Santander Customer Service Advisor interview questions

There were a few interview stages including the initial online testing, a telephone interview and then an assessment centre. The initial online testing consisted of some data and numeracy questions, I'd suggest grabbing a calculator but nothing too difficult. After that you'll be invited to a telephone interview which is really just a chat about the role and the company and then a few quick and easy questions about yourself and your experience in customer service. After being told you're successful you'll be invited to an assessment centre, normally takes place on a Wednesday or Thursday. You'll be asked to arrive around 15 minutes early and report to reception in the large Santander building in the city centre. The location is only about 10 minutes max from central station. You'll then be asked to take a seat with the other candidates in the waiting area and shortly after somebody will come and meet you and give you a brief run down of what will happen throughout the day. At this point they will ask for your identification and proof of address which they will then take away to copy and return to you throughout the day. After this brief 5 minute introduction all candidates ( around 6 ) will be taken to a room where you'll sit round a table with another member of the recruitment staff. Again they will give you a brief rundown of the day, let you know of any breaks you'll be given etc. The recruiter will then give a little background information with regards to themselves and will continue to ask each candidate to do the same. You're expected to give a 60 second overview of what skills you have that would be suitable for the role and then why you chose Santander rather than a competitor. Following from this you'll remain in the room with the other candidates and go over a test run of the data test. The recruiter will set a timer and ask you to complete 5 questions on the front of the booklet to give you an idea of what questions to expect and how long you'll have to answer each question. They will then go over the answers afterwards and tell you how each question should have been answered. Then it's time for the real test. You have 20 minutes to complete 10 numeracy questions ( very easy, much easier than the online test ) and 40 data accuracy questions where you're given one set of numbers and asked to find the matching set. After this section is done you're handed a booklet on your role play. You're given 15 minutes to prepare for the role play and then a different interviewer will come for each candidate, taking each person to a different location, to assess this part. You're allowed to take all the notes you've made and the booklet for this and the interviewer will be taking notes and following a script throughout the role play assessment also so it is quite informal and nothing to worry about. Finally you'll be brought back to the room, given another little break and a run through of the salary expectations, holidays etc and any additional information that has maybe been missed. The last part of the interview is the one to one, face to face interview where again you'll be taken away separately by a different interviewer. This section can be up to a max of 45 minutes. The interviewer will start, again, with a brief background about themselves and their work in the company followed by asking the same about you. They'll ask about what you've been doing up until this point as a 'get to know you' type exercise. You'll then move on to some competency based questions where you'll be asked to provide examples with relation to customer service. My questions included things such as ' Give an example of when you've had to make a difficult decision'. Remember to use the STAR method that they will have mentioned in the welcome pack and throughout the day. This means talk about a situation, the task you were given, the action you took and then the result of this action. This is the end of your interview and you'll be left to hand in your pass and go home. You're then contacted the next day with the result of your interview and asked to complete the reference and vetting forms if successful. They'll send you a link to do this via email. Be sure to do this within the 48 hours.

Personally, it was a very negative experience. Highly recommend do not waste your time on applying for this role, if you are intelligent, have future and potential in pursuing a higher level career. As this job is an entry level and the selection processes shows that they will only pick up people in that level too. I was told I was over qualified for the role, so they didn't offer me the job. I don't know why they didn't say so when I applied online. Then it could save both of our time. Santander even don't offer to reimburse the travel fee to assessment centre. So If you want to have a try, then you will see. For school leavers who want an entry level job, I will brief the application process to you. The application was very simple. Online application, then some really simple online tests, then telephone interview. It is called a telephone interview but it is just an informal chat, really simple interview questions. the person is really friendly though. Then the assessment day. Lasted 3 hours. 1, Numerical and accuracy tests are really dead easy. 2, role play, it is job related. Interviewer acted as a customer, you will try to help and also sale products to him. 3, one-to-one interview. Again really easy interview questions. All competency based. No need to worry at all. As they will give you the job as long as you don't show any negative things. For those people who over qualified, you no need to try. As no matter how positive you are, they wocn't wrant you. They want the people who actually stay rather than who is best for the company. So if you really want to apply, hide your qualifications and good luck.