed. Then give a dated recovery plan: overtime and cross-skilled agents at peak hours, a forecast that uses the client's marketing calendar, faster hiring and nesting, and daily reporting until the target holds. Ask the client to share launch plans earlier. Admit what was in your control; clients trust vendors who are open.
60. In a team leader interview you are asked: Tell me about a time you improved a team's performance. How would you answer?
Use a short story with the situation, task, action and result, and real numbers. For example: My team of 14 in a telecom chat process was at 68% CSAT against a target of 80%. I read 40 low-rated chats and found most were about delayed refunds, where agents gave vague answers. With the quality team I made a clear refund script, coached the bottom four agents daily for two weeks and shared the best chats in huddles. In six weeks CSAT reached 81%. Mention one thing that did not work, because it shows honesty.
Practice questions for November 2026
New every month3 questions from the Customer Service mock test, the way they appear in it. A new set comes on the 1st of every month. Pick your answer, then open it.
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In a chat or email reply, what does a full sentence in CAPITAL LETTERS usually suggest to the customer?
- That the agent is shouting or angry
- That the reply came from a senior manager
- That the message is a formal legal notice
- That the reply was written by a chatbot
Show the answer
Answer: That the agent is shouting or angry. In writing, all capitals read as shouting, so the customer may feel the agent is angry or rude. Use normal sentence case. To stress a key point, use a short clear sentence or put it on its own line instead.
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A UK process opens at 8:00 AM London time. On 15 July 2025, when the UK is on British Summer Time, what time is that in IST?
- 11:30 AM
- 12:30 PM
- 1:30 PM
- 2:30 PM
Show the answer
Answer: 12:30 PM. In summer the UK uses BST, which is UTC+1, so India (UTC+5:30) is 4 hours 30 minutes ahead. 8:00 AM + 4:30 = 12:30 PM IST. In winter the UK is on GMT (UTC+0) and the gap is 5:30, giving 1:30 PM.
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At 11 AM calls are 25% above forecast and service level is falling. What should the WFM team or TL do first?
- Move off-phone work like training or coaching, and add cross-skilled agents
- Stop recording calls so that the phone system can route the calls a little faster
- Ask agents to put callers on hold more so that more calls can be answered
- Wait for the next forecast cycle and then change the roster for next week
Show the answer
Answer: Move off-phone work like training or coaching, and add cross-skilled agents. Intraday management uses quick levers: postponing training, meetings and coaching, moving cross-skilled agents and offering voluntary overtime. Waiting for next week's roster does nothing for today's customers.
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