Customer Service Representative
Resume Example

A customer service professional’s job is to satisfy customer needs and ensure that customers have pleasant interactions with the company.

Because society hasn’t yet reached a point where services can be provided with no human contact, the customer representative is still a growing field, with roles forecasted to increase by 7% by 2026.

You can also expect to earn $32,890 per year on average, up from the $30,580 per year average in 2012, further proof of the growth in this industry.

If you are a customer service professional, or looking to enter the industry, you may be writing a resume to:

• Find a new work environment
• Earn more money
• Land a managerial role elsewhere

Our tips below, as well as our customer service skills resume above, will teach you how to write a stellar resume rich with the customer service skills necessary to leave a good impression on customers.

If you’re short on time, our online resume builder can also help you make an excellent customer care resume in minutes.

Step 1. Create an Effective Customer Service Career Objective

The goal of a customer service resume objective is to show hiring managers that you’d make a worthwhile addition to their company. When writing your career objective for a customer service vacancy, you need to make sure that you spell out why your experience, skills, and prior achievements will benefit the company and help it grow.

A successful customer service resume will include three sentences:

Sentence No. 1: Mentions number of years of work experience in customer service as well as your duties.

Sentence No. 2: Describes the position-relevant qualities that make you a good fit for the advertised customer service role.

Sentence No. 3: Clarifies your ambitions, any certifications/licenses you have, and your educational background.

Let’s see our candidate’s resume objective:

Customer Service Representative with over 5 years of experience in a call center setting, including sales, tech support, and customer care. Familiar with major customer care software, conflict resolution, and possess a positive attitude. Aiming to use my proven skills to effectively fill the managerial role in your company.

Our candidate makes it clear that he’d make a good customer service representative since he has 5 years of experience in sales, tech support, and customer care. Plus, he’s up to date with the relevant software.

Note that he talks about his “proven skills” — he will expand on his proven skills in the rest of his resume (and cover letter), since it’s not clear what he’s referring to here.

Still not sure what this would look like? Check out our customer service representative resume objective writing guide (with examples) for more ideas.

Step 2. Include These Five Strong Customer Service Skills

What skills are hiring managers looking for in your customer service resume? They are looking for both directly relevant and transferable abilities. The most commonly sought customer service skills are:

• Communication: As a customer service professional, you’ll need to convey information clearly and with tact to help customers with whatever issue they have. Whether this is verbally or through text, your ability to communicate well is pivotal to getting your customer what he or she wants.

• Technical: Working in the customer service industry means that you will use specific software to better serve your customers. Whether that involves Zendesk or Microsoft Office, being familiar with these tools will make your job easier and keep you organized and efficient while on the job.

• Interpersonal: An important aspect of customer service is interacting with people. If you have excellent interpersonal skills, your friendly and sociable attitude will help you calm customers down and win the customer loyalty your company craves.

• Problem Solving: When customers reach out to customer service, they are looking to resolve an issue that they have with your product or service. When this occurs, you’ll need the problem solving skills to assist them, while also giving them a pleasant experience with your company.

• Patience: Dealing with customers can require large reserves of patience. Whether the customer is upset or has inane questions, it’s part of your job to stay cool and professional while politely leading them through their quandary.

However, the skills above aren’t the only ones valued by hiring managers. Other customer service skills to put on your resume include:

Customer Service Resume Skills List

Hard skills:

• Blazedesk
• C-Desk
• Computer Competence (Mac or PC)
• Email
• Excel
• Headphones
• Knowledge of Product or Service
• LiveChat
• Mathematics
• Microphones
• Microsoft Office Suite
• Multiple Languages
• Outlook
• SupportCenter
• Typing
• Word
• Zendesk/Talkdesk
• (and many others).

Soft skills:

• Active Listening
• Adaptability
• Attentiveness
• Closing Ability
• Conflict Resolution
• Creativity
• Decision-Making
• De-escalation
• Dependability
• Empathy
• Focus
• Leadership
• Negotiation
• Persuasion Skills
• Politeness
• Positivity
• Quick Thinking
• Responsiveness
• Staying Cool Under Pressure
• Time Management
• Up-Selling
• Willingness to Learn

Remember that having a good mix of hard and soft skills strengthens your resume. However, since customer service is a soft skills-oriented discipline, erring more on the side of soft skills actually works to your advantage.

When crafting your resume, take the time to research what skills you’ll need for your job. Reflect on how your relevant or transferable skills can best be displayed on your resume for maximum effect.

Not sure how to Discover more skills you can use in our “skills for resume” writing guide.

Step 3. Write Strong Bullet Points

Your resume will be much stronger if you quantify or add numbers to it. With numbers, you can give the hiring manager a clearer picture of your accomplishments while assisting customers in you previous jobs.

Let’s examine how this applicant quantified his resume:

• Handle 90+ calls daily, with duties including signing up new customers, retrieving customer data, presenting relevant product information, and canceling services
• Received an average 85% customer satisfaction rating to date, 15% higher than company average
• Suggested a new tactic to persuade canceling customers to stay with the company, resulting in a 5% decrease in cancellations
• Trained two new employees in how to use Kayako, entering customer data and organizing customer interaction logs

Why Are These Good Examples?

As you can see, Andrew quantified how many staff members he trained, how many calls he handled daily, how much he decreased cancellations by, and the customer satisfaction rating he achieved. This helps the hiring manager understand his skills and the scope of his abilities more quickly.

Think about your own work experience, and where you can quantify it. How many customers did you deal with daily? Did you receive customer commendations, or achieve a high customer care rating? If you doing sales, how much did you earn per day? Were your earnings higher than company average — and by how much? Did you train any employees – how many?

Note: The word “trained” is an excellent resume builder to include. If you trained other employees, it indicates that you have management ability, and a lot of experience.

An Example of a Poorly Written Resume Bullet Point:

Here’s how you shouldn’t write your bullet points:

Poorly Written Job Description

•  Promote extended warranties to customers

That is a weak job description for a customer service sales resume. Ideally, here’s how it SHOULD be written (pay attention to the bolding):

Well-Written Job Description

•  Promote extended warranties to customers with a 65% success rate, fully 10% higher than the company average

Step 4. Include Action Verbs for a Customer Service Resume

Action verbs add a will add “punch” to your resume that will help you stand out from the crowd. Here are a few action verbs commonly associated with customer care:

Answer	Listen	Resolve
Communicate	Maintain	Respond
Conduct	Manage	Sold
Consult	Post	Supply
Implement	Provide	Train

Need more action verbs? We have you covered! Stop by the longest list of action verbs in the universe.

Remember that the resume is only the first step in your job search — check out our blog to learn about cover letter and thank you writing, interview skills, and more.