1. Decide what the screen must answer
Write down the questions the first round has to settle, and leave everything else for later rounds. For an advisor role, that list is usually short:
- Availability: shifts, weekends, start date.
- Languages: the ones the campaign actually needs, at the level it needs them.
- Spoken clarity and listening: can they explain something simply and stay on what the customer said?
- Handling pressure: how they respond to an unhappy or impatient customer.
- Motivation: why this role, and why now.
2. Ask everyone the same questions
Large meta-analyses of hiring research consistently find that structured interviews, the same questions scored the same way, predict job performance better than free-form conversations. They are also easier to defend and to compare.
Five or six questions in 10 to 15 minutes is enough for a first round. Mix them so each one answers a different part of your list.
A sample question set
- Warm-up: Tell me a little about yourself and your experience with customers.
- Motivation: What draws you to customer relations, and to this role in particular?
- Situation: A customer calls for the third time about the same problem and is angry. Walk me through how you handle the call.
- Explain: Explain to me, as you would to a customer, how to reset a password on a website.
- Practical: Which shifts can you work, and when could you start?
3. Agree how answers are scored, before the first interview
Decide the criteria and what a weak, good and strong answer sounds like for each one. Anchors stop scores drifting with the interviewer's mood or the time of day.
Score each answer on its own, and write one line of evidence next to the score. A reviewer should be able to read that line and agree or disagree.
Anchors for one criterion: handling pressure
- 1: Blames the customer, gives up, or escalates straight away.
- 3: Stays polite and follows the procedure, but the customer is left without a clear next step.
- 5: Acknowledges the frustration, takes ownership, solves the problem or sets a clear next step, and stays courteous throughout.
4. Listen in the language of the job
In many Tunisian workplaces, moving between Derja, French and English in the same sentence is simply how people talk. Unless the campaign requires one language only, don't mark it down.
If it does, for example a French-only client line, test that explicitly: ask one or two questions in that language and score them for that requirement, separately from everything else.
5. Be fair and clear with candidates
A good first round is also a good candidate experience, and in a tight market candidates notice.
- Tell them the length, the format and the number of questions before they start.
- Let them choose a time that suits them, including evenings.
- No trick questions, and the same follow-up depth for everyone.
- Tell them what happens next and when.
6. Review by criterion, then decide
Compare candidates criterion by criterion, not by overall impression. Read the evidence lines, listen to the answers that decide the call, and make the decision as a team. The first round should narrow the field, not replace your judgement.