5 Tips for Recruiting Great Ecommerce Support Agents

Without a well-planned hiring strategy, you risk delivering a subpar ecommerce support experience that could harm your brand’s reputation.

Some companies simply hire individuals with basic written communication skills and consider the job done. But in reality, getting hiring right for ecommerce support is far more complex.

Investing in building your support team begins with recruiting the right people who have the right skills to deliver exceptional service.

What makes a great ecommerce support agent?

The key to recruiting an excellent customer support team lies in identifying the skills your agents need:

• Great agents should have a solid grasp of ecommerce operations, such as shipping and customs fees, allowing them to handle a wider range of inquiries and tasks with ease.
• They also need to be resilient and comfortable with repetitive work since many ecommerce queries tend to be similar.
• An analytical mindset is crucial, too, as it helps agents spot trends and find opportunities for automation.
• Effective communication is at the heart of good customer service. Agents must be skilled in both written and verbal communication, adapting their tone and style to match each customer’s preferences and the platform they’re using.
• Adaptability is another must-have trait. With new products launching and marketing strategies evolving frequently, ecommerce agents who can adjust quickly will stay engaged and find satisfaction in their roles.

While experience is valuable, you shouldn’t overlook the potential of hiring motivated inexperienced candidates who are eager to grow with your business and building a customer service training program that fosters their development. This can also be more cost-effective.

5 tips for recruiting great ecommerce support agents

Once you’ve identified the type of candidate you’re looking for and the key skills they should have, recruiting the right talent becomes all about sourcing. It’s about knowing where your ideal candidates spend their time and making sure they see your value as an employer. Once they’ve submitted an application and entered your hiring pipeline, you can craft a repeatable interview process to help surface the best candidates.

Here are five tips to help you find and connect with potential ecommerce support agents.

1. Recruit agents where they’re looking for jobs

The pay range in ecommerce support is typically lower than sectors like tech support. This means getting your job ad in front of more potential applicants can significantly improve your candidate flow for ecommerce support roles.

Here are a few platforms where some of the best ecommerce agents can be found:

• If you’re considering freelance help, Upwork has a large pool of qualified ecommerce agents and operators. It’s great for hiring seasonal workers who are paid per hour.
• Onlinejobs.ph is a perfect resource if you’re open to offshore hiring, particularly in the Philippines. You can find long-term employees, contractors, and seasonal workers here,
• Larger job boards like Indeed or WeWorkRemotely can help you reach a broader audience and find great candidates.

Going the extra mile and advertising open roles on Instagram or TikTok can help target students and young professionals if you’re after entry-level talent.  

Pro tip: Out-of-the-box recruitment strategies can help tap into talent pools you might otherwise miss with standard recruitment tactics.

2. Include sample questions in the application form

To get a better sense of how candidates handle real-world scenarios, ask them to draft responses to common customer issues during the application process.

This helps you assess their communication style, problem-solving abilities, and approach to customer concerns. Keep it simple—2 or 3 questions are enough to provide valuable insight at this early stage while giving candidates a taste of what the job entails.

Here are some sample questions you could include:

• Damaged product: “I ordered a laptop from your site, but it arrived with scratches and dents. I want a replacement or a full refund immediately!”
• Order not delivered: “My order was supposed to arrive three days ago, but I haven’t received anything yet. Can you check what’s going on?”
• Wrong item received: “I ordered a black t-shirt, but I received a red one instead. I need the correct item sent to me as soon as possible.”
• Product defect complaint: “The blender I purchased stopped working after just two uses. This is unacceptable! I want a refund or a new one sent ASAP.”
• Order modification request: “I need to change the shipping address for my order. Can you update it before it gets shipped?”

3. Create an efficient interview process

Finding applicants for ecommerce support roles can be tough, but sorting through resumes to identify the right candidates can be even more challenging. To make this process smoother and ensure you hire the best talent, it’s important to have a well-structured interview process that effectively narrows down your top picks.

Start with an initial screening—a brief, 15-minute call with a recruiter or HR team member—to get a sense of the candidate’s experience and communication skills. This step also allows you to answer any questions and ensure they fully understand the role. It saves time by filtering out those who may not be a good fit early on.

We recommend conducting at least two interviews with different people. Ideally, one interviewer should be a team lead or manager, while the other could be a peer or someone from a related department, like QA or training. This approach provides a well-rounded view of the candidate’s skills, personality, and how they might fit into the team dynamic.

4. Ask the right questions

When hiring for ecommerce support roles, there are countless interview questions that you can ask. However, we’ve found the following questions to be the most effective in growing our team to over 1,800 employees.

These questions not only assess skills but also help determine how well a candidate might fit into your company culture:

1. Tell me about yourself. Classic. This is a great opening question to get to know the candidate. What you’re really looking for is whether they can answer concisely and clearly.
2. What does “good” customer service mean to you? Ask candidates for a specific example of a great customer service experience they’ve had as a customer. This helps you understand what they consider to be excellent service and ensures their values align with your company’s standards.
3. Can you tell me about a challenge you’ve overcome? This question reveals the candidate’s resilience, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence, which are crucial for support roles,
4. Tell me about a time when you had to solve a problem for a customer. Follow up by asking how they approached the issue and what they would do differently to provide a better experience.
5. Give me an example of a time when you helped an angry or unreasonable customer. Look for how the candidate managed their emotions, stayed calm, and kept the situation under control.
6. Can you tell me about a time when you had to say “no” to a customer’s request? This question helps assess how the candidate navigates difficult conversations and manages customer expectations—particularly relevant in ecommerce support, where return and refund requests often go beyond company policies.
7. What’s an example of a time when you worked successfully as part of a team? Here, you’re looking for examples of how the candidate collaborates, seeks help when needed, and builds strong working relationships.

Lastly, beyond understanding a candidate’s skills and how they would handle specific scenarios, it’s crucial to hire someone who will fit well into your company culture.

One way to assess this is through the airport test, first popularized by Amazon. After each interview, ask interviewers a single question: “Would you want to be stuck in an airport with this person?”

This simple question helps evaluate whether the candidate would be a good cultural fit, ensuring that your team will not only work well together but also enjoy each other’s company.

5. Include role plays in the hiring process

Role plays are an invaluable tool for evaluating a candidate’s thought process, communication style, and problem-solving abilities. By simulating real-world scenarios, candidates can demonstrate how they would handle customer issues, giving you insight into their practical skills beyond what’s listed on their resume.

Screening companies like Alva Labs and TestGorilla offer pre-built role plays, but developing your own scenario tailored to your business needs can be a powerful alternative.

During these role plays, you’ll want to focus on the candidate’s ability to ask thoughtful questions, solve issues efficiently, and show empathy toward customers.

Here’s a sample scenario you can use:

Imagine you’re a customer who ordered several items as a gift, but the delivery is running late, and the items will now arrive after the celebration.

This situation can make customers feel powerless and often emotionally charged. Shipping issues are frustrating on their own, but when a gift is late, it can lead to even greater frustration or anger.

This realistic scenario can take several directions, making it an ideal test of the candidate’s communication and problem-solving skills.

What to look for during the role-play:

1. Does the candidate recognize and acknowledge the customer’s frustration? Watch for how they communicate—do they express empathy, adjust their tone, and approach the situation with sensitivity?
2. Do they offer any solutions? This is a great opportunity to evaluate their critical thinking and problem-solving process. For example, in a similar real-life scenario, when a product batch was delayed right before Christmas, we collaborated with the marketing team to create gift cards explaining the delay, ensuring customers didn’t feel at fault.
3. While ecommerce support agents don’t need to be experts in operations, they should understand the broader picture—like how shipping and production work. Does the candidate grasp these key concepts, and do they know who to involve to prevent a single delayed order from becoming a larger issue, such as a batch stuck in customs or a shipment lost by the carrier?

Role-playing transforms interviews from theoretical discussions into practical assessments, giving you a clearer sense of how a candidate performs under pressure. This approach helps you evaluate their ability to handle difficult situations, communicate effectively, and demonstrate empathy—all essential qualities of a great ecommerce support agent.

By using realistic scenarios like this, your hiring process will feel more natural, and you’ll gain valuable insight into whether a candidate is the right fit for your team.

Providing exceptional service to your customers

When over 50% of customers share their negative experiences with at least five people, a single poor support interaction can harm your ecommerce brand’s reputation and spark a wave of bad word of mouth.

You don’t want that. And we don’t want that for you.

That’s why it’s essential to have a solid process for recruiting great customer support agents and managing your team effectively. We’ve outlined the foundational steps to help you attract support talent, build an efficient interview process, and implement the right mechanisms to select the best-fitting talent.

But if you need help, we’re happy to talk. Take the first step and partner with Peak Support experts to build a stellar customer support team and deliver exceptional customer experiences.