Customer Service Job Description for Creating a Resume

Did you know most recruiters spend only six seconds reading a resume? Not only that, sophisticated software systems now pre-screen most resumes before human eyes even see them. With tons of other jobseekers vying for the same opportunities, you’ve got to stand out from the pack.

Fortunately, our customer service job description for creating a resume can help. Use our writing and formatting guidelines, along with a few useful hacks, to put your best face forward. We’ll show you how to select the right combination of accomplishments, duties, and skills to showcase in your document. You can also follow our instructions and examples to make your own version polished, professional, and ready to sell you as a job candidate.

Using a Customer Service Job Description for a Resume

Your career profile looks slightly different from those of other jobseekers, thanks to your unique education and work history. Nevertheless, there are certain customer service skills, responsibilities, and certifications most employers will look for in your resume.

Customer Service Summary

Recruiters review the top third of your resume to decide whether they’re going to read the rest, so they’ll encounter your professional summary first. Right out of the gate, it should sell your most relevant qualifications and emphasize how you can contribute to an organization’s success.

For customer service professionals, it’s wise to mention skills that also match up with keywords from the job posting. Some examples might include critical thinking, problem analysis, and conflict resolution. Also, don’t forget to summarize any leadership or training experience you possess, along with some outstanding metrics such as first call resolution or customer satisfaction rates.

Customer Service Education & Certification

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most customers service professionals need a high school diploma or its equivalent. However, you needn’t list it if you’ve attained a college degree or if you’re currently pursuing higher education. If you’ve already finished a program, you can include additional achievements such as graduating with honors or list any leadership experience you’ve gained from relevant campus organizations.

With the status of the current job market and fierce competition in the field, making your career profile stand out is more critical than ever. Make sure you list any professional certifications, specialized training, or career development courses that are either currently in progress or you have already concluded.

Customer Service Duties & Responsibilities

Hiring managers want to see results—specifically, how you’ve accomplished individual successes or have helped previous employers meet or exceed their goals. To demonstrate your worth, incorporate concrete examples as you detail your work history section.

First, include responsibilities that supported your departments or contributed to company missions. At the same time, don’t overlook explicit achievements that boosted efficiency, improved customer relationships, increased revenue, or saved money. Did you consistently earn a customer satisfaction rating of 95%? Did you help develop a knowledge database that improved first call resolution rates by 15%? This is the section in which you should mention successes like these.

Customer Service Skills

It’s critical include your industry-relevant skills in this section, alongside general professional abilities that help customer service representatives succeed in their line of work. You’ll likely mention essentials such as written and oral communication, troubleshooting, problem analysis and resolution, product knowledge, conflict resolution, customer de-escalation, and diplomacy. Meanwhile, don’t neglect to list specifics to the job you’re seeking. Some examples might include helpdesk support, technical documentation, or either the software or platforms for which you’ve provided services.

Customer Service Resume

How To Get Your Customer Service Resume Past an ATS

If you haven’t searched for a job in a while, you might not have heard about a recent technological innovation known as an Applicant Tracking System. Called an ATS for short, a recruiter might rely on it to pre-screen incoming resumes and identify potentially qualified candidates.

Using complex programming and features, an ATS scans your resume for job-specific keywords and industry-relevant phrases. Once it completes its review, it assigns a numerical score to your document. Resumes that score at or above a predetermined threshold are then reserved for further screening by human eyes. Those that don’t make the cut end up in the electronic equivalent of “File 13.”

The widespread use of ATS software means you now have to up your game to even get a recruiter to see your resume. Thankfully, you can employ several strategies to tip the odds more in your favor. First, you should use a customer service job description for a resume by deriving words, job titles, and phrases that appear in the original posting.

Examining the example resume we’ve included here, you can see she’s integrated keywords and phrases that match up with typical customer service industry skillsets. Furthermore, she’s repeated some of the keywords a few times, such as “customer de-escalation” and “problem resolution.” Just remember not to make your own usage seem forced or unnatural, as such keyword stuffing can cause an ATS to reject your resume.

Besides the smart usage of keywords, you can adopt some other best practices to help your document get past an ATS. As a bonus, these tips will also make your text more easily readable for human eyes. Stick to a simple format that uses standardized headings such as Work Experience and skills, and include a Professional Summary section instead of the now-obsolete objective statement. Be sure to format your resume with a common font like Arial, Courier, or Times New Roman. Finally, don’t forget to proofread your document for grammar and spelling errors.