How to Make Your Next Customer Representative Hire

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Last updated at 09-17-2020 14:50:03

Overview

Methodology

More than 1,666 companies advertise 11,856 Customer Representative jobs on SimplyHired and its partner sites each year. After analyzing job postings and salary information from these companies, as well as direct job seeker feedback, we’ve compiled a list of insights to show you how to attract and hire your next Customer Representative most efficiently.

Hiring Process

In the past quarter, we’ve seen 3,063 job posts from 660 employers in the United States. This is a increase of 39.4% compared to the previous quarter. On average, there are 293 Customer Representative job seekers for every active Customer Representative job, which shows that it is an employer's market.

Writing a Job Description

In the past quarter, Customer Service Representative, Call Center Representative, Receptionist, Administrative Assistant, Sales Representative, Delivery Driver, Retail Sales Associate, Warehouse Worker, Front Desk Agent, and Sales Associate seem to be the most sought after jobs amongst the Customer Representative candidates in the United States. This is pretty consistent compared to the same data in the last 6 quarters. If you use one of these currently popular titles in the job description, you'll likely be able to attract a lot more candidates to apply.

For the Customer Representative candidates who are actively applying to jobs in this same period, we see that 12.5% of the active Customer Representative candidates have less than 3 years of experience, 21.2% have between 3-5 years of experience, 29.4% have 6-10 years of experience, and 36.8% have over 10 years of experience. The average years of experience has shifted from an estimated 7.7 years to 7.9 years. If you're posting a job in today's market, expect candidates with about the same experience level to apply to your job compared to the last 2 quarters.

In the previous quarter, the most popular skills that employers are looking for include customer service, communication skills, English, windows, ios, sales, Microsoft Office, computer skills, Microsoft Excel, and bilingual. Demand for windows, English, customer service, Microsoft Excel, Spanish, Microsoft Office, computer skills, bilingualism, Microsoft Word, and communication skills has significantly increased. If you are looking for a Customer Representative with a similar skill set, be sure to follow industry best practices in skill requirements.

Job posts with salary information received about 3.5 as many applies as those without it. In the past quarter, less than 28.2% of the job posts displayed salary information. By adding salary information to your job posting, you could potentially increase the number of applicants by approximately 250.0%.

Example Customer Representative responsibilities

  • Assessing customers' needs and concerns
  • Demonstrating or giving product information
  • Handling customer payments
  • Explaining products' warranties or terms of service
  • Resolving complaints or dealing with inquiries

Recruiting

Active Recruiting

When reaching out to candidates, it’s best to understand where to look. We’ve identified hiring trends in states as well as companies regularly hiring for Customer Representative positions. This should provide a good place to start looking for qualified candidates. According to our data in the last quarter: Texas, California, Florida, North Carolina, and Michigan are the states that have the highest demand for Customer Representatives. Texas, North Carolina, Michigan, Florida, and California are where most job seekers are searching for Customer Representative jobs. If we look at the Customer Representative to job ratio, Idaho, Maryland, Hawaii, Rhode Island, and South Dakota have the lowest number of Customer Representative applicants per job. Alaska, North Carolina, Michigan, Mississippi, and Oklahoma have the most active Customer Representative job seekers per job.

Passive Recruiting

While actively recruiting candidates for your role, you should also post your job to SimplyHired. By posting for free and paying only for the qualified applicants you want, your post will automatically go to a network of job boards to reach millions of qualified candidates. With SimplyHired, it doesn’t end with the post. You can track your applicants throughout the hiring process with our simple and easy to use Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

Review Candidates

In the last quarter, we estimate there are 896,588 job seekers interested in Customer Representative opportunities in the United States. That’s a 64.0% increase compared to the previous quarter with 547,300 active job seekers. Around 12.5% of the active Customer Representative candidates have less than 3 years of experience, over 21.2% have between 3-5 years of experience, 29.4% have 6-10 years of experience, and 36.8% have over 10 years of experience. The average experience level of the available Customer Representative candidates is 7.9 years. Active candidates in the Customer Representative profession most commonly have high school diplomas, followed by bachelor's degrees, associate's degrees, and master's degrees. When setting education requirements for your position, aligning with the industry standard makes it easier to find potential candidates. Application rates indicate that Customer Representative candidates are likely experiencing a market in which applicants have less negotiating power. From an employer perspective, you'll have a greater selection of candidates to choose from and may want to invest in automated screening tools.

Interviewing Candidates

Interview Process

*Self-reported data collected from 2,797 Customer Representatives from 1/1/2020 to 6/30/2020, via online employer reviews for companies including Indigo Books & Music Inc., Power Home Remodeling, Comcast, Oportun, AT&T, AutoZone, PepsiCo, BMO Harris Bank, Scotiabank, and Concentrix.

After analyzing post-interview data from Customer Representative candidates in the last 6 months, we see more than 42.4% of the candidates self-reported being hired within 1 to 2 days. Around 88.8% of the candidates for this job reported being hired within 2 weeks. If your process takes longer than 2 weeks in the recent market, you'll likely lose these candidates to other employers. Most of the Customer Representative candidates are expecting a on-site interview, phone call/screening, background check, and group interview. Most employers do not require a written test, drug test, or presentation. If you are trying to hire your next Customer Representative quickly, consider simplifying and streamlining the hiring process. As for the interview experience, more than 69.8% of the candidates had a good or great interview experience, and more than 41% of the candidates thought that the interview leaned more towards easy.

Example Interview Questions

  • Why are you interested in this position?
  • What would you do if an order confirmation, call-back information or other required material is not returned?
  • What would you do if a catalog oversell occurs at the point of sale?
  • What can you offer this company that no one else can?
  • How many calls per day have you handled during peak periods?

Final Review and Offer

Reference Check

Checking references is a quick and easy way to check for any red flags that didn’t arise to this point in the hiring process. Great insights can be provided by former colleagues and employers.

Crafting an Offer: Salary and Benefits

The average Customer Representative salary offered by employers increased for 3 out of 6 consecutive quarters in the United States. In the last quarter, we see a decrease of 6% from $47,709.26 to $44,752.3 compared to the quarter before, which is the biggest decrease in the past 6 quarters. For Customer Representative positions, the most common benefits job seekers reported being offered by employers include: healthcare insurance by 70.7%, dental insurance by 64.0%, paid time off by 61.6%, a 401k plan by 56.7%, vision insurance by 56.7%, discounts by 41.5%, and stock options/grants by 15.9%. While still relatively rare, more and more employers now offer flexibility benefits, including mostly remote, sabbaticals, location variety, somewhat remote, fully remote, flexible working hours, paternity leave, and maternity leave, to attract and retain Customer Representative candidates to their organization.

Background Check and Drug Test

According to self-reported job seeker feedback, 35.9% of the employers conducted a background check, and 18.0% of the employers conducted a drug test prior to the hiring of their Customer Representative candidates.

Onboarding

When you’re ready to hire a Customer Representative, SimplyHired is here to help with your next steps. Our Human Resources Information System (HRIS) provides onboarding tools and other essential HR tools. From document signing to time off tracking, our HRIS will help you seamlessly move a Customer Representative candidate through the hiring and onboarding process.
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