How to Write an Exceptional Customer Service Resume

Here are some key skills to highlight on your resume that will help you get a job in customer service and advance your career.

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Customer Service Resume

While getting entry-level customer service jobs can be relatively easy, getting promotions within the industry usually isn’t as easy. To earn promotions and advance your career in customer service, you need to develop a stellar customer service resume. 

To help you stand out to hiring managers and establish a successful career, we’ve put together a list of essential skills for customer service.

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What Are Customer Service Skills?

Customer service skills are the skills necessary to communicate and empathize with customers to solve their problems. It requires patience and understanding to effectively resolve customer problems or complaints and ensure customer satisfaction.
 
There are several different types of customer service positions that might require different skills. For example, there are customer service specialists, call center specialists, customer support agents, and customer service managers.
 
While most of these positions require similar skills, there are ways to individualize your skills depending on what job you’re applying for. Let’s go over the top five customer service skills employers look for in a potential candidate.

What Are the Top Five Customer Service Skills?

When hiring managers or recruiters look at your customer service resume, they’ll be looking for a few key skills that a customer service professional should have. Here are the top five customer service resume skills that hiring managers look for:

  • Effective Communication skills
  • Technology Skills
  • Empathy
  • Interpersonal Skills
  • Knowledge/Problem Solving

Customer service representatives have a number of soft skills and hard skills that you can list on your resume. Listed above are some of the common soft skills. However, you’ll want to also include some hard skills or technical skills. We’ll go over some of these in the next section.


How to Highlight Customer Service Skills on Your Resume?

If you’re not sure where to start with formatting your resume, then it may be helpful to look at customer service resume examples or start with a resume template.
 
Before you start writing your professional resume, read the job description, and see what the employer is looking for in a candidate. Then, think about your skills and consider what skills you are looking to develop.
 
In the skills section of your resume, make sure you include both hard skills and soft skills using action verbs. Listed above are five of the most important soft skills. However, some hard skills you should consider are:

  • Microsoft Office and Google Suite
  • Conflict resolution skills
  • Telecommunication
  • Building customer loyalty
  • Time management skills
  • Responding to customer inquiries
  • Social media skills
  • Familiarity with CRM systems

The list of customer service skills goes on and on. However, to make your resume brief and easy to read, include your most relevant skills. Additionally, make sure to tailor your resume to the job you are applying for. If they are looking for a candidate with experience in Microsoft Excel and you possess that skill, make sure to include it on your resume.

Additional Elements of a Customer Service Resume

Once you’ve introduced yourself with your name, contact information, and a resume summary, you should talk about your work experience.
 
In your work experience section, start with your most recent position and work backwards to your previous jobs. Include your position title, years of experience, and a brief description of your job duties during that role.
 
Once you’ve covered your work history, the other sections you should include are your education, certifications, and accomplishments. For your education section, you can list your college or high school education, including the name of the school you attended and your year of graduation. You may also include your GPA or other notable accomplishments during that time period.
 
Then, you can move on to talk about any relevant certifications or acknowledgments from previous employers or other organizations. Make sure to keep these sections concise and relevant to the job you are applying for.


FAQ: Customer Service Resume

Q: How can I improve my customer service skills?

To improve your customer service skills, it’s important to stay positive and refrain from saying things like “no”, “I can’t”, “I don’t know”, or other similar statements. While working to improve customer satisfaction, practice active listening while trying to empathize with the customer. Additionally, it’s crucial to know the product you’re representing like the back of your hand. After all, if you’re not up to date on the product you’re working with, customers can become frustrated, and misunderstandings may arise quickly.

Q: Why is customer service so important?

Customer service is so important because many customers become easily frustrated with a company if they aren’t helpful. In fact, around 86% of customers will quit doing business with a company due to a bad experience. Staying positive and extending a genuine helping hand to customers can ensure customer loyalty, increased retention, and high satisfaction ratings.

Q: What skills shouldn’t you put on a customer service resume?

While most skills are important, not all of them are worth including on your resume. For example, it’s not necessary to list basic or irrelevant skills that most people possess and perform on a daily basis. Skills such as data entry or document management are quite basic, and most customer service jobs already expect these qualities. Instead, include skills that set you apart from other applicants. 

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