Cashier Interview Questions

A Cashier is in direct contact with dozens of customers every day. They handle transactions, collect payments, issue refunds, and redeem vouchers and coupons. With such an impact on the customer experience in your store, you want to ensure that you hire the right candidate for the job. And that’s where the Cashier interview questions listed below come in.

Some of the skills and characteristics to look for in a Cashier include:

Great communication and interpersonal skills
Able to work well under pressure
Ability to stay calm and friendly at all times, particularly when dealing with difficult customers

Interviewing a Cashier

Did you attract a potential candidate and now you’re considering inviting them for an interview? That’s great news! But before you can conduct an effective interview, you need to prepare and ensure you have the right interview questions backed up.

That’s why we’ve created a list of role-specific Cashier interview questions that you can simply copy-paste and use in your interview process. These questions are tailored to this job role and ensure you ask the right questions to uncover the right skill set.

Please do bear in mind that these Cashier interview questions are designed to be asked during the early stages of the interview process. You might want to create more in-depth questions for the second or third round of interviews.

How to open the job interview

You want to start off simple and not too detailed. It’s important to remember that the candidate will most likely be nervous for the job interview. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it does mean that you want to ease into the interview a bit at first.

That’s why we advise you to first ask one or two introductory questions that help break the ice. These should be the type of questions that don’t have right or wrong answers, don’t go into the details of the role, and are more aimed at getting to know the candidate.

Job Description available

See our Cashier Job Description here

For the interview

A positive opener to start

What has been your journey so far?

What do you enjoy most about being a Cashier?

Why did you choose to become a Cashier?

Behavioral Questions

Describe a time when you went above and beyond for a customer.
This is a great question to see how customer-oriented the candidate is and how they might treat your customers if you would hire them.
Tell me about a time when a customer got angry or annoyed (at you or someone else). How did you handle this situation?
Unfortunately, Cashiers sometimes have to deal with angry or unreasonable customers. They should be able to remain calm, friendly, and find ways to de-escalate the situation.
Tell me about a time it was incredibly busy in the store where you worked, and the queue at your till just kept growing and growing. How did you remain calm?
During peak hours, stores can be heaving and the checkout areas can get hectic. It’s important that the candidate can remain calm during these times.
Tell me about a time you helped improve a process or helped the company you worked for save money.
You want your candidate to show initiative and be proactive in thinking of ways to better the business. This question gives them an opportunity to show how they might help your business in the future.

Soft Skills

This job can become quite repetitive, especially if you’re having a quiet day. How do you manage to stay motivated regardless?
Working as a Cashier isn’t always exciting, and work can get boring. This question helps you find out how the candidate stays motivated.
How do you deal with stress?
The work of a Cashier can become incredibly stressful at times. See how the candidate deals with such situations.
What are your greatest strengths when it comes to working as a Cashier?
This not only shows what the candidate is good at, but also what they see as important skills to have for this position.
Working as a Cashier requires focus and a great attention to detail. How do you remain focused on the job?
The Cashier handles a lot of incoming and outgoing money every day, so attention to detail is extremely important for this position.

Hard Skills

What POS systems do you have experience with?
A concrete question related to the specific experience the candidate has as a Cashier.
A customer pays with €50 for an order of €7.82. What change would you give them?
A large part of the Cashier’s job is to handle money and return the correct change. Although the cash register will normally do the maths for them, it’s still important that the candidate can do basic mathematical calculations off the top of their head.
What tasks have you performed at previous jobs aside from handling the cash register?
The role of a Cashier often involves more than just sitting behind the till. This question gives you an idea of other tasks the candidate has experience in.

Operational / Situational Questions

You wake up and realise you overslept by a full hour. What do you do?
People can be late sometimes, it happens. The question is designed to see how they deal with such a situation. In their answer, they should explain the steps they’ll take to prevent this from happening in the future.
Your manager orders you to clean up the mess that someone else has made. How do you respond?
We don’t always agree with the instructions we receive from managers. Sometimes, you can challenge them. In many cases, however, you have to accept the business hierarchy. This question gives you an idea of how the candidate responds to authority.
A customer disagrees with the price they have to pay for their shopping (even though you double-checked all the prices) and requests to speak to your manager. What do you do?
Whether we like it or not, customer complaints have to be taken seriously, no matter how unreasonable they may sometimes be. This question shows you how the candidate deals with such a situation.
A customer wants to use a voucher for an already discounted item, which is not allowed. What do you do?
This is a common situation for a Cashier to be in. Their answer to this question shows you how they deal with this.