Customer Service Resume Examples With Skills for 2023

Support ticket #378922: Awesome Company Inc. seeks an excellent customer service representative but can’t find the right person. Please help!

Looks like an issue that you can solve—with a customer service resume proving you’re the exact person your dream company is looking for. Here’s how to write one.

This guide will help you:

• Structure your customer service resume for maximum impact.
• Write a powerful customer service resume objective.
• Enhance your resume with customer service job descriptions that recruiters will actually want to read.
• Put the right skills on your customer service resume—the right way.

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Want more resume-writing guides for customer-centric jobs? Check out these resources:

• Account Executive Resume Sample
• Bar Manager Resume Sample
• Call Center Resume Sample
• Cashier Resume Sample
• Customer Service Manager Resume Sample
• Front Desk Receptionist Resume Sample
• IT Help Desk Resume Sample
• Pharmaceutical Sales Resume Sample
• Receptionist Resume Sample
• Retail Resume Sample
• Sales Associate Resume Sample
• Store Manager Resume Sample
• Technical Support Resume Sample

Or head straight to our collection of 250+ professional resume examples.

Customer Service Resume Example

Let’s make your resume just as impactful! Here’s a step-by-step script for crafting a customer service resume that proves how valuable you’ll be:

1. Format Your Customer Service Resume Right

First impressions matter. And you only have 7 seconds to make yours—this is how much time recruiters spend looking at a resume.

This is why resume format is so important. You want to guide the recruiter's eye straight to your professional achievements and skills.

Here's how:

Opt for the reverse-chronological resume format. It's the easiest format to read, which makes it the best option for most candidates. Reverse-chronological means that you list your work experience from the latest to the earliest (and make the work experience section the most prominent part of your resume).

Make whitespace your friend. Imagine you're talking endlessly without a single pause—you'll end up confusing and annoying the listener. Whitespace on your resume is like pauses in your speech: used wisely, it can structure your resume and emphasize its most important parts. So don't hesitate to add blank lines between resume sections!

Set the resume margins to 1 inch on all sides and the line spacing to 1.15. That will ensure your resume won't look overcrowded.

Pick a good resume font—if you don't have a particular preference, the default font in your word processor or resume builder will do.

Include the following sections in your customer service resume:

• Header with contact info
• Resume summary or resume objective
• Work experience
• Education
• Skills
• Additional sections (Certifications, Languages, Hobbies, etc.).

Now, let’s go through the customer service resume sections one by one.

2. Create a Header for Your Customer Service Resume

Every resume starts with a header that includes your name, job title, and contact information.

Here's a template you can use:

Writing a resume header seems pretty straightforward, but there are a few things you should keep in mind.

First, make sure you've included a professional email address that looks something like firstname.lastname@provider.com. Don't put private email addresses on your resume, even if you think the username you made up in high school is super witty.

Second, don't link to private social media profiles. You don't want recruiters to find awkward pictures of you or read angry posts about your previous bosses.

Third, don't include photos on your resume when applying for jobs in the USA and Canada! While this practice is common in many countries, in North America, it can actually lead to your resume getting rejected.

Expert Hint: Should you put your physical location on your customer service resume? It depends. If the employer is clearly looking for candidates who live in a particular area or a particular country, by all means, mention your city and state.

3. Formulate a Powerful Customer Service Resume Summary or Resume Objective

We recommend you write this section last because it’s much easier to write a good resume summary or resume objective when the rest of the resume is ready.

But first of all, which should you pick?

Write a resume summary if you’ve got a few years of relevant professional experience. In your summary, you’ll summarize (duh) your key achievements and skills—and then you’ll promise to achieve even more for your new employer. The basic formula is:

Adjective + Title + Years of Experience + Key Achievements & Skills + What You Want to Do for Your New Employer

Here’s what it looks like in practice:

Customer Service Resume Summary: Examples

 This resume summary is jam-packed with specific achievements and a clear eagerness to do the same (or even more) for the new employer.

Note how the resume summary mentions the company’s name! This is important because it proves that the resume is written with a specific company in mind—as opposed to making a generic resume and mindlessly sending it to every company that advertises an open position.

What about this example?

This resume summary provides zero proof that this candidate is the right person for the job. First, no one tends to care about the reasons for the move. Second, if they’re sending in a resume, it’s obvious they’re looking for a job, so why mention it? Third, “motivated and eager to learn” is just too generic and vague to have any specific meaning.

Recruiters probably won’t even read the rest of this resume—unless they have a lot of spare time on their hands, which is pretty rare.

Now, what about resume objectives?

You should opt for a resume objective rather than a resume summary if you’re just starting out in the field of customer service and don’t have many relevant achievements to show.

A resume objective follows the same basic formula as a resume summary. However, a resume objective focuses on skills rather than achievements. Like this:

Examples of a Customer Service Resume Objective

This candidate used to work in retail, but now they want a customer service job. Their resume objective highlights their transferable skills and relevant achievement. It also mentions the company’s name, which is an important strategy for targeting a resume.

But what about this resume objective?

OK, this is probably the first resume this person ever wrote, so let’s not be too harsh. However, your first resume doesn’t have to be as unconvincing—check out our step-by-step guide on how to write a resume for a first job and make an impressive resume on your first try!

4. Craft a Work Experience Section

The work experience section is the highlight of your customer service resume, so feel free to take your time crafting it.

List your work experience from the latest to the earliest, always providing the employer's name and location, your exact position, your start and end dates, and a few bullet points.

Sounds simple? Well, too many customer service reps fall into the trap of just pasting their job description into the bullet points. As a result, recruiters get dozens of near-identical resumes saying what the candidates were “responsible for.”

Here’s what to do instead:

Focus on achievements rather than responsibilities and use numbers to prove your worth. “Surpassed targets by 6%”is clear and specific. “Delivered above average performance” is not. You can find more ideas and examples of achievements to put on your resume in our dedicated guide.

Use metrics that translate into real business results. For example, higher customer satisfaction rates equal more loyal customers, which, in turn, equals more revenue.

Match your job description to the job ad. That is called targeting your resume, and it’s the key to a successful job hunt. The job ad clearly outlines what the ideal candidate should be like. Read it carefully and make sure the bullet points on your resume reflect the requirements and skills required by the employer.

Here’s what the work experience section of a customer service resume could look like when responding to this job ad:

Customer Service Job Description for a Resume

What makes this example stand out? First, it focuses on achievements and uses numbers to make them as specific as possible.

Second, it revolves around important customer service metrics that clearly impact the company’s business results: the candidate has done a lot to help the company process customer requests faster and more efficiently. And they’ve also helped retain customers who were about to cancel.

Last but not least, it fits the employer’s requirements like a glove!

What about this one, then?

This example covers the same ideas as the previous one, but notice how vague the job description is. Being responsible for something doesn’t automatically mean being good at it! And the word “tried” implies that the person probably failed at the task (if you’re wondering which verbs make good sentence starters for resume job descriptions, check out our guide to resume power words).

Before we move on to the next resume section, there’s one more thing to keep in mind when writing your customer service job description for your resume.

Since the resume must be targeted to each position, you’ll have to write several versions of your work experience section if you’re applying for several positions. This sounds like a lot of work—but sending in a generic copied-and-pasted resume won’t get you far. It’s like blindly following a script without even listening to what the customer is saying!

5. Identify the Best Skills for Your Customer Service Resume

Now, what skills to put on a resume for customer service jobs?

You might be tempted to re-use the skills list from one of your old resumes or even copy and paste a list of customer service skills you found on the internet.

Spoiler: This won’t give you a high recruiter satisfaction rate.

Just like the rest of your resume sections, your skills section should be targeted to a specific job ad. Here’s how to do it:

• Read the job ad carefully, highlighting any skills-related keywords you come across.
• Think about which of these skills you actually have (be honest with yourself here!).
• Put the skills you’ve identified in the second step into a bulleted list on your resume.

Ideally, your skills list should have 8–10 items. If yours ends up being too long, you can split it into several lists, such as Soft Skills, Hard Skills, and Software Skills. Just remember that the ideal resume length is one page, so don’t go overboard with listing your skills!

Here are some of the top customer service resume skills:

Top Customer Service Skills Resume

• Active listening
• Conflict resolution skills
• Problem-solving
• Communication skills
• Working under pressure
• Quick decision making
• Upselling
• Empathy
• Interpersonal skills
• Conflict resolution
• Stress resilience
• Time management skills
• Eagerness to learn
• Teamwork
• Dependability
• Multitasking
• Phone etiquette
• Persuasion
• Customer service software (ZenDesk, Zoho Desk, Help Scout, etc.)
• Office software (Microsoft Office, G Suite)
• Email software (Outlook, Google Mail)

Your list can be quite different, depending on the specific job you’re applying for.

But no matter how much you like this skills list, don’t copy and paste it! The skills listed on your customer service resume should match the skills mentioned in the job ad—and by match, we mean an exact match.

When writing your skills list, it’s best to avoid paraphrasing and using synonyms. If the job ad asks for communication skills, put “communication skills” on your resume, and don’t be tempted to change it to “interpersonal skills” or “people skills.”

Why?

Most large and medium-sized companies use a kind of software called ATS (Applicant Tracking System) to parse all incoming resumes and filter out irrelevant applications. The software checks whether a resume contains many of the same keywords as the corresponding job ad. If the contents of the resume and the job ad don’t match, the resume gets rejected without even being seen by a human.

You want your customer service resume to pass ATS checks, so make sure you use keywords from the job ad. This is one of the key strategies for writing an ATS-friendly resume.

Expert Hint: To make your resume more consistent, check if the bullet points in your work experience and education sections reflect the skills in the skills list. You may also want to edit your bullet points to incorporate some skills-related keywords.

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6. Show Your Education on Your Customer Service Resume

Many candidates treat the education section of their customer service resume as an afterthought—since you learn almost everything on the job anyway, why bother writing about your educational background?

Think of it in a different way. The education section of your customer service resume is a great place to demonstrate that you’ve been working on crucial skills like communication and problem-solving for many years.

So how do you actually write it for maximum impact?

• Only mention your latest degree or diploma—if you have a degree, don’t list your high school.
• If you have a lot of experience and professional achievements, keep the education section short and sweet.
• If you’re not a seasoned customer service veteran, add bullet points to your education section and highlight a few relevant achievements.

Here’s how to put education on a customer service resume:

Sample Customer Service Resume: Education

The bullet points serve as proof that this person has been honing skills such as persuasion, communication, empathy, and problem-solving since they were in high school.

Expert Hint: Only list achievements that demonstrate relevant skills. Even if you’re very proud of the fact that you won an origami competition at school, don’t list it—unless you’re applying to be a customer service agent for a company that manufactures origami paper!

7. Supercharge Your Customer Service Resume with Extra Sections

Got a certification that proves your customer service skills? Or an award worth putting on your resume? Are you proficient in more than one language? Certifications, awards, and language skills can set you apart from other candidates and prove your value.

To make sure all of this valuable information doesn’t get overlooked, make separate resume sections such as:

• Awards
• Certification examples
• Hobbies and interests
• Languages
• Volunteering experience

Within each section, create bullet points with all the relevant information. Like this:

Extra Sections on a Customer Service Resume: Example

If you have an interesting hobby that boosts your value as a candidate for a specific job, you can list it, too.

For example, if you’re applying to be a customer service rep at an online store that sells outdoor gear, it’s a great idea to mention that your hobbies include trekking and mountain biking. Putting relevant hobbies on your customer service resume implies that:

• You already have extensive product knowledge.
• Since your job will be all about talking to people who share your hobbies, you’ll be a highly motivated employee.

Just make sure that you don’t include any irrelevant information, like hobbies that have nothing to do with the job you’re applying for.

To learn more about extra resume sections, check out our guides on how to put hobbies on a resume, how to list certificates on a resume, and how to put volunteering experience on a resume.

8. Complement Your Customer Service Resume with a Customer Service Cover Letter

A whopping 83% of hiring managers find cover letters important.

So go ahead and write one. It’s not as complicated as you think—you just have to write 250–400 words (that’s the best cover letter length) following a simple structure with 3–4 paragraphs.

Just observe the steps outlined in our article on how to write a cover letter, or check out our highly specific guide to writing a customer service cover letter.

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Key Points

Here’s the step-by-step process for writing an outstanding customer service resume:

• Use proven best practices for formatting your resume (or let a resume builder do it for you).
• Make a resume header with all the necessary contact information.
• Craft a powerful resume summary or resume objective.
• Describe your work experience in reverse-chronological order, with a focus on achievements.
• Target your resume by putting together a skills list that closely reflects the job ad.
• Use the education section to illustrate your key skills.
• Add extra sections that prove your worth as a candidate.
• Write a customer service cover letter to accompany your resume.

Got questions, suggestions, or maybe a story to tell? Leave us a comment below, and we’ll get back to you!