A Before you break out in a cold sweat, reassure yourself that you need to focus on 3 key questions:

What are you looking for?

How will you find it? How do you score what you find?

Think about what an ideal candidate should possess.

Look back at previous new recruits. Who shone? What was it that made them stand out? Were they highly customer focused, did they always do the job well, or had superb team and telephone skills?

Get the job description from HR. Know the main technical, interpersonal skills and qualifications required.

Know the criteria for assessment.

Finding these means asking questions, that allow candidates give evidence and examples of skills and behaviours. Start with open questions about their experience;

'Tell me about your experience of dealing with customers'.

Then probe for real examples. How did you deal with one difficult customer?

What exactly did you do?

Ask about the result they got

You need to differentiate between strong and weak answers. Remember, look for evidence: examples that demonstrate their capability against the criteria.

After each interview, assign scores against the criteria based on the evidence.