Building a Customer Service Dream Team: Why I Hire from Hospitality & Temp Agencies

Starting from scratch? Here's how to build a resilient, adaptable customer service team on a budget.

Starting a customer service department from scratch isn't just about filling seats, it's about finding people who can roll with chaos like it's their job. Because, well, it is their job.

After years in enterprise call centers, SaaS support, and consulting for SMBs, I've developed a non-negotiable hiring bias: Hospitality veterans + temp-to-hire pipelines = unstoppable CX teams.

Here's why.

1. Hospitality Workers Are Battle-Tested in Emotional Labor

No entry-level CSR handles an AWS outage, a shipping disaster, or an irate customer like someone who's survived:

The 7-top that showed up 10 minutes before closing
The regular who always sends back the steak
The wedding party that didn't tip

Hospitality workers read tone, diffuse tension, and perform under pressure because they've done it for literal tips. They don't crumble when a customer yells, they pivot, adapt, and make it right with limited resources.

(Fun fact: My first real job was an airline call center, where I learned that "We lost your luggage" is just "The kitchen ran out of risotto" at 30,000 feet.)

2. Temp Agencies Are a Goldmine for Hidden Talent

I love temp-to-hire models because:

Low-risk tryouts – You get to see someone in action before committing and they get to see if your company's culture is a fit.
Hungry performers – Temps are often overlooked gems looking for a foot in the door.
Scalable staffing – Need to ramp up for a product launch? Temp. Holiday rush? Temp.

Temping isn't a last resort, it's a talent pipeline.

3. Budget Constraints? Hospitality Workers Thrive on Scrappy Solutions

Most SMBs (and even some enterprises) don't have:

Fancy CRMs
Perfectly documented SOPs
Unlimited tool budgets

But you know who's used to making magic with duct tape and a prayer?

Bartenders who MacGyvered a broken tap line
Servers who manually split a 12-top check 6 ways
Hotel clerks who check you in while answering the phone while fixing the printer

Give me someone who's improvised in a crisis, and I'll give you a CSR who doesn't freeze when Zendesk goes down.

4. The Nostalgia Factor: Why This Matters to Me

I didn't just fall into customer service—I temped my way up from:

Airline call centers
Avaya-powered escalation queues
Compliance-heavy F500 gigs

I've seen how great talent gets overlooked because they took the "wrong" career path. But the best CX people aren't always the ones with "5 years of Zendesk experience", they're the ones who learn fast, stay calm, and care.

The Takeaway

If you're building a support team:

✅ Look for hospitality experience – Grace under fire is hard to teach.
✅ Partner with temp agencies – Some of your best hires are waiting there.
✅ Embrace scrappy resilience – The best CX isn't about tools; it's about people who give a damn.

Because at the end of the day, customer service isn't just solving problems — it's making people feel heard. And nobody does that better than someone who's spent years saying, "I'll take care of it."

Ask yourself this: What's our hiring philosophy for CX teams? All hiring philosophies have some bias underpinning it, be that hiring from certain colleges, certain degrees, or certain parts of the world.

(P.S. If you've never seen a bartender handle a Karen and a broken POS system at the same time, you're missing out on a masterclass in composure.)