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Behavior Questions

1. S.T.A.R.
   is a strategy taught by many career counselors for answering behavior-based questions. S.T.A.R. is an acronym for the four elements of the answer: Situation, Task, Actions, and Response.

The example below, written by the career center at Northwestern University, illustrates the S.T.A.R strategy.

Tell me about a time when you had to deal with a difficult customer. How did you handle the situation and what happened?

Situation: While working as a salesperson for Monica's MuuMuus, I was given an account that had been mishandled by our company in the past. When this customer came in to place a large, new order, she was angry, expressing dissatisfaction with past service and asked us to guarantee superior work this time around.

Task: I wanted to maintain this customer relationship, without promising service we could not deliver. I expressed regret to her over past service problems and told her I would review her order in detail with my supervisor and get back to her within 24 hours.

Action: I scheduled a meeting with my supervisor and we reviewed her order, identifying potential pitfalls, resulting in our adjusting the services we could provide. I then returned the customers call, negotiated a new contract, and faxed it to her.

Result: While the customer was a little disappointed that we could not provide everything she wanted, she appreciated my being honest about what we could do. In the end both parties were happy.