The customer service department operates as the nervous centre of any company. By handling any and all issues the customers of that company have, customer service representatives can help to boost sales and performance, in addition to building the company’s reputation as a friendly, easy organization to work with.

Whether you’re brand-new to the workforce or whether you’re an old hand, you’re bound to find a few tips inside that will elevate your resume from decent right the way up to outstanding. In addition to advice about formatting, what recruiters look for, and the relevant hard & soft skills to consider listing, we’ll also talk you through how to write compelling resume objectives and resume summary statements. 

At the end of the article you’ll even learn how to stand out from the crowd, which can make all the difference when you’re competing against a large number of other candidates. 

Multiple Template Examples

How to Write the Perfect Customer Service Representative Resume

How to Format It

Past experience is one of the best indicators of whether somebody will be able to handle the demands of a customer service representative position or not. If you’ve already worked in a similar role, you’ll have a much better idea of what’s required than somebody who hasn’t. That’s why we recommend a chronological layout as the ideal way to format your resume for the best possible results.

Putting your work history in the forefront of your application will show a recruiter that you understand better than your competition how important prior experience is to the role. As for other formatting details, it’s best to keep it simple, elegant, and — most vitally of all — easy to read. 

The recruiter will be going through a lot of different applications, and the last thing they’ll want is to come across a resume with a mess of different fonts and sizes. Make your resume easy to read, and the person potentially hiring you will thank you for it.

What Recruiters Will Look For

When they examine resumes for a customer services representative, recruiters will have a few different things in mind. It’s important to understand what the employee looks like, so that you can try your best to emulate it in the resume you end up producing. 

There are no two ways about it: being a customer service rep is a tough gig. Not only do you need to possess in-depth knowledge about the product or service your company provides, you also need to be able to solve problems on the go, function more or less autonomously, and somehow maintain a friendly facade for hours upon hours at a time. 

However, if you’ve got the right set of traits and characteristics, you’ll be able to provide your employers with an invaluable service. Here’s what recruiters value most highly in prospective customer service representatives:

1. Excellent People Skills 

It’s not enough to be pretty good at speaking to people — you need to excel. The reason for this is that if a customer has a bad experience with customer service, it’s likely to turn them off working with that company ever again. The stakes are high, and you need to be able to live up to the challenge and deal with the pressure on a daily basis.

2. Problem-Solving Acumen 

You can expect to spend practically your entire work day solving problems, so it’s imperative that the recruiter understands you’re able to come up with creative, effective solutions on the fly. 

They’ll be on the lookout for people who relish the challenge of solving a problem in real time. If you can portray yourself as somebody who loves sinking their teeth into any given issue and resolving it elegantly, you’ll jump right to the top of the pile. 

Which Hard & Soft Skills to Include and How to Do It Correctly

In the case of a customer service representative’s resume, the distinction between hard and soft skills can be harder to define than with some other jobs. Part of the reason for this is down to the fact that some of what might count as a soft skill in other professions, such as interpersonal communication, is in fact a hard skill for customer service reps. As a result, you might feel confused about how to actually split your skills up on the resume itself.

Fortunately, there’s a solution. Even though it might not look like it at first, customer service representatives have hard and soft skills just like any other profession. Here’s the best way to mention the relevant abilities you have on your resume in order to prove that you know what you’re talking about:

Hard Skills

The hard skills for customer service representatives generally relate to the kind of technical work you’ll be doing throughout the course of a regular day on the job. As such, they often involve being able to manipulate a wide range of computer programs, as well as being able to solve any problems and resolve any conflicts that may arise.

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office
• Confidence in using a computer for a wide variety of miscellaneous tasks 
• Data entry 
• Problem-solving ability 
• Effective communication 
• Competence with CRM software (such as Freshesk, Pipeliner, or Salesforce Desk)
• Soft Skills 

Soft Skills

A customer service rep’s soft skills tend to involve having the perfect attitude and mindset for helping out the customers you’ll be dealing with. You want the person hiring you to have no doubt in their mind that you realize how tricky the job can be, but also that you’re up to the task.

• Empathy
• Friendliness
• Patience
• Result-oriented attitude  

How to List Your Previous Jobs and Work Experience, Software Used Etc.

Listing your prior work experience — as well as including details such as the kind of software you’re used to working with — isn’t always straightforward, but there are a few simple steps you can take to make sure you’re giving yourself the best chance of being taken seriously. 

Plenty of people struggle with including digital skills on a traditional resume, so it presents an excellent opportunity to really impress whoever’s going to be hiring you.

The ideal way to list your previous jobs and work experience is to simply include them according to the guidelines of the chronological layout. It’s best to keep the descriptions short and snappy, since the recruiter will likely skim through them at first before returning to read again more closely. 

If you can keep this section of your resume concise, you’ll be giving yourself a chance of capturing the recruiter’s attention sooner than your competition.

When it comes to listing the software you’re experienced using, it’s best to include it in the description of the work experience rather than in a section of its own. For one thing, this helps to ground it in a wider context; for another, it’s more elegant than creating an entire other section. 

How to Write a Resume Objectives and Examples of This

Writing a resume objective for a customer service representative role is your chance to show precisely how well you understand the details of the position. Your objective isn’t the time to be vague, nor is it the time to make sweeping statements about how you think you could do the job well. 

Rather, it’s the best chance you’ll get in the entire application to demonstrate that you’re the right person for the role because you know what it requires inside and out. 

Ideally, you’re going to want to first scan through the listing to get an idea of what they’re looking for, and then use that information to your advantage by crafting a customized, to-the-point objective statement. Here are a couple examples of excellent resume objectives — notice how direct the language is, and how general information is avoided as much as possible.

1. Focused, solution-focused customer service representative applying for that role in XYZ Inc. I have spent two years working in the field, and I prioritize being able to solve problems on the go while always maintaining a friendly, approachable demeanour. Added experience in leading small teams from previous positions.

2. Friendly and passionate people person seeking the role of customer service representative in Example LLC. I am used to spending long hours walking people through solutions to their problems, and would welcome the opportunity to expand my skill set in that area by taking on a new challenge and pushing my own boundaries. 

How to Write a Resume Summary and Examples of This

In contrast to a resume objective, which requires a dispassionate voice and focusing on the job itself, a resume summary requires you to convince the reader that you can bring real value to their company if they take you on. You’re going to want to highlight your achievements and past successes as a means of making it clear that you’ll be able to influence the entire organization in a positive way. 

The language used in a resume summary should be more persuasive, more active, and altogether less dry than the voice you’d use to write a resume objective. Below you’ll find a couple examples of well-written resume summaries, each of which focuses on communicating just how much value the company will get if they hire that particular candidate. 

1. Highly experienced customer service representative interested in bringing all the knowledge I’ve gained over 6+ years to ABC Corp. I’m passionate about helping people to resolve issues they’ve been having that they find troubling, and thanks to my long history of educating myself and broadening my own horizons, I’m confident that I could find elegant solutions to common problems and revitalize the customer service department itself.

2. Professional customer service rep keen to take on a new challenge and pick up new skills. In my most recent professional role I was able to streamline the way my employers handled customer service complaints by brainstorming an entirely new framework for dealing with common issues. I would welcome the opportunity to bring that same problem-solving focus to your organization, and use all of my experience to make your own processes more straightforward and elegant.

How to List Any Additional Details, like Certifications, Volunteering Experience, Etc.

By putting additional details like certifications or volunteering experience into your resume, you’ll be able to further impress the recruiter, particularly if they already like the look of your application from the hard and soft skills you’ve already worked in. Given that the position of being a customer service representative requires a large amount of interpersonal intelligence, it makes sense to prioritize prior experience that involved working closely with other people. Here are some of the ways you can include your additional experience for maximum impact.

1. Volunteering

Volunteering is an impressive thing to feature on any resume, but with a role that involves dealing with people to the extent that being a customer service rep does, it’s more important than ever. Describing your experiences volunteering in as few words as possible will imply that the experience speaks for itself, which displays a confidence that any would-be employer would be happy to see in an employee. 

Focus on volunteering roles that involved conflict resolution and problem-solving to link it in with the rest of your resume as effectively as possible.

2. Hobbies & Interests

Your hobbies and interests could play an even bigger role in applying to be a customer service representative than any online courses you’ve taken. Because throughout the course of your daily work you’ll be interacting with people regularly, if you can mention any pastimes you have that involve social skills you’ll be able to edge out a lot of the competition. 

Subtly painting yourself as a people person will “click” with the recruiter reading your resume, so focus on social activities that demonstrate how much you get a kick out of interacting with other people.

3. Online Certifications

While perhaps not as important as the above two sections in the case of a customer support position, online certifications nevertheless display drive, commitment, and an autodidactic attitude that’ll serve you well should you get the job. 

You’ll have to be able to figure out a lot of your own solutions to problems, so proving that you know how to educate yourself — and that you have the determination required to see a course through to its conclusion — will make a big impression on whoever’s digging through the pile of resumes to find the perfect candidate.

How to Write a Resume When You Have No Experience

Writing a resume when you have no experience is always a daunting proposition. The good news in this case, however, is that working as a customer service representative can often be an entry-level position for which you don’t necessarily need several years of experience to make a good impression. 

It’s possible to compete with candidates who have a much longer track record than you do, but in order to do so you need to make it crystal clear that you understand what’s involved with the job, and that you possess the right combination of skills and personality traits to succeed should you be hired.

Too often, people write being a customer service rep off as being an easy or straightforward job. In reality it can be incredibly challenging, since you’ll be required to present a friendly, knowledgeable impression at all times. This can take heroic levels of patience as well as a fiery inner drive, since if you’re not passionate about helping people out the chances are you won’t be able to make the job work on a regular basis. 

To offset your lack of experience, focus heavily on the aspects of your personality that make you an ideal fit for being a customer service representative. Skills can be learned, but there’s only so much you can do about the kind of person you are. 

If you can paint the picture of an empathic, patient, and above all friendly persona, the recruiter will instinctively feel like you’re a good fit for the job, making them all the more likely to overlook your lack of work history in the area. 

How to Target Your Resume for a Specific Application

When you’re considering how to craft your resume, you have to always remember the fact that you’re essentially going to be represented by one or two pages in a colossal stack of other pages. Bearing that in mind, one way to help mark yourself out from the rest of the herd is to target your resume to the specific position you’re applying to. 

The more precise you can make it, the better, as that will immediately resonate with the recruiter reading your resume. One excellent way to target your resume for the application in question is to watch out for a few key terms, which will indicate what exactly will be required of you in that particular job. 

Here are some common concepts you’ll find in customer service rep job listings, with a few of the most popular words to keep an eye out for listed beside them:

1. Problem-Solving Ability

There’s no two ways about it: as a customer service rep, you’ll need to spend the majority of your time resolving problems, many of which might well be tricky. Some of the key terms to watch out for with regards to your problem solving ability include solve, brainstorm, resolve, and analyse. If you see any of those in the job post, pay particular attention to how you describe your own problem-solving abilities, since it’ll probably be a key aspect of the job itself.

2. Conflict Resolution

You’ll be dealing with customers who, for one reason or another, aren’t happy with the service they’ve been getting from your company. This means that much of the time, you’ll have to interact with people who are already somewhat annoyed or put out. Words like level-headed, equanimity / equanimous, and patient will indicate that the employers prioritize conflict resolution skills. 

Be sure to emphasize that aspect of your application if you come across any of those, and you’ll already be ahead of your competition when the time comes for the recruiter to review all of the candidates. 

How to Make Your Resume Stand Out

As a customer service representative, it’s a given that a strong candidate needs to be good with people and able to interact in a calm, logical way. You can assume, therefore, that most of the people you’ll be competing with for the job will focus on those aspects of their overall package in the resumes they write. 

This presents you with an excellent opportunity to get out ahead of the crowd, since one often overlooked aspect of customer service roles is the manner in which those employees need to solve problems. 

The majority of the time, you’ll be on your own with only your wits and your own internal resources to help you solve the issue at hand. If you can focus on how well you teach yourself different things, you’ll be making it clear that you truly understand what the position requires. 

Customer service representatives need to be self-sufficient, since they can’t all run to their manager at every problem that arises. Prove yourself to be a person who enjoys the challenge of educating themselves, and you stand a great chance of making your resume stand out to the recruiter’s eye.

How Resumebuild can Help You to Write an Outstanding Customer Service Representative Resume

You might well feel a little intimidated by the sheer amount of information above, but fortunately there’s an intuitive, user-friendly tool you can use to craft the perfect resume with a minimum of hassle. The resume building tool provided by Resumebuild offers all of the functionality you could ever need, including a huge range of ready-made, world-class templates to choose from.

The tool also includes hundreds upon hundreds of pre-written samples, so you can check how you’re doing in comparison with the industry-standard guidelines as you progress through the resume creation process. Using the resume building tool couldn’t be simpler — all you need to do is pick the template that looks most appealing to you and begin filling in your own personal touches, based on the guidance given in the article above. Once it’s all ready, you’re just a click away from downloading your finished resume and getting your job search going in earnest.