Customer Service Resume Sample (Skills, Objective & Tips)

Surfing through big data of resume tips and samples, but you can’t make sense of it all? You haven’t found your benchmark yet, I suppose. But you’re here, so you’re very close.

With my customer service resume how-to guide, your resume will be the one recruiters won’t cast aside. 

Let’s increase your LTV.

This guide will show you: 

• A customer service resume sample better than 9 out of 10 other resumes.
• How to write a customer service resume that will land you more interviews.
• Tips and examples of how to put customer service skills on a resume.
• How to write your customer service resume objective to get any job you want.

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Grab the list of contents to jump to the chapters:

1. Format Your Customer Service Resume First
2. Write About Your Customer Service Experience on a Resume
3. Create Education Section in Your Resume
4. List Your Customer Service Skills
5. Include Additional Sections in Your Customer Service Resume
6. Add a Customer Service Resume Objective or Summary
7. Attach a Cover Letter to Your Customer Service Resume

Customer Service Resume Sample

This is how to write a job-winning customer service resume:

1. Format Your Customer Service Resume First

You know the power of a well-formatted template, don’t you?

So without further ado, let’s format your resume template to make sure the reader gets the important bits real quick:

• Create a header as if you were building a customer’s profile. Include your personal information, such as your full name, email address, and phone number. Leave off your age, gender, photo, religious beliefs, etc.
• Add your LinkedIn profile handle to the heading. Recruiters tend to browse through social media accounts anyway.
• Divide your page into sections: professional statement, experience, education, skills, and leave room for additional information.
• Choose a legible font, like Calibri, Arial, or Verdana. Make them between 10 and 12 points in font size.
• Set enough space on the sides with 1” margins and split the lines with 1–1.15 line spacing. Left-align the text.
• Use bullet points for the details under each section and write them in reverse-chronological order (i.e. starting with the most recent experience).
• Stick to one page. 
• Name your file like this: JobTitle_Resume_YourFullName.pdf.
• Export the file to PDF format unless the recruiter stated otherwise in the job ad. 

Read more: Resume Layout: Everything You Need to Know [+Examples]

2. Describe Your Customer Service Experience on Your Resume

First, we need to take care of your FCR because employers want it high. And so should you. How do you make a resume that shows off your knowledge, though? You do that peppering achievements all over your work experience section. Employers don’t follow faint ideas of success. They need to see real results. So show them.

This is how you can do that:

Customer Service Resume Examples: Work Experience

Yikes.

The good example provides an exquisite brand experience to your employer, which is the exact opposite of what the other does. And there’s no surprise! The second example lists mere responsibilities which every hiring managers knows. Achievements not only sound better, they, in fact, get you hired.

This is how to write a work experience section full of accomplishments:

• Read the job description closely to pick up the keywords relevant to the position, e.g., customer experience, ticket routing, retention, and help desk.
• Work them into your achievement statements. You need that for the Applicant Tracking Software to give you a high score and help your customer service resume land on a recruiter’s desk. (Yes, they get their hands on your application only later in the process.)
• Start each statement with an action verb that showcases your strengths, e.g., implemented, resolved, managed, or communicated.
• Quantify your achievements to boost impact, especially if you’re writing a customer service manager resume. You need the results to pop like crazy.
• Write up to six bullets and single out one for the key achievement you’re most proud of. For the other gigs, list only three to four achievements.
• Use present tense for the current job and past tense for the rest.

Now, some juice for the inexperienced.

Check out the below examples:

Customer Service Job Description for a Resume: No-Experience Examples

You, too, should include achievements even though you don’t have direct experience in customer service.

You might look into transferable skills, which refer to the skillset you can transfer between jobs, such as communication, interpersonal, or leadership skills. Recruiters can read between the lines, so turn it to your advantage instead of thinking about what you’re lacking.

3. Create Education Section in Your Resume

You don’t need a degree to write a call center resume sample, and you also don’t need one to become a customer service rep. But your future employer might still ask you to provide some proof of higher education. 

How do you write it in a customer service resume?

Let’s look into my knowledge base:

Resume Sample for Customer Service: Education

It’s not difficult as it might’ve seemed, is it?

Follow these basic rules for writing the education section, and you’ll end up just fine:

• Here, too, go for the reverse-chronological order of degrees. Place the highest first.
• If you graduated from college or university, don’t mention your high school education. It becomes irrelevant in this case.
• Write your degree at the top of the section and follow with the school name and location.
• List your attendance dates.
• Add extracurricular activities you’ve participated in, relevant coursework, or awards you received. Let the employer see you’re an engaged individual. Plus, you’ll use more keywords and become even more likeable to the ATS.

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4. List Your Customer Service Skills

Each company has a certain service culture and values every agent should share. They usually speak to the qualities and qualifications you’ll be asked to bring to the company. And most of them are listed in the job ad that inspired you to apply for the job. Make use of it and create space in your skills sections to list the qualities desired by your employer.

So, first, do your due diligence and read about the company you’re writing your job application for and identify their values. Make sure you read the job ad a couple of times, too.

Tailoring this section to the job description is superbly important. Don’t type in words and phrases at random. Be selective and while reading the job ad, pick those skills that refer to the qualifications and qualities.

Second, include the marked keywords in your skills section. 5–10 skills is completely fine. That’s how recruiters and hiring managers verify your profile at the beginning of the process and check whether you’d be a good cultural fit.

No matter how much experience you have as a customer service professional, the customer service skills mean you are prepared to handle every client-facing situation with grace.

Here’s the list of customer service skills you could pick from to put on your resume:

Customer Service Skills for a Resume

• Active listening
• Attention to detail
• Positive approach
• Complaint resolution
• Patience
• Calm presence
• Responsibility
• Communication
• Adaptability
• Empathy
• Persuasion
• Negotiation
• Problem-solving
• Decision-making
• Critical thinking
• Product knowledge
• Cross/Up-selling
• ERP
• ServiceNow
• Salesforce
• Zendesk
• JIRA
• MS Office
• G-Suite

Now head to the below example:

Skills for Customer Service: Resume Section

5. Include Additional Sections in Your Customer Service Resume

OK, so you’ve included the required information, and now what? Now it’s time you beefed up your resume with some additional sections. It can give you a pretty boost in the ATS scoring thanks to more keywords used. Plus, you’re getting the chance of being recognized by the hiring manager for the extra activities you’re doing outside work or school.

Give your recruiter a more personalized experience by adding other sections to your resume, such as:

• Certifications & Licenses: say you’ve completed an accredited certification course to prove you think seriously about your job. 
• Additional training: use it to evidence your skill set.
• Attended conferences: there’s no better way to show your expertise than listing the topics you’re an SME in.
• Foreign languages: Mandarin? Spanish? French? Do tell! Being able to speak a foreign language is an invaluable skill, especially in customer service.
• Volunteering: if you spend your days helping others, your future manager will take “empathy” and “positive approach” in your skills list at face value.
• Awards: just prove you’re the best at what you do.
• Hobbies & Interests: when relevant, can serve as confirmation of your abilities or that you truly are an interesting person.

The single most important thing about the additional parts of your resume is that no matter what you write, it has to be relevant to the position you’re applying for. For example, if you’re to become a customer service representative, your additional sections could be:

Resume for Customer Service: Additional Sections

6. Add a Customer Service Resume Objective or Summary

Every customer journey is different. And so it will be for every job applicant, but only yours will end up a purchase. Why? Because I’m about to tell you what to do to have the recruiters buy your story.

To achieve success with your resume, you need to create a resume profile. It’s a few-sentence paragraph at the top of your application that summarizes your experience or highlights your skill set that fits the candidate profile.

There are two possibilities here: you can either write a resume summary or a resume objective.

Now, the difference:

A resume summary is dedicated for more experienced candidates. It’s a summary of your relevant experience that gives a gist of your qualifications and related skills, using accomplishments and quantifiers.

A resume objective represents your goals aligned with the potential employer’s objectives. It speaks rather of your transferable skillset and how you’re going to utilize it instead of summarising your experience.

To see what I mean, check the below example of a resume summary first:

Customer Service Resume Summary

And now you know that the statement at the top of your resume must speak of your highest achievement, relevant experience and skillset. It wouldn’t hurt to specify the company you’re applying to. Your recruiter will give you bonus points for tailoring your application to their job posting.

Now let’s see a set of right and wrong examples of a resume objective:

Customer Service Resume Objective

It can happen that you won’t have an achievements to drop in your career objective, but that’s fine. As long as you show the transferable skills that you’ve been using and developing throughout your career, the recruiter will appreciate your profile. But remember that the skills must be relevant to the job.

7. Attach a Cover Letter to Your Customer Service Resume

Imagine your customer doesn’t have the original receipt and still wants to return what they’ve bought,

Do you accept the return?

So why do you want recruiters to accept your request for a job without attaching a cover letter?

I’m glad we’re on the same page.

Here’s a quick rundown of the cover letter writing requirements:

• Reflect the resume template onto your cover letter. That way, you ensure consistency.
• Address your cover letter to the hiring manager, not “To whom it may concern.”
• Open your letter with something exciting that will make the reader want to carry on.
• Follow with your qualifications and experience, but forget about repeating what’s in your customer service resume. That’s off-limits. 
• Close with a call to action and sign off.
• Stick to the recommended cover letter length: 3–4 paragraphs on one page.  

Read more: Customer Service Cover Letter: Sample & How to Write

A great cover letter that matches your resume will give you an advantage over other candidates. You can write it in our cover letter builder here. Here's what it may look like:

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Key Takeaways

Here’s how to write a customer service resume step by step:

• Lay the contents out so that your customer service is divided clearly.
• Describe your achievements instead of listing responsibilities. Use achievement statements and action verbs for that.
• Add some academic accomplishments if you have little to no experience.
• List your skills so that there’s a mix of soft and hard skills.
• Include additional sections to get some bonus points for the extra work.
• Write your resume summary or objective last to pick what’s most impressive on your customer service resume.
• Submit your resume with a cover letter to make sure your application will be read.

So what do you say? Are you a ten on an NPS scale?

Thanks for reading my guide! Now I’d love to hear from you: 

• What are the biggest challenges of writing a customer service resume? 

• What part do you struggle with the most? 

Let me know. Let’s get the discussion started!