To think I might have blown this?

[sadteds]

I had a telephone interview today for a sales advisor for a well known company.
I had studied the company and its products well.
Everything was going well until we got to a target question
What would you do if 3 customers had left the company and you weren't retaining the customers ?
I answered I would reflect over the 3 calls and if for example one lady decided to leave as she found a product elsewhere that was more suitable I would ask her ..her needs then match a suitable product.
Or if they found a cheaper deal I would see if I could price match (I don't even know if the company do that )
She said I should have responded "speak with team leader,ask to listen to calls "

I have experience with targets for 4 months as a collections agent
Also 4 years towards targets as a customer advisor selling insurance products suitable for items they've purchased
Also Debenhams selling store cards

She said she was happy to pass me on to the final stage a interview with a manager on Wednesday but have I blew it by answering that question wrong?
She gave me feedback and told me to work on answers to targets etc
I'm upset I've blown it
I thought I was well prepared

I don't work in sales but your answer sounds 10 x better than the 'correct' response.

Do you think you would have been offered another interview if you had blown it?

@Vtech I'm worried that the manager will have the notes from this call which highlight my incorrect answer

I think that's a great answer to be honest and much better than the answer she expected. If you blew it you wouldn't get through to the final interview. Don't even worry about it, it won't affect a thing, and good luck

Maybe they do maybe they don't have notes. But if they've passed you to the interview stage, I think they'd be happy to see you can take on feedback quickly.

As it stands I absolutely loath these questions, and feel they are really telling. They do not want someone that can think for themselves, or goes above and beyond.

I thought your answer was great. Way better than the answer they wanted....but that doesn't help you! I would call up the customer service team and actually ask them on the phone what is protocol for targets in different scenarios. I'd be honest and say you're trying to prep for an interview in the company and need some help finding out the answers to target based questions. Couldn't hurt!

I think your answer was good to be honest. Good luck !

I assumed a lot of the interview would be based on providing excellent service /etc
I think they seem more concerned with selling things and retaining customers

As someone who interviews as part of my role I think your answer sounds great and like you can think for yourself. If you had answered as they said you should I would have said you don't have a mind of your own. As others have said you wouldn't have got to the next stage of the interview process if you had blown it.

Maybe he will se it and not agree with her...
You wouldn't believe the shit I sometimes spouted at interviews🤦 I got every single one into an offer.

Don't stress. If it was really wrong and bad interview, they wouldn't pass you further. They don't have time for that! Good job and good luck!

I don't understand what's wrong with your answer
If a customer of ours is saying that we are told to do what you said

@chocolatesaltyballs22 well in my head I was thinking if it's such a busy environment the last thing the manager would want is an advisor off the phones and would they really have time to give me feedback.
Other places it was a miracle if you got to speak to a manager.

If they asks you something like this in the next interview say something like
"I would deal with it by doing x and y, however, I know that every company has different processes so I would amend that based on information given during my training into asking a manager/supervisor first if that is a standard in the team I would join"

Something like that.

You wont have blown it - if you had then you wouldn't have a second interview arranged so don't panic.

Im my experience its much easier to train someone in customer service than it is to hit sales targets if they aren't a natural 'seller' so if targets are important to them then they will be more likely to hire someone who they thought would be good at this, than someone who was good at service but not at sales targets.

I think the person who interviewed you has tried to give you that feedback to help you prepare for the next one, which was good of her.

There shouldn't be a prescriptive 'correct' answer in an interview, it's not a pub quiz!

You did brilliantly and your answer was great. Celebrate your invite to a second interview tonight and forget about it, you got invited back so mission accomplished!

Another question she asked was "if you were speaking with a customer and they were resistant to purchase a mobile what would you do?"
I said
Ask questions ,find out if the mobile was for personal or business use
Do they use it mainly for calls/texts or browsing the web
Sell the phones features
I said get to know the customer and for example if they said they are a keen traveller ..sell the high resolution camera and storage capacity so they can capture photos on there travels
Google maps,unlimited data so they could keep in touch with family and friends ..

What else can I add to that ?

Also, the interviewer sounds a bit dense and as if they were reading questions and answers from a sheet... they certainly shouldnt have told you 'sorry that was the wrong answer' - who does that??

I think she was deffo reading from a sheet as one point she asked the question and realised she had jumped ahead

It is tickbox HR. But it sounds as though you did ok - you are through to the next round. Good luck OP - it is a brutal process at the moment.

I've just cheated a little
The company I've applied for I've just gone on the live chat and said I was thinking of joining and asked some questions and wrote down questions they asked me ..bit unethical but never mind

Sorry name changed incase you wondering

Reminds me of companies where you're given brutal sales targets and if you don't hit them, your manager will blame you. Because OBVIOUSLY there's nothing wrong with the product or the price, or even the patch you're given, it must be your sales technique I don't think it'll cost you the opportunity, but I'd definitely be interviewing them right back and checking you actually want to work there!

I think your answer was great and it clearly did the job as you are through to next round.

It sounds like a tickbox sift based on formulated questions and answers with the next interview hopefully allowing for more freedom in responses.

However could those expected responses be reflective of culture? At next interview it might be worth using question as example to ask manager about whether approach you would take is in line with expected approach if you were successful... interviews are a 2 way process after all...make sure the organisation is a good match for you too. Good luck!

@Jcee I think it is as I have a friend who applied last year.
Got to the phone interview and they said her answers were great but she wasn't personal enough with the customer (didn't ask if they had kids etc )
Even tho all her answers were great she didn't get invited to next stage

@LiquoriceLilly I'm starting to wonder if it's going to be brutal sales