Halifax Telephone Interview

ciaran7

Hi there, I have a telephone interview for Halifax bank on Monday as a Customer Advisor. This role is not in a branch but a contact centre. I currently hold 7 years retail experience but have never worked in this kind of role. Anybody know what kind of questions I may be asked as I could really do with getting this job!

Cheers

CannotFindHelp

Hi there, good luck with the interview.

Telephone interviewer positions and interviews are relatively straight forward. Most of the companies I've worked for have admitted, after the interview, that they had me in mind for the job before giving me the interview in the first place - I wouldn't recommend being complacent, but no need to worry, if you've been given an interview you're on the right track.

First and foremost, telephone interviews just want to gauge the sound of your voice and your manner on the phone, to make sure you're both audible from a vocal point of view and that you articulate your voice well on the phone - basic stuff really - and they'll probably ask you a few questions about your past work experience and your hobbies etc while at the same time monitoring how you speak and if you come across generally approachable and "customer friendly" on the line.

If they haven't already they may send you an email with a script to read to them, or they may ask you to choose a paper or magazine to hand, and read a short passage or extract from this - again, they want to see how you come across reading script (which a person in the job would be doing from screen) so they want to see how fluid you are at that.

Other then that it will be a fairly straightforward interview, and they will probably invite you to a training day if all goes well - this will then lead to an offer of employment - although a few employers have just given a start date (and training is just provided during your first few shifts)

Good luck with the interview, just speak confidentially and clearly and come across friendly and you will be fine

ciaran7

Thanks very much.

monalysa

you may also want to practise your answers to what you are going to bring to the job, instances where you have dealt with an angry customer, instances where you have delivered exceptional customer service, worked under pressure,handled a vulnerable customer and handled criticism.

Good luck.

idb1979

I recently had a telephone interview for a position with Direct Line. I think I was rang my a Indian call centre, but with a bit of concentration it was all going well whilst they were going through my previous jobs. Then they launched into an unannounced numeracy test which I had to do without the use of a calculator. This threw me offguard and my mind went blank.

truebq

Hi,

I may be a little late in replying but hopefully it will be of some use. I worked at Halifax around 2 years ago and had to get through the same telephone interview for work in a contact centre (just out of interest, which centre is it at?).

If memory serves you'll be asked questions along the following:

- Times you've had to deal with a difficult customer
- Times you've gone "the extra mile" for a customer
- When you have worked well within a team?
- How do you settle disagreements or problems in a team
- An example of when you've worked under pressure/difficult circumstances
- Information on when you've had to work to meet targets

You'll have to provide specific, personal examples for all of the above so use "I..." whenever possible.

If you're successful you'll be invited to a recruitment selection day which will include the following:

- Face to Face interview

- Largely follows exactly the same questions as above

- Competency test

- You'll have to listen to recorded customers giving their details and enter the information in a form

- Roleplay

- You will play the part of an advisor and your interviewer will play the customer. You'll be given some time to review information (in my case it was relating to insurance policies) and then you'll have to run through the conversation as if you were on the phone to a customer.

I hope the above is of some use and best of luck with the interview.

Nick