BellaOnline Forums Career Job Search How to Respond to the Difficult Customer Question

Tell us about a difficult customer service experience and how you handled it. This question stumps many candidates. It's not a difficult question; learn how to tell your story.

How to Respond to the Difficult Customer Question

What is the hardest interview question you had to respond to?

I know of several job applicants who have not answered these questions the way they really feel as they know this will come across as negative and they won't be hired. So I feel these questions really do not help the hiring manager to pick the right people.

Thanks so much for your input. Having done recruiting for well over 20 years, I actually find that it does help. Not in that there is a right or wrong answer, but the logic and progression steps the candidate took to resolve the issue.

Some of the more creative answers I received included the candidate who was upset over the customer being nasty so the candidate called the police in order to get the customer in trouble (sometimes candidates are soooo honest). (Not hired)

The candidate who felt it really wasn't in her job description to handle difficult customers so she usually escalated those to her manager. (Not hired)

While I agree, some questions are throw-aways, there is also a good reason for asking some - the reason not always evident to the person being interviewed. :-)

Not answering a question is usually never a good thing. :-) I agree many worry about sounding negative, but the candidate that can turn a negative situation and tell what they learned from it gets many points from me! :-)