I originally submitted a CV through Indeed, and swiftly received an email inviting me to complete an application form. Upon completion of the application form, I received another email inviting me to the first stage interview process.
First stage -
The first stage was a casual chat via their live chat site with an employee called Megan. This stage of the interview process was great, a few formal interview questions, confirmation that I'd be available to work the shifts, and a little bit of casual banter. At the end of the chat, she informed me that I had been successful and would be advancing to the second stage interview.
I then received an email confirmation, and an information pack with a knowledge base. The knowledge base was about a fictitious company called Website World. It involved a process for live chat, a framework if you will, and FAQ's/ general company information. It was very hard to process in the format that it was presented, so I'd recommend making a guide that you can reference yourself with ease. I was told to complete an online assessment, in which a 100% pass rate was required. The test itself was not difficult, as I had the previously prepared pack of information to reference, and there was no time limit. I was successful, and received confirmation that my second interview was going ahead as planned.
Second Stage -
This interview was in the same format as the first, however I was interviewed by a different employee, who in my personal opinion was unfriendly and rude from the getgo. Polar opposite to the first employee that interviewed me. She informed me that I'd be undertaking a live chat mock, with her playing the role of the customer. Using the Website World knowledge base I had been assessed on, she began playing the part of the customer. She portrayed a very rude, abrupt customer. I understand the point in the exercise was to test lead generation and see how you handle difficult customers, however, despite my best efforts, she was giving me absolutely nothing to work with, and no matter how hard I tried, I could not get the conversation to even remotely follow the framework they had provided, and therefore could not use any of the preparation material. I feel like this is a harsh test considering a lot of applicants will have little to no experience with lead generation and difficult customers. I felt that she could have given me... something... anything... to work with, to at least see how I'd handle the framework, rather than being awkward at every turn. After a long time trying to steer the chat in a productive direction, I eventually ended the chat politely and offered more information should the customer be interested in the future. I felt that that was all that I could do in the given scenario, and could tell that the interviewer was winging their responses, not paying attention to how difficult they were making it to link to the framework. Poorly conducted in my opinion, as I don't feel this is an accurate representation of my ability, and people with 0 experience will struggle massively here.
She cut the chat off abruptly and told me I'd receive an email within 24 hours. EXACTLY 24 hours later, I received an abrupt rejection email, with 0 feedback, and have since had no reply.
Overall, I think the interview process, for a set wage (minimum wage), is absolutely preposterous. They are expecting fully trained live chat agents, which is unreasonable for the wage. Way too many hoops to jump through, give it a go if you have experience or are very good with customers, but otherwise steer clear. Interview process was long, drawn out, implemented poorly to assess my skills, and overall.... I wish I hadn't bothered.
Questions below are taken from a transcript of the interview, they are word for word.