Customer Service Resume Example

As a customer service representative, you might work in fields like tech, engineering, retail, medical, insurance, B2B, real estate, and more. You need to be ready to handle calls from customers or clients who are unsure how to use the product or service, or possibly even upset. Your calm, collected demeanor and expertise with the product is what will turn a poor experience into a great one for that caller.

Naturally, you want to communicate these strengths and abilities to a potential employer. This article will cover which sections and information to include on your customer service resume to help increase your chances of scoring interviews and getting hired for your target position.

Resume Sections To Include

Potential employers will likely be looking for specific information on your customer service resume, such as your past experience, your education, and your hard and soft skills. Here’s some examples how to share that information effectively:

Name and Contact Information

Start by listing your full name and contact information in your resume header. Include your phone number, a professional email address, and your LinkedIn URL. Before adding your LinkedIn URL to your resume, ensure that your profile is up to date, you have a respectable amount of connections on the site, your profile picture is a professional headshot, and you have set up your custom URL.

You can also include your address or your general location, your personal website, and/or social media links if they are relevant to the position. For example, if you have made a series of YouTube videos that troubleshoot common issues with a product that you know very well, you might include the link when applying for customer service roles.

Resume Summary or Objective

Next, write a compelling resume summary or objective as the introductory section of your resume. Use a resume summary if you already have some experience as a customer service representative, or an objective if you are new to the professional world or making a career change.

In a resume summary, you’ll essentially be distilling your entire professional history down into a few sentences. Mention how much experience you have, your current title or role, your most impressive accomplishments, and some of your key skills.

For a resume objective, you won’t have experience to lean on, but you can still outline your skills and ways that you will bring value to the company, plus you can outline your professional goals. Make it clear that your goals align with the company’s.

In either a summary or an objective, mention the company and the specific role that you are applying for by name. For example:

Summary

Energetic and driven bilingual customer service representative with 4+ years of experience handling high call volumes while maintaining a 98%+ satisfaction rating, resolving 50+ customer tickets per week, and training new team members. Skilled in using and maintaining a variety of inventory and sales databases. Excited to leverage photography passion and industry experience to join the Nikon customer service team.

Work Experience

Then, add your relevant work experience. For each position, list your job title, the name and location of the company you worked for, and the dates you worked there. Underneath, add 3-5 bullet points that outline your job duties, your greatest achievements in the role, and any awards or accolades that you’ve won. For example:

Work Experience

April 2020 - Present Customer Service Representative, PGH Photo Supply Co., Las Vegas, NV

• Resolved 20+ customer questions/issues per day with a 98% satisfaction rating
• Onboarded and trained 4 new representatives
• Implemented new automated phone menu to streamline customer service requests

May 2017 - April 2020 Customer Service Representative, Cavendish Flatware Company, Las Vegas, NV

• Educated potential customers about Cavendish's products
• Resolved 50+ tickets per week
• Built brand trust and authority by providing efficient customer service

Education

If you have at least a few years of experience, you can keep your education section brief. If you have a college degree, list the name of the degree that you earned, the name and location of the university, and the date you graduated (or your anticipated date of graduation). You do not need to include your high school information unless that is your highest level of formal education.

Most employers will be more interested in reading about your more recent experience and accomplishments, so prioritize your work experience over education in terms of the amount of detail that you include.

Education

Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, University of Nevada, Las Vegas - Las Vegas, NV

• Graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2017

Skills

Next, outline your skills on your resume. It’s often easiest to break this into two subsections: hard skills and soft skills.

Hard Skills for Customer Service

Hard skills are technical, job-specific skills that are easy to define, measure, and teach. For a customer service representative, these types of skills might include database management and maintenance, typing, multi-line telephone experience, cashiering, using specific sales and inventory software, data entry, and so forth. You can also opt to include a rating system that indicates which of your skills are the strongest. For example:

Hard Skills

Database maintenance - Excellent

Multi-line telephone skills - Excellent

Freshsales - Excellent

Pipedrive - Very Good

Netsuite - Excellent

Soft Skills for Customer Service

Soft skills are often applicable across multiple industries, and they are more difficult to teach and assess. Customer service soft skills might include things like communication, problem solving, time management, conflict resolution, phone etiquette, persuasion, negotiation, upselling, and so forth. Here’s an example of a soft skills section:

Soft Skills

Upselling - Excellent

Negotiation - Excellent

Persuasion - Excellent

Communication - Excellent

Conflict resolution - Excellent

Optional Resume Sections

Finally, you can add optional resume sections if you have space left over and if you have additional information to share that is relevant to your job application. These sections can include things like languages, hobbies and interests, volunteer work, internships, awards and accolades, publications, certifications, and so forth. However, avoid simply listing details to fill space - ensure that they are pertinent in some way or at least serve to give a potential employer a better picture of you as an individual.

For example, as a customer service representative, speaking another language can be hugely beneficial as you can then serve a larger population of customers. And, in this sample resume, the candidate has indicated that his personal passions include photography, which is important since he’s applying to be a customer service representative for a camera company. Including photography in his hobbies and interests section serves to reinforce his skills and familiarity with the company’s products and customer base.

Languages

Spanish - Conversational

Hobbies and Interests

• Photography
• Playing in a Recreational Basketball League
• Coaching Youth Basketball

Tips For Writing a Powerful Customer Service Resume

Here are a few final tips to help you organize your resume and boost your chances of scoring interviews:

Use Reverse Chronological Format

For someone applying to customer service roles, the reverse chronological resume format is generally the most effective. This format allows potential employers to easily scan your information and see your most important details right away. Within each section, list all of your entries with the most recent item first, and work backwards in time from there. So for example, start with your current or most recent position at the top of your work experience section, and then list your previous roles underneath.

Tailor Your Resume to Each Position

Rather than using a generic resume to apply to every position, take the time to tailor your resume to each job that you apply for. Mention the company and the position by name in your resume summary or objective, and read the job description carefully to identify key words and phrases that the employer has used to indicate what they are looking for in a customer service representative. Then use those same keywords on your resume to show that you are highly qualified for the position.

Tailoring your resume in this way shows employers that you have taken the time to read the job posting carefully and customize your resume. It will also help your resume pass automated applicant tracking system (ATS) scans, which boosts your chances of being called for an interview.

Quantify Your Achievements

Finally, quantify your achievements with data and numbers whenever possible. For a customer service role, this might mean writing specifically how many calls or tickets you handled each day or week, the percentage by which your work boosted sales or reduced overhead costs, your customer satisfaction rating, how many times you’ve been recognized for stellar work, and so forth. Quantifying your achievements in this way makes them more impactful and backs up your skills and experience in a concrete way.

Key Takeaways

When writing a customer service resume, use a reverse chronological format to highlight your technical abilities and interpersonal skills. Be sure to include a resume header with your name and contact information, a resume summary or objective, your work experience, your education, your hard and soft skills, and any optional sections that are relevant and useful. Always tailor your resume to each job posting and quantify your accomplishments as much as possible.

Create your customer service resume today!