Interview with BA-Customer Services

[airmemphis]

Hey everyone

I hope you guys can I help me out here. A good friend of mine has just got an interview for some sort of customer service job with British Airways (next week) and she wanted to know if I had any tips or pointers for her. She began to 'panic' a little when she realised the interview/assessment was to last a few hours. Anyway I thought the best place to get a proper answer is here.

She wanted to know what to expect and what would impress them on the day. I know thats a bit vague but I'm sure she'll appreciate any feedback.

Thanks alot guys

p.s. if this is in the wrong forum, then can one of the mods move it to the correct one. Cheers

[carrioke]

Hi there,

From what I rememember and this is going back 9 years!! so sorry if my memory is lapse, but it is very similar to a cabin crew interview, as both use customer service skills.. I remember about 10 of us around a table and given a problem to solve and each of us had part of the solution or more details of the problem in small individual cards.. It is important to interact and involve everyone and not just dismiss someones else opinion..I got the ball rolling and said why dont we all read out our cards to everyone else ans see what other info or options we have ( l i got through to the next stage, but turned down the job in favour of flying at the time) so maybe this approach helped.. I cant remeber what else happened on the day but hope this helps.

In short, don't say to little, dont speak over someone, listen!! clarify if need be, smile and try and enjoy it..In the end the experience is all good and I took that with me for other interviews. Fingers crossed for your friend!

[airmemphis]

Thanks carrioke! I'll pass that on.

Anything else?

[LHR_777]

so drop me a PM, if you like. I'm based LHR T4.

Cheers!

(CSA = Customer Service Agent)

[concorde001]

Hi LHR777.
Just wanted to ask a quick question about travel benefits if thats ok?
Just wanted to know if CSA's had different benefits from cabin crew?
Do you get unlimited ID90s, i.e. R2's? What about unlimited R1's, which are confirmed?
Also, are you entitled to tickets on other airlines?
Thanks.
By the way, where is staff travel in T4? Is it manned by CSA staff, or ticketing as I want to try a BA flight (I'm not BA staff as you can tell!)

[richrap262]

I only had an interview about 4 weeks ago. From what I remember the session lasts about 4-5 hours.
You are split into groups and will stay in groups for the whole day. Everyone who attended the interview had a presentation about Customer Service Agents. This was informal and did not count towards the interview.
After that we had to go into our groups and split off into different sessions. I had the group discussion first. There were 5 of us in the group and we sat at a table with a problem to solve. We had to invite people to a party, but the problem was we had a list of possible locations in the world, but some people did not like flying, others were physically disabled and some of the guests were children. I think you get the picture. We had 20 minutes to come up with a suitable solution. You get marked on your individual contribution, and also I think they look at who takes the lead and who can give their opinion on a particular view someone has risen.
After the group interview, we had a test to check our comparing skills. You have a flight ticket that contains all the correct information. You also have a computer screen with the same information on it, but the problem is that some of the information on the screen is wrong. You have to locate the errors and mark the answer on a sheet. You have about 40 questions to complete in 10 minutes. Most people only manage completing about 20 questions. The paper is not meant to be completed but I think they mark you on the accuracies of errors you have found. (The computer screen and flight tickets are printed in a book, and not actually on a real screen!)

To finish the day off, we had individual interviews. They last for about 10-20 minutes. You are asked questions from previous work experiences. Make sure you can give good examples of when you excelled yourself. For example give an example of the time when you offered excellent customer service etc.

Hope this small account has answered many of your questions. If there is any more you want to know then either post a reply or PM me.

richrap262

[LHR_777]

concorde001:

Crew and CSA staff travel benefits are the same, except that CSA's aren't supposed to jumpseat...(but do!)

We do get unlimited ID90's on BA and zonal mileage discounts on OneWorld carriers, after 6 months. ID80's (firm) appear to also be unlimited, but I could be wrong!

We do get tickets on other airlines too, mostly on the ZED (Zonal Employee Discount) carriers, but others also offer ID90/ID75.

Staff travel is in the East Atrium at T4. It's only for longhaul subload travel, all euro staff travel is through Zone B. To get to it, go through door 4, on the far right-hand side of the departures level, as you enter the terminal. It's opposite check-in zone D.

Finally, CSA's do not man the staff travel centre, it's manned (or womaned) by dedicated staff travel agents.

Hope this helps!