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Restaurant General Manager Job Interview Questions

Below are some Restaurant General Manager job interview questions created by our HR team. The Restaurant General Manager job interview questions below, were created from our human resources experience working in the hospitality industry. For more information on how we create these Restaurant General Manager job interview questions and how to answer them see the post, “Soft Skills Sells In Interviews

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Restaurant General Manager Job Interview Questions

A Restaurant General Manager must know how to keep guests happy.  Please describe how you ensure optimum guest satisfaction? What are some of the services provided? How do you build rapport?

For a Restaurant GM, scheduling staff can be a difficult situation especially with vacations, part-time staff etc. Describe how you create long terms schedules, while satisfying all your employees needs?

Describe how you create and implement restaurant policies? What are some of the policies you have created? Sometimes, as Restaurant GM you are not aware if policies are followed.  How do you ensure policies are successfully implemented by all staff?

The ability to develop a great team is what makes a successful Restaurant General Manager.  What process do you use to hire, train and develop a hospitality focused team? The restaurant industry has a high rate of turnover, how to maintain a low turnover within your restaurant?

What decisions do you make prior to purchasing of operations equipment and other supplies? What are some factors considered?
A good Restaurant GM must wear many different hats.  What steps do you take to resolve any maintenance and repair of equipment used for cooking, lighting and ventilation etc.?

What is your experience in carrying out financial responsibilities, including budgeting/accounting and increasing sales and profit margins? What steps do you take to manage these responsibilities efficiently and with positive results?

Depending on the company and department, the Restaurant General Manager may also be called:

  • assistant manager, restaurant
  • bar manager
  • catering service manager
  • food services manager
  • restaurant manager
  • banquet manager
  • cafeteria manager
  • dining room manager
  • hotel food and beverage service manager    restaurateur – food services

Review Your Resume

Interviewers ask questions based on your resume so remember to review your resume. This is especially true if it’s been a while since you have looked at it. This way you will not be caught off guard when you are asked about something in your work history that happened a few years ago.

Bring a Portfolio

It’s always a good idea to bring a portfolio of your work and credentials with you to a job interview. What better way to demonstrate the quality of your work than to show the hiring manager a work sample. So if you have a copy of reports, briefs, bibliographies, speeches, presentations, Web sites and press releases make sure you bring them.

Also take a copy of your educational documents. A university degree or college diploma in business, management, or a discipline related to a particular subject matter is usually required.

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BC Ferries Job Interview Questions – Customer Sales & Service Representatives

BC Ferries is the provincial ferry corporation that connects ferry riders with our coastal communities.  As an employer, BC Ferries offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits and an exciting work environment.  What other job can offer you a cruise and call it work?

Customer Service Jobs in Canada

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If you have a job interview with BC Ferries below are some great sample job interview questions for you to know.  Read these BC Ferries sample job interview questions and give some thought to your response before your interview with the ferry corporation.  Remember that a good job interview answer becomes a great job interview answer when it is backed up by a recent work example.  So be prepared to give examples!

Until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your BC Ferries job interview!

BC Ferries Sample Job Interview Questions

BC Ferries, requires that you are a Canadian Citizen or permanent resident as a condition of employment.  Are you currently a Canadian citizen or permanent resident?

Many of the BC Ferries customer and sales positions require you to work on an on-call basis with varying shifts, can you meet this requirement?

Ensuring an excellent passenger experience is the goal of BC Ferries.  Describe your previous customer service or sales experience.

Passengers from all parts of the world take BC Ferries.  Tell me about a time when you had a difficult time communicating with someone who speak English as a first language.

Teamwork is vital to success at BC Ferries.  Tell me about a time when you didn’t get along with a co-worker.  How did you handle it?

Occasionally, you may be required to deal with an upset BC Ferries customer.  Describe a situation from your past work experience where you had to deal with an angry customer.   How did you handle this difficult customer service situation?  Suppose this customer became abusive with you or your co-worker, how would you respond?

As a BC Ferries Sales and Service rep, you will need to respond to queries about reservations, sailing routes, etc.  You will use computerized systems to complete bookings and retrieve sailing information.  Describe your experience with computers.

BC Ferries provides services for passengers of various backgrounds.  How have you prepared yourself for working with a diverse community?

Why do you want to work for BC Ferries?

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Customer Service Manager Job Interview Questions – Client Care Supervisor

This post is for anyone who is interviewing for a Customer Service Manager position.  Below are some good job interview questions for a Customer Service Manager job.  Sometimes, CSM are also known as customer service supervisors, call center managers, client care managers, service supervisors, call centre team leads, and I have even seen the job called account manager.  Regardless, the job interview questions below have been developed by HR professionals.   The techniques used to create these questions include analyzing the core competencies or skills, job ad requirements and so forth.

Customer Service Manager, Client Care SupervisorJobs in Canada
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Depending on the industry, department and company, Customer Service Managers may also be called:

  • antique dealer
  • assistant manager – retail
  • bookstore manager
  • car dealership manager
  • clothing store manager
  • customer experience manager
  • department store manager
  • guest service manager
  • pleasure boat dealer
  • service station manager
  • sporting goods store manager
  • store manager – retail
  • supermarket manager
  • travel agency manager
  • variety store manager

Customer Service Manager or Client Care Supervisor Job Interview Questions

As a Customer Service Manager, managing your CSR’s performance to create a high performance culture is a priority.  Tell me about a scenario when you had customer service rep that wasn’t meeting performance standards.  What did you do to address this issue?

Strong conflict resolution skills are vital to being a successful Client Care Supervisor.  Describe a time when you had to deal with an irate customer who was abusive to your staff.  How did you handle it?

As our customer service manager, you will need to set quality standards.  How do you set customer service standards to the team?  Do you engage and involve your team members in setting these standards and departmental goals?

Handling customer escalations is a core function of the client care supervisor.  How do you handle customer service complaints that have been escalated to you?

What is good customer service to you?

What is the difference between customer service and customer experience?

Often in customer service or client care, you need to deal with a high volume of escalations as well as your staff .  Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment. How were you able to perform successfully in this environment?

If you had an angry client, how do you help calm him/her down?

What is your proudest acheivent in customer service?  Why?

Think back to your career as a client care supervisor.  Describe your philosophy in customer service.

The ability to make sound judgments is a characteristic of great customer service managers. There is a popular saying, “the customer is always right”.  What is your belief on this saying?

Why should we hire you for our customer service or client care department supervisor?

How has your background prepared you for this job as our customer service manager?

Describe your management style in leading a customer service department.

Do you have a preference for locations?

Read the following scenario:

Your team member Bob comes to you with an escalation.  A customer by the name of Jane purchases a VOIP phone from your company to reduce her long distance bills and 2 months later discovers that it is malfunctioned. She returns it to the store within the 3 month warranty and another CSR sends it away to the manufacturer for repairs and tells Jane that it will take 14 days for the phone to be shipped back. Jane waits patiently and receives the repaired phone and within a few days discovers the phone broken again. This time she returns to the store and demands a refund. The CSR informs Jane that the store has a 30 day refund policy that has expired. Jane complains that due to the phone breaking down all the time she has not been able to cancel her long distance plan and has had to pay for two phone bills. She then asks for another repair but the CSR informs her that the 3 month warranty has expired. Jane demands to speak to the manager and so Bob comes to you as Client Care Manager and you are asked to resolve this.

List as many of Jane’s feelings as you can and explain why.   Now list as many of Bob’s feelings as you can and explain why.  How would you resolve this matter?

More About These Questions and How to Answer

The customer service job interview questions in this post are the same ones used by HR professionals today.  For more information on these questions and how to answer them, see the following post on how to sell yourself in an interview.

Lastly, review your resume before you go to your job interview.  Often hiring managers will create their questions based on your resume and the job posting.

For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

If you would like to see job interview questions for other positions, just let us know by leaving a comment here or contact us directly by email. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe by email or RSS feed.

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Customer Service, Client Service Representative Job Interview Questions

If you are interviewing or hiring for a Customer Service Representative position, you will want to read this post. Below are some good job interview questions for a Customer Service Representative job. The methods we used to develop these questions are the same ones we used as corporate HR in developing job interview questions for hiring managers. We have developed these questions by analyzing the core competencies or skills, job ad requirements and so forth.

Be aware that depending on the employer, Customer Service Reps may also be called:

CSR, customer service adviser, customer service agent, customer service assistant, claims clerk, customer service complaints clerk, call centre agent, customer service adviser, customer service assistant, sales and customer service agent, customer complaint agent, client service representative, customer complaint associate

Also, depending on the industry, CSR’s can be called:

accounts information clerk
bus information clerk
call centre agent – customer service
complaints clerk – customer service
counter enquiries clerk
courtesy desk clerk
customer service clerk
customer service representative – call centre
enquiries clerk
hospital information clerk
information clerk – customer service
lost-and-found clerk
order desk agent
public relations clerk
tourist information clerk


Customer Service, Client Service Jobs in Canada
Customer Service, Client Service Jobs in USA
Customer Service, Client Service Jobs in UK

 

Customer Service Representative, Client Service Representative Job Interview Questions

Conflict resolution skills are vital to being a successful Client Service Representative.  Describe a time when you had to deal with an irate customer who was abusive? How did you handle it?

Customer Service Reps or CSR ‘s , in call centres need to be able to talk and type.  Taking calls while typing is a requirement of the job. Describe your talk and type skills, when have you used this skill in your work history? What is your typing speed?

The ability to speak languages in addition to English is very helpful in the role of Client Service Representative ( CSR ) .  How many languages do you speak and/or write? Describe your fluency level.

Often a Client Service Representative must be comfortable working in a fast paced environment.  Normally, dealing with a high volume of customers is a requirement for a CSR. Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure in a fast-paced environment. How were you able to perform successfully in this environment?

Based on your experience as a CSR or Client Service Representative, how do you calm down an angry customer?

Having emotional intelligence is an important trait to be a successful Customer Service or Client Service Representative.  The following scenario will test your ability to sense and understand other’s feelings.

Read the following scenario:

Jane purchases a VOIP phone from ABC tech to reduce her long distance bills and 2 months later discovers that it is malfunctioned. She returns it to the store within the 3 month warranty and the CSR sends it away to the manufacturer for repairs and tells Jane that it will take 14 days for the phone to be shipped back. Jane waits patiently and receives the repaired phone and within a few days discovers the phone broken again. This time she returns to the store and demands a refund. The CSR informs Jane that the store has a 30 day refund policy that has expired. Jane complains that due to the phone breaking down all the time she has not been able to cancel her long distance plan and has had to pay for two phone bills. She then asks for another repair but the CSR informs her that the 3 month warranty has expired. Jane escalates this and you as Senior CSR are asked to resolve this.

List as many of Jane’s feelings as you can and explain why. How would you resolve this matter?

More About These CSR Job Interview Questions

The customer service interview questions in this post assess the essential soft skills for this particular job through its core functions. We focus on the soft skills because we have found that most candidates handle the questions designed to assess their technical proficiency very well only to stumble with the questions designed to assess their soft skills. For example, when we ask a programmer to explain what a certain set of code means or how best to handle a coding issue, most often their answer is a good one. Now when we ask the same candidate to “describe a time when you did not get along well with a co-worker and how you handled it” to assess their interpersonal skills, 9 times out of 10 they stumble. We see the same thing over and over again whether we are hiring for an accountant, teacher, and so on. Most candidates can handle questions designed to assess their technical competencies much much better than questions designed to assess their soft skills

Why does soft skills matter? Because 9 times out of 10 applicants are bypassed due to their soft skills. We hear this all the time when we debrief with the hiring manager to get their feedback on the applicant. Sometimes, the hiring managers will directly state that the applicant lacked the soft skills but more often it will be phrased as “no connection with the applicant”, or “didn’t get a good feel about the applicant” or “don’t think the applicant would fit in well” and so on.

In addition to focusing on the soft skills we have incorporated behavioral based interview questions. We focus on behavioral based interview questions because they are very prevalent in the HR industry. Behavioral questions focus on assessing past behavior by asking you to provide an example or describe a situation that has happened in the past and what you did. So because of the reasons stated and others beyond the scope of this post, you will likely be asked these questions in your next job interview.

How to Answer

Your response really depends on exactly the type of interview question asked. While interviewing skills as a hiring manager or job applicant can be quite an in depth topic and beyond the scope of this post, we have provided a quick lesson on how you can improve your interview skills. We have chosen to briefly cover the behavioral question because this is where we see most people struggle.



To ensure that you provide good answers consistently we advise that you follow a structured approach when responding to behavioral type questions. Two effective techniques to use are “STAR” (situation, task, action, result) and “PAR” (problem, action, result). These techniques are very similar to one another, so for illustrative purposes, we will discuss the STAR method.

To use the STAR technique, simply describe each element in your interview answer. So with the star technique, begin by describing the situation. Here you want to quickly give context to the interviewer (where, when, etc). Next clearly describe your task, that is what were you tasked to do in this situation. Now it is time to describe the steps or action you took to complete your task. Lastly, describe the results that you achieved. Sounds simple right? Well it is simple, but the secret is to practice responding following this structure. By following structure, you will ensure that you provide complete answers and do not omit vital pieces of information. For more information see our articles and courses on interviewing skills.

The Questions Are In Your Resume

Remember that another good source of job interview questions is your resume. Hiring managers will ask you questions based on your resume. For some people it’s hard to recall what you did last week, let alone what you did at work a few years ago. So it pays to review your resume before you go to your job interview.

For more see our online job interview and resume writing courses. So until our next post, we wish you much luck and success in your career search.

Take our interactive online course and ace your next interview!

Hire a personal job interview coach and learn from HR professionals

If you would like to see job interview questions for other positions, just let us know by leaving a comment here or contact us directly by email. If you enjoyed this post, we invite you to subscribe by email or RSS feed.

Email us at:

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