31+ Customer Service Skills for Your Resume

Use this list of the most essential skills to highlight on your resume for a customer service role to land more interviews and build a successful career.

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Our Expert:

Kai Tsai

Top 10 customer service skills employers want

These are the most highly sought-after customer service skills, according to our research:

Comprehensive list of customer service skills for your resume

Here’s a list of customer service skills employers look for when hiring customer service professionals, along with examples that show how to highlight them on your resume:

1. Flexibility

As anyone who has worked in customer service can tell you, to succeed in customer service, you need to be able to adapt quickly.

Whether it’s covering a shift for a sick colleague on short notice or handling unexpected customer requests, flexibility lets you tackle any situation.

How to highlight adaptability skills on your resume

Here’s a sample that shows how to highlight adaptability on your resume:

Learned how to use Kayako and Zendesk customer service software, as well as Parcel Audit to track shipments and report on movement

This professional experience bullet point shows how the applicant learned to use multiple customer service tools over the course of the job. Developing these skills at work shows adaptability and a willingness to build new expertise when needed, both valued traits in customer service agents.

2. Communication

When you’re assisting customers – whether in person, online, or over the phone – you need to be able to convey information clearly and concisely. Not only that, but being able to communicate in a polite, sympathetic way helps put people at ease and ensures that even the most difficult customers leave satisfied.

That’s why strong communication skills are essential for nearly any job in customer service and should be one of the first skills highlighted on your resume.

How to highlight communication skills on your resume

Here’s an example from a call center representative resume that shows how to highlight strong communication skills on your resume:

Handle 50+ customer interactions per day, giving detailed, personalized, friendly & polite service to ensure customer retention

Notice how “50+ customer interactions” quantifies the person’s experience and clearly shows employers how much communication shapes daily duties.

3. Anticipating customer needs

Anticipating customer needs means understanding common pain points, noticing patterns, and offering solutions before the customer even has to ask. It shows customers you truly understand their situation and care about providing a seamless experience.

This skill is especially valued in fast-paced environments where proactive support can prevent complaints.

How to highlight your ability to anticipate customer needs on your resume

Here’s one way to demonstrate this skill:

Recognized patterns in customer questions and proactively offered upgraded service packages, leading to a 12% increase in average order value

This example demonstrates the job seeker’s ability to understand customers’ needs and offer tailored solutions.

4. Eagerness to learn

Becoming a good customer service professional takes effort. Employers don’t expect you to know everything from the start, but they do look for applicants who demonstrate an eagerness to learn the company’s products and services inside and out.

This mindset signals to employers that you’re committed to doing the job better every day.

How to highlight eagerness to learn on your resume

Here’s a simple example of how to show a growth mindset on your resume:

Volunteered for cross-training in three departments, gaining product knowledge that improved first-call resolution rate by 14%

A resume bullet point like this shows that being open to learning also leads to better outcomes.

5. Subject matter expertise

People often depend on customer service representatives for detailed information about products or services. This dependence makes product knowledge an essential part of any customer service job.

Demonstrating a strong understanding of your company’s products and how to use them is the best way to instill confidence in customers, and make them believe that your advice and solutions are reliable.

How to highlight knowledge of products or services on your resume

Here’s how you can highlight your ability to memorize product knowledge in a work experience bullet point:

Memorized entire line of company products & services, including prices and special discounts

In this bullet point, the applicant clearly shows the employer that they could familiarize themselves with the company’s full catalog of products and services. This approach demonstrates that you’re capable of quickly developing strong product knowledge.

6. Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm can shape how customers experience their interaction with you and, by extension, the company you represent. A positive, upbeat attitude builds rapport quickly and makes customers feel genuinely cared for.

Hiring managers are drawn to candidates who bring energy and optimism to the job, because that attitude often leads to better team morale and stronger customer relationships.

How to highlight enthusiasm on your resume

Here’s an example of how to demonstrate enthusiasm on your resume:

Consistently recognized for maintaining a positive attitude under pressure, helping boost customer satisfaction scores by 20% over a period of six months

This line shows the applicant’s enthusiasm had a measurable impact, which employers want to see.

7. Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand another person’s feelings as if those feelings had been experienced firsthand. This skill is especially useful in customer service because it lets you better relate to the problems customers are having and more effectively address their complaints.

Not only that, but empathy ties in with other soft skills that are important in customer service. For instance, being empathetic often gives you greater patience when dealing with difficult customers.

How to highlight empathy on your resume

Here’s how to highlight empathy on your resume:

Handle 50+ customer interactions per day, giving detailed, personalized, friendly & polite service to ensure customer retention

Using the word “personalized” in this professional experience bullet point indicates that the applicant can take in each customer’s circumstances and provide specific advice. This example of empathy makes the applicant a valued customer service professional.

8. Live support

Many customers don’t want to read page after page of instructions to find the answer to their question, but instead expect real-time answers. That’s where live support skills come in. Whether it’s through live chat, phone, or video, customer service professionals need to think on their feet and solve issues efficiently, all while keeping a friendly and professional tone.

Working in live support requires a strong understanding of the company’s products or services and the ability to multitask under pressure. Employers value team members who can represent the brand well in real time and keep customer satisfaction high, even when conversations get tough.

How to highlight live support skills on your resume

Here’s how to highlight strong live customer support skills on your resume:

Handled 50+ live chat inquiries per shift with a 95% customer satisfaction rating, resolving most issues within 10 minutes

This example doesn’t just demonstrate the applicant’s ability to resolve issues quickly. Including a customer satisfaction rating shows that speed doesn’t come at the expense of quality.

9. Computer skills

Working in customer service often requires specific software or equipment to assist customers or keep track of information.

Beyond the usual Microsoft Office Suite, anyone pursuing customer service should know the specific computer skills for the job. For example, if you work in customer support, you’ll likely need to know Blazedesk or LiveChat.

That’s why a foundation in technical skills gives you an edge when applying for work.

How to highlight technical skills on your resume

Consider this bullet point from a customer service resume that helped its author get a job:

Trained two new employees in how to use Kayako, entering customer data and organizing customer interaction logs

Notice that this applicant names Kayako, a customer service software program, and goes on to describe how they used this software. The applicant also mentions training other employees to use it, which suggests they have a strong command of the software.

10. Stress management

Between handling upset customers and fulfilling requests, working in customer service can get stressful. Staying calm and maintaining excellent service in high-pressure situations are helpful customer service skills and key to success in most workplaces. Employers need people who can manage stress effectively and handle difficult situations, so if this sounds like you, then you’ll want hiring managers to know.

How to highlight stress management skills on your resume

Here’s an example of how to demonstrate stress management skills on your resume:

Kept my team composed and efficient during tourist season, maintaining a 100% customer satisfaction rate according to post-tour surveys

This example shows that the applicant not only stayed composed during a busy time but also kept the team functional, which reflects strong stress management skills.

11. Interpersonal skills

No matter what type of customer service role you’re in, interacting with people is a key part of the job. Strong interpersonal skills make it easier to win people over and build valuable relationships with customers.

How to highlight interpersonal skills on your resume

Here’s an example demonstrating how to showcase interpersonal skills on a resume:

Received an average 85% customer satisfaction rating to date, 15% higher than the company average

Customer satisfaction ratings offer a clear way to communicate interpersonal skills to employers. Customers rarely give a high satisfaction rating after a poor interaction, even if their questions were ultimately answered, so this detail works well on a resume.

12. Problem solving

When a customer comes to you to resolve an issue, problem-solving skills let you deal with that situation, no matter what it’s.

If the customer is angry and has a problem with your company, you’ll also need to know how to de-escalate the situation and resolve the issue efficiently.

Problem-solving is an excellent customer service skill in these scenarios.

How to highlight problem solving skills on your resume

Here’s an example:

Research complicated cases without prompting to provide more comprehensive service to customers

This applicant demonstrates problem-solving skills by showing experience proactively seeking out information to solve a problem and provide better customer service. Because the research happened without prompting, this example also highlights the applicant’s initiative and reinforces that they’re a capable employee.

13. Patience

The ability to stay calm and collected while dealing with frustrating situations is an important quality for any customer service expert to have.

Whether a customer is having a rough day and takes it out on you or just has a lot of routine questions, patience lets you support people without losing your cool.

How to highlight patience on your resume

Here’s an example demonstrating how to show employers that you have endless patience:

Remain courteous and calm at all times, even during moments of intense customer displeasure

Being able to stay cordial, even in the face of “intense customer displeasure,” shows that this applicant is very patient and able to keep composure during frustrating situations. Staying collected throughout those moments is an important strength for any customer service agent.

14. Time management

Working in customer service, you’ll often help more than one customer at a time. You often have multiple tasks to juggle at once, all while dealing with several customers with distinct needs. In situations like these, excellent time management skills come in handy.

Knowing how to balance multiple tasks at once and solve them all in a timely manner is essential.

How to highlight time management skills on your resume

Here’s an example resume bullet point that showcases strong time management skills on a resume:

Handle 90+ calls daily, with duties including signing up new customers, retrieving customer data, presenting relevant product information, and canceling services

The bandwidth to “handle 90+ calls daily” requires exceptional time management skills. Employers know that without the ability to use time productively, the applicant wouldn’t have been as efficient or achieved as much, which makes this an effective demonstration of time management.

15. Foreign language proficiency

In customer service, interactions often involve people from around the world. Communicating comfortably with people in their native language is a great way to win them over as customers and even improve a business’s reputation. Understandably, speaking more than one language is a key skill in customer service — especially for work at a business that gets many customers from different cultural backgrounds.

How to highlight language skills on your resume

The best way to highlight language skills on your resume is simply to list them in your skills section, like so:

Conversational in Spanish (able to meet all customer service requirements with Spanish speakers)

To give employers an accurate idea of your capabilities, specify your level of fluency in each language as clearly as you can.

16. Teamwork

No matter your customer service job, CSRs are always one part of a larger team. Knowing how to work effectively with coworkers to achieve goals together (or just get through the day) is an essential customer service skill.

Employers want to know that a new hire will be pleasant to work with and will step up to support the rest of the team when needed.

How to highlight teamwork skills on your resume

Below is an example showing how to highlight teamwork skills on a resume:

Worked with a team of six other employees to develop a more efficient method for handling incoming customer queries

This applicant starts the bullet point by not only stating that they worked with a team, but also detailing what they accomplished with that group. That approach quickly demonstrates to employers that the applicant has strong teamwork skills.

17. Upselling

Ultimately, the goal of most customer service jobs is to drive sales. Knowing how to describe products or services in an appealing way and get customers to make purchases is a basic customer service skill.

What sets a great customer service employee apart, however, is the ability to upsell, or encourage customers to buy something extra (and often more expensive).

Employers look for CSRs who can persuade customers to make an additional purchase. If you have the gift to convince someone to part with their hard-earned cash — in person or on the phone — you’re an effective upseller.

How to highlight upselling skills on your resume

Here’s how to highlight your upselling prowess on a resume:

Regularly upsold customers on branded electronic peripherals, generating an extra $1,000 per month on average

This bullet-point example explains exactly what the applicant upsold, and quantifies the estimated impact those upselling skills had on sales (in dollars). Providing hard numbers to measure the impact made is one of the best ways to show employers how effective someone is at closing sales.

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More skills-related resources

Getting ready for a customer service job interview? Watch this TikTok on common interview questions for customer service workers and learn how to highlight your skills:

@resumegenius Top 3 customer service interview questions and answers #interviewtips #interviewquestions #jobinterview #customerservice #careeradvice #jobsearchtips ♬ Spongebob Tomfoolery – Dante9k Remix – David Snell

Here are more skills-related resources to guide you as you write your customer service resume:

• Transferable skills
• In-demand job skills
• Skills based resumes
• How to list skill levels on a resume