"In the corporate education world, my customers are both the leadership of the organization I represent and those I educate daily. A little over a year ago, I developed an online training course for warehouse staff regarding ergonomics and safe lifting practices. I took it upon myself to be involved in weekly leadership meetings. During one of these meetings, I learned that work comp costs in our warehouse were becoming astronomical, and leaves of absence due to injury were leaving us short-staffed. In talking with leadership on the warehouse side of things, I learned that hardly any formal training had ever occurred regarding these things. I set a meeting up for our warehouse director for me to learn about their jobs and discuss what method would be best for developing the training. In the end, my attentiveness to the needs of leadership within my organization helped develop a great online training module for current staff that is also now used for all new hires in our warehouse."

"Field service for equipment and machinery requires regular contact from me to the customers I serve. While it may have been over a year since I last visited a clinic site, I make quarterly contact with all the locations I service. I ask how things are operating and if they have issues with the equipment. During one of these contacts, I learned that a small clinic location was looking at doubling its radiology capacity in the coming year. Our sales staff doesn't normally check in with existing customers regularly, so I was able to refer the customer to our sales staff about purchasing new CT and Sonography machines. Had I not made that contact, there was a distinct chance that business could've been taken to our competition. I think my service helped grow an existing customer, and for that, I was very proud."

Whether your potential customers in this role are internal or external, focus on how solid relationships lead to open dialogue on needs. Then, explain how you take action to ensure that both you and your customer are pleased with the outcome. Remember that your interviewer is looking for a real-life example from your past as you answer this question.