How to hire a trusted store manager + support staff?

I'm sure many of you have come to the point where you simply cannot handle every little thing on your own, organizing orders and answering customer questions just becomes too time consuming and stops you from actually scaling the business. I'm exactly at this point right now.

My dilemma is, how can I find trusted staff that I can trust with my customer data and that are also capable with dealing with customers' requests. At some point we're all had to deal with that useless customer support representative and I want to avoid someone like that working for me at all costs.

Are there any specifics traits I should watch out for? Are there any good sites dedicated with hiring people these positions?

make them work on dummy data for 1 month and see do they care about learning and your business or wanna screw you up.

Well there are no specific traits that you should be looking for because job loyalty is something that varies from individual to individual. Since I am not aware what kind of business you are running the best thing you can do is setup a CRM software and ensure only limited information like name or subscription type( no personal contact information) is only accessible to the customer support rep you hire. Or maybe hire someone locally who is well known to you and train him for desired job role.

You should hire an outsourcing COMPANY instead of some random individual freelancer

Why go with a company?

They have a LONG TERM VIEW - they want a RELATIONSHIP that grows in value over time
They understand that the more they help you GROW your business, the LARGER their account becomes later
They have a built in ACCOUNTABILITY system if your assigned staffers screw up
They have a STANDARDIZED training system
They have a REDUNDANCY system - if someone fails to show up, someone else who already knows your system, fills in
They are LESS LIKELY to STEAL from you - in terms of intellectual property, competitive information, or process information or fraud

The downside, companies cost more

M4r3k said:

make them work on dummy data for 1 month and see do they care about learning and your business or wanna screw you up.

Click to expand...

Makes sense

SuperSonicProxy said:

Well there are no specific traits that you should be looking for because job loyalty is something that varies from individual to individual. Since I am not aware what kind of business you are running the best thing you can do is setup a CRM software and ensure only limited information like name or subscription type( no personal contact information) is only accessible to the customer support rep you hire. Or maybe hire someone locally who is well known to you and train him for desired job role.

Click to expand...

Do you use any specific CRM software?

blackbeans said:

You should hire an outsourcing COMPANY instead of some random individual freelancer

Why go with a company?

They have a LONG TERM VIEW - they want a RELATIONSHIP that grows in value over time
They understand that the more they help you GROW your business, the LARGER their account becomes later
They have a built in ACCOUNTABILITY system if your assigned staffers screw up
They have a STANDARDIZED training system
They have a REDUNDANCY system - if someone fails to show up, someone else who already knows your system, fills in
They are LESS LIKELY to STEAL from you - in terms of intellectual property, competitive information, or process information or fraud

The downside, companies cost more

Click to expand...

Great advice. Can you recommend someone or where is the best place to look?