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Aethel

For hiring teams

Interview customer service and support candidates with one link

Send a customer service or support candidate one link. An AI interviewer asks about their real work, and you decide from the quoted scores.

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Free to start while Aethel is in early access. No card needed.

Hiring for customer service and support

What makes this hard to screen

Support resumes tend to promise "excellent communication skills". What separates people is whether they listen for the real problem, stay honest about what they can do, and follow up. Those habits are easier to hear than to read.

Roles this field covers: customer service representative, call center agent, help desk specialist, customer support specialist, client services coordinator, member services representative, support team lead.

Listen for these in a transcript

  • Listens for the real problem and explains the options honestly.
  • Works within policy, or escalates with the right details attached.
  • Follows up until the issue is fixed and stays calm with an upset caller.

Warning signs

  • Reads a script without listening.
  • Promises what they cannot deliver.
  • Passes every problem on without trying, argues with customers, or never follows up.

How it works

How to interview with a link

  1. Step 1: Create a link for the role

    Choose Customer service and support, the level, and a specialty such as customer service representative or call center agent.

  2. Step 2: Send it to your candidates

    Share it wherever you already find customer service and support candidates.

  3. Step 3: Candidates interview on their own time

    It takes about 15 minutes, and they know the interviewer is an AI.

  4. Step 4: Review and decide

    Mark each one Advance, Not a fit, or Undecided.

The interview

What the interviewer covers

It follows up on each answer and picks the customer service and support topics that fit the role.

  • An upset customer and how they turned the conversation around
  • A problem they solved that others had missed
  • A time the policy did not fit what the customer needed
  • Deciding when to escalate a case
  • Handling many requests at once on a busy day
  • Passing customer feedback to the team that could fix it
  • Following up to make sure a problem stayed fixed

What the scoring looks for

Strong work: the candidate listens for the real problem, explains options honestly, works within policy or escalates with the right details, follows up until the issue is fixed, and stays calm with upset customers.

Warning signs: the candidate reads a script without listening, promises what they cannot deliver, passes every problem on without trying, argues with customers, or never follows up. The scoring AI is told that an area showing one scores below 60.

Your questions

Sample must-ask questions

Up to three per link. The interviewer is told to ask each one as written, and every result shows whether it was asked word for word, asked in other words, or not asked. Examples:

  1. Tell me about an upset customer you helped. What did you do first?
  2. Walk me through a time the policy did not fit what the customer needed.
  3. Describe how you decide when to escalate a case.

Starter templates

Starter roles

Start a link from one of these and edit anything.

  • Call center agent

    Focus: Handling a high call volume, resolving issues on the first call, escalations, call notes

  • Customer service representative

    Focus: Phone and chat support, solving customer problems, following policy, accurate notes

  • Customer service supervisor

    Focus: Coaching agents, quality checks, staffing for busy times, handling escalated customers

  • Help desk specialist

    Focus: Troubleshooting accounts and devices, ticket queues, clear instructions for users, knowledge base articles

Results

What you see for each candidate

  • The full transcript

    Every answer, in order.

  • “Not enough evidence”

    Shown instead of a guess, never as a low score.

  • Your decision and private notes

    Only your team sees them.

The four scored areas

Each out of 100, with quotes.

Problem solving (finding and fixing issues)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes a specific customer problem: what was wrong, how they found out, what they did to fix it, and how it ended.
Service judgment (policies, priorities, follow-through)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes how they decide what to do for a customer: what the policy allows, what comes first, when to escalate, and how they make sure the issue stays fixed.
Communication (calls, chats, emails, upset customers)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes explaining things to customers or coworkers: calls, chats, emails, ticket notes, or calming an upset customer. Answers that respond to the question asked, in a clear order, with a concrete example, also count, but only up to 80 on their own. Grammar, word choice and fluency are never judged.
Teamwork (coworkers, supervisors, other teams)
Counts as evidence when the candidate describes working with coworkers, supervisors or other teams, including escalating a case, passing on feedback or handling a disagreement. Saying "we" is not, by itself, collaboration evidence.

Aethel never scores faces, voices or accents, and does not verify degrees, licenses or work history. How Aethel uses AI

FAQ

Questions hiring teams ask

Can it judge phone manner?

It scores what candidates say, not how they sound. Accent, voice and video are never scored, so it will not judge tone of voice. Hear that yourself in a call.

Does it work for chat and email support roles?

Yes. Candidates can type their answers, which suits written support work, and you can add a focus area such as chat support or ticket queues.

Can we include a question about our refund policy?

Yes, as a must-ask question. For example, how they would handle a customer who wants a refund outside the policy window.

See also the questions companies ask and the pricing page.

Send your first customer service or support interview link

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Want to show candidates what to expect? What the interview covers for customer service and support staff

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