5 customer service resume examples to help you get the job

Starting a career in customer service can help you build valuable, transferable skills that will be useful if you want to change careers down the road. This includes communication, problem-solving, and sales, to name just a few.

You’ll also gain an opportunity to collaborate with diverse members of a team since customer service reps rarely work solo.

But how do you get a job as a customer service rep?

Creating a customer service resume that stands out from the competition can be challenging, whether you have experience in the field or not.

However, you don’t have to stay stuck staring at your blank resume. Keep reading to learn how you can write a perfect resume and improve your customer service job search, including five examples that will show you what works and what doesn’t.

What skills should I put on my resume for customer service?

Let’s look at what skills should be included in your resume if you want to improve your chances of landing a job.

Your customer service skills are important for potential employers. 93% of service teams agree that customers have higher expectations than ever before when it comes to customer service.

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This means that even if you haven’t worked in customer service yet, any skills and relevant experience that can improve the customer journey will be considered valuable.

Here are some resume skills you can include as bullet points. Make sure to add both hard and soft skills to your resume.

• Positive attitude: Customers may be having a bad day, and having a positive attitude during interactions will go a long way toward making them feel like they matter to the business. This is important even when dealing with customer complaints.

• Organizational skills: You’ll have several customers and tickets to manage. It’s important to have at least some degree of organizational skills to stay on top of it all.

• Upselling and cross-selling: A major part of customer service is discussing all the potential ways you can improve the customer experience by offering related services, either via upsells or cross-sells. This is why sales knowledge can be such a great asset when applying for a customer service job. It shows that you're able to develop product knowledge enough not just to help but to proactively sell.

• Problem-solving and decision-making: Not all customer issues will be cut and dry. The more you excel at finding your own solutions without delegating to other reps or your manager, the more valuable you become as an employee. This will also help you keep your customers satisfied, especially if you can anticipate their needs.

• **Communication and interpersonal skills: **Support reps need to be personable during customer inquiries and know how to communicate effectively. Most of your job will consist of communicating with people. Strong listening skills come in handy as well.

• High attention to detail: Depending on the type of products or services your company offers, there may be a lot of details included in a customer ticket. Knowing how to pay attention to the smallest details will help you troubleshoot issues that may not seem obvious at first glance.

• **Time management: **When you have several tickets to handle, knowing how to carefully manage your time can be an asset. If you’re efficient and productive, you’ll save the company money.

• Experience with telecommunication positions in call centers: Even if telecommunications isn’t customer service experience per se, it does help with communication skills and sales experience.

• Improving customer loyalty: If you have a track record of improving customer loyalty through your interactions, you’ll be highly valuable to the company. When you solve a customer’s problem in a way that increases loyalty, you’re adding value, not just putting out fires.

• Customer service ticket software experience: This can be experience in popular software solutions like Freshdesk or Zendesk. 42% of companies use a help desk system to empower their customer service team.

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How to write an effective summary for a customer service resume

A great resume summary, or objective, is one of the most important sections of your resume.

It helps to know what priorities your employer has in mind for the customer support rep they want to hire. An eye-catching resume summary that takes those priorities into consideration will help you get past the applicant tracking system, hook the recruiter, and keep them interested as they read further.

Creating a great customer experience is the top priority at 48% of recruiters.

The second priority is customer retention at 45%, and the third is customer success at 41%.

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If you have professional experience in these three areas, highlight them in your summary.

When writing your summary, keep it brief. It should be no longer than one to three sentences. Any other relevant info you want to share should go in your work history sections.

Your summary should also highlight the most relevant and impressive skills and qualities that make you stand out from other applicants.

While it’s important to mention skills that are at the top of a recruiters’ priorities, you should also add anything else that makes you unique.

Include your biggest accomplishment as a customer service professional, or, if you don’t have any experience, add something that relates to the customer experience in some way.

For example, suppose you’re incredibly productive and can get more done without sacrificing the quality of your work. In that case, this could be an excellent point to add since agent productivity is a priority for 13% of recruiters.

If you’ve found ways of cutting back costs for previous companies you worked for, that’s another big priority for 35% of recruiters.

Make sure to use action verbs to make the text in your resume more dynamic.

5 Customer service resume examples to inspire your own

Want to see real examples of customer service resumes in action? Let’s dissect five resume samples to help you make yours even better.

Customer service resume example: relevant experience

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Why this resume works well

This resume shows a detailed breakdown of past job experience, even if not always directly related to customer service. One job is related, while the other (digital media specialist) is unrelated but still relevant.

In the skills section the candidate highlights the skills she acquired from this job that are relevant to customer service positions.

For example, she understands that clients have unique needs and knows how to explain promotions and extended services. This can go a long way to guide customers through unique problems and cross-sell relevant solutions to them.

Her summary showcases how she can benefit a potential employer. This candidate can build rapport with clientele, but she can also drive sales while keeping corporate values in mind.

Notice that in the education section, she adds research and critical thinking to her list of skills. Even if this doesn’t come from a job, it’s still relevant information that should be added to the resume.

Customer service resume example: skill matching

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Why this resume works well

Elizabeth takes the time to explain why she is a strong candidate. She has excellent assessment skills, which will help her quickly figure out a customer’s problem, but she can also suggest relevant services, which ties into cross-selling.

In addition, she also explains her goals as a customer service representative. She’s looking for a job that will allow her to leverage her experience in social work with a progressive company.

At first glance, social work may not seem related to customer service, but this former occupation falls into the realm of communication, interpersonal skills, and problem-solving.

This candidate has no customer service experience, but this is still a strong customer service resume for an entry-level position. It’s the perfect example of how you can leverage your relevant skills and experience to make them customer-centric. She even includes volunteer experience and the professional value she can offer thanks to these skills.

Customer service resume example: proven performance

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Why this resume works well

The first detail that stands out with this resume is the specific, data-driven accomplishments. We know he helped increase the customer satisfaction rating by 4% in two years and participated in increasing customer retention rates.

Those metrics provide solid evidence that this candidate not only has experience in the field but has also achieved major success that could correlate to a positive customer experience.

From the company’s perspective, this person could even help troubleshoot issues in the customer service process itself.

This is a customer service manager resume, which is more high-level than the other customer service representative resume examples we’ve examined. However, it still showcases how to position relevant experience expertly.

The skills included are relevant, and adding details like conflict resolution and talent development creates a unique approach to the customer service position. He also provides a clear and concise summary that showcases his ability to go above and beyond simple customer service.

Customer service resume example: indirect work experience

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Why this resume works well

This is another example of how other work experiences that aren’t directly tied to customer service can still prove to be valuable on a professional resume.

Piecemal takes parallel experience from other jobs and explains why this will make him a great customer service rep. For example, his experience as a production manager includes coaching and training, which can be helpful skills when guiding customers through issues.

He also highlights his top sales experience at his previous company, which showcases his ability to upsell and cross-sell to customers.

Customer service resume example: detailed experience

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Why this resume works well

Emily’s resume includes specific and detailed experience. This includes providing concrete numbers, like working with more than 50 customers in a day or increasing customer satisfaction by 8%.

Including this information showcases her high level of productivity. Combined with her skill and experience in customer service and her ability to help customers determine what products they need, Emily proves herself to be a valuable asset for the right company.

She also highlights the importance of staying up to date with current technology. This is important for companies that use help desk or CRM technology to serve customers.

Craft a powerful customer service resume to get the job

Now you have concrete customer service resume templates that you can pull from to make resume writing a breeze.

If you have years of experience in customer service, it’s important to highlight the most important aspects of that experience as it relates to the job description in question. This will help you stand out from other applicants and prove your ability to meet customer needs.

Even without previous employment as a customer service rep, you can pull from other aspects of your life to make your resume and cover letter attractive and valuable to hiring managers.

Looking for your next job in customer service? Find open opportunities in customer service in the Jobcase job search and check out the Getting Hired Resource Center for more career advice.