Tell me about a time you had to deal with a difficult client. How did you handle it?

This question may be more relevant to some roles than others, but what interviewers want to know is this: can you stay level-headed in a challenging situation? Are you able to put aside your anger and frustration to do a professional job? What do your conflict-resolution skills look like?

A variation of this is likely to come up regardless of whether you have a customer-facing role. It may be phrased like this:

• Have you had any experience responding to unhappy clients?
• Tell us about a time you made a mistake at work.
• Tell us about a time you led a team while there was a conflict.

The best way to answer this question is, again, utilising the STAR method.

Describe the situation; outline the task you were responsible for; talk about the action you took and why you chose to respond in that way; and end with the result, and perhaps a lesson you learned.

For example: “In my last position as a receptionist, I received a call from an unhappy customer demanding a refund for a faulty product. However, as I worked at the corporate office, I couldn’t process the refund myself; that had to be done at a store level.

So, I expressed my understanding of their frustration, apologised that they had received a product that didn’t work, and told them that their local store would be able to work with them to either provide a working product or process a refund. I asked them what suburb they lived in to provide the phone number and address of the store closest to them.

They thanked me for my service and complimented my professionalism, and I didn’t expect to hear anything more about it, but I later found out they had visited the store I recommended, and asked the store manager to pass on her recommendations to corporate. I later received Employee of the Month as a result.”