See how candidates respond to customers before you hire
Asking about personality and experience won't show how a retail, hotel or restaurant hire deals with customers. Calaris Assess recreates sales-floor, guest-room and dining-room moments with the AI and assesses how candidates read customer cues and respond. No product knowledge needed. One standard for every store.
Gift rush before closing
SpeakingThe sales floor right now
Weekday, 7:50 p.m. (closes at 8 p.m.)
Live Transcript
You're a salesperson at a shop selling Japanese and Western-style sweets. Ten minutes before closing, a rushed-looking customer comes in: “I'm on my way to someone's home and need to pick a gift right away.”
No other customers are in the shop. Make your own assumptions about the customer.
Retail | Sales floor · Gift rush before closing: You're a salesperson at a shop selling Japanese and Western-style sweets. Ten minutes before closing, a rushed-looking customer comes in: “I'm on my way to someone's home and need to pick a gift right away.”No other customers are in the shop. Make your own assumptions about the customer.
Hotel | Front desk · Family plans rained out: You're in your third year at a resort hotel's front desk. Heavy rain since morning has canceled the ocean activity a family was looking forward to. The father comes to the desk: “The kids are really disappointed.”It's the family's last day; they check out tomorrow morning. You have details on hotel facilities and nearby attractions.
Restaurant | Dining room · Late allergy notice: You work the floor at a restaurant. A seated guest with a reservation tells you, “Actually, I have a shrimp allergy.” They didn't mention it when booking.Today's course has shrimp in part of the appetizer and in a sauce. The kitchen is busy.
Retail | Phone call · Stock mix-up by phone: You're a salesperson at a tableware and household goods shop. A customer comes in: “I was told on the phone yesterday you had this in stock, so I came.” But it sold out this morning.A colleague apparently took yesterday's call. A nearby sister store has one of the same item.
Transcript
Draw out how candidates respond to customers in dialogue
A rushed gift purchase before closing. A family's rained-out plans. An allergy mentioned after seating. The AI recreates these moments in dialogue and probes on the spot: what candidates notice, what they check, and how they respond.
Elements of hospitality
Checked through dialogue
Checked through how responses are built
Not measured through dialogue
Break hospitality down into what dialogue can check
Reading unspoken needs, offering an alternative when you can't say yes, rebuilding trust after a mistake: we evaluate these. Manners, tone of voice and a relaxing presence can't be measured in dialogue, so we don't claim to.
Feedback report
1 / 4Cover
A hiring process applicants learn from
Applicants are also customers of your stores and brand. Your team reviews and approves feedback on their strengths and growth areas before it's sent. Even those you don't hire learn something and leave trusting your stores.
Support cycle
01Design
Align the service you want across every store
Team members with consulting backgrounds help define the service you want, design scenes, focus points and evaluation criteria with you, and review them after launch. One standard for every store and region.
Running the process
Calaris consultants co-design the evaluation criteria and simulations before launch. Candidates take sessions from home when it suits them, so store managers and recruiters stay on the floor, not scheduling interviews.
Candidates book their own slot
Candidates get a session URL, pick an open slot, and consent after reviewing why the session is recorded and how it's evaluated. Your team just registers them, with no store-by-store scheduling.
Show strengths in service scenes
Candidates explain how they'd serve customers on the sales floor, in guest rooms and in dining rooms. No product knowledge or industry experience needed, so newcomers can shine too.
Compare on one standard, whatever the store
Same criteria for every candidate, whatever the store. Line up scores and supporting statements in one list and decide with confidence whom to meet next.
Feedback candidates can learn from
Your team reviews and approves feedback on strengths and growth areas before it's sent. Even candidates not hired take something away and leave trusting your stores.
Feedback reportTurn store managers' interview time into floor time
The simulation handles first-round assessment, so store managers and recruiters can use the results to focus on meeting promising candidates.
Applicant experience shapes your store's reputation
No scheduling hassle, a chance to show strengths in conversation, and results to learn from. Applicants leave with trust and goodwill toward your stores and brand.
Newcomers on the same footing
Career changers and new graduates are compared on their approach to customers, not product knowledge or industry experience.
From customer service in stores and guest rooms to store leadership. Pick what fits your open roles.
03
Customer Interaction
How do they engage with customers and respond?
Evaluates hospitality and responsiveness in a customer-service scene: reading the situation, staying attuned to the customer's feelings, and deciding and responding quickly.
Typical roles
04
People Management
How do they understand people and help them grow?
Evaluates the ability to understand others and help them see issues and change how they act. In a scene about managing and developing a team member, the candidate works from that person's own concerns.
Typical roles
From natural service dialogue to multi-store operations and applicant feedback.
Select an item for details.
Dialogue
AI
Speaking
Candidate
Listening
The AI responds when the candidate finishes
No buttons. The AI responds when the candidate finishes, like talking with a person.
No fixed question list. The AI builds on each answer, probing what led the candidate to read the situation that way and what they'd check.
The AI restates each answer's key point before moving on, so candidates aren't grilled and can share their thinking calmly.
Dialogue design
Focus points (service)
Decide what follow-ups probe, based on the service you value: welcoming guests, reading unspoken needs, handling requests you can't meet, and more.
Choose and combine scenes close to your business, such as the sales floor, guest rooms or dining room. Candidates need no product knowledge to answer.
Set scene layers and follow-up difficulty for new graduates, experienced hires or future store managers. Difficulty also adapts to answers mid-dialogue.
Avatar
Thank you for joining today. To start, could you briefly introduce yourself?
An avatar lip-syncs to the AI's voice as it talks with the candidate. A face-to-face feel eases nerves and helps them show what they can do. Available on the Premium Plan.
Pick a ready-made avatar to suit the tone of your process or role. Available on all plans.
A custom avatar, down to attire and background, becomes the “face of your company” candidates meet first, carrying your brand. Available on the Standard Plan and above.
Session management
candidates.csv1,200 candidates
Register candidates and issue session URLs in bulk. Candidates book their own slots, with no store-by-store scheduling.
Offer weekday evening and weekend slots. Not tied to store manager or interviewer availability, sessions can run for many candidates at once.
Scores and evidence on the same criteria arrive as each candidate finishes, whichever store they applied to.
Feedback report
Set the cover color, image, logo, and message, so each report reads as a message from your company.
Mix and match strengths, growth areas with next steps, reflection questions, what good looks like, and more. Choose which to include for each process.
Your team reviews and edits AI-generated reports, then approves and sends them in bulk. Candidates can view theirs via a link for one month after sending.
Cheating detection
FaceMain camera
Detects when candidates leave fullscreen, switch tabs, or try to copy text. A smartphone used as a second camera shows their hands and surroundings.
Follow-ups build on each live answer, making it hard to rely on prepared answers or on reading out generative AI output.
Video and audio are recorded, and the AI flags moments to check, such as leaving the seat, off-screen glances, or other voices. Your recruiters review them in the recording before deciding.
Before launch, Calaris consultants design the simulations, dialogue, and evaluation criteria with you.
Some features, such as avatars, cheating detection, and feedback reports, vary by plan.
Contact us
Use the form to share your hiring goals, expected candidates per year and timing. We'll be in touch.
Consultation and demo
We review your hiring process and challenges, show the real session screen and evaluation report, and propose a plan and quote for your expected volume and use.
Contract and design
After signing, we agree on your target profile and pick the simulations and criteria. On the Standard Plan and above, we also set dimension weights and build company-specific simulations.
Launch
Start inviting candidates when you're ready. On request, your team can first try a test session to check the difficulty of the questions and the evaluation criteria.
Post-launch review
We check session results against later hiring outcomes and post-hire evaluations, then refine criteria and questions.
