Customer service professionals are a necessity for every company, in every industry, all across the world. Whether the company sells a product or provides a service, customers will always have questions they need answered and concerns they need to voice. That’s good news for you if you’re working on a customer service resume.

As a job seeker in the customer service field, you likely have your own questions to ask. What does a customer service resume require? Are there special skills you should include? How should it all be formatted? We have answers to all of your customer service resume questions.

Customer service resume keywords

Every resume should be focused on skills and keywords. This is because the majority of companies use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to filter applicants.

The process goes like this: you apply for a job online and your resume gets filtered into the applicant tracking system. Recruiters then search for applicants using keywords, kind of like running a Google search. The resumes that contain the keywords are more likely to be retrieved by the ATS for the recruiter to review.

So, if you don’t include relevant keywords in your resume, you won’t show up in the hiring manager’s search. This is especially important in a position like customer service that requires such a broad skillset.

The best place to find customer service keywords is in the job description itself.

A customer service resume should include hard skills like:

Customer service

Management

Communication

Answering phones

Answering emails

Knowledge of product/service

Data entry

Organizational skills

Scheduling

Upselling

Customer service software are critical keywords for companies looking to quickly onboard new hires. Scan the job description for specific software or even try to reach out to their existing customer service team to see which systems they use. Include the software in your resume if you have experience with it.

This type of software includes:

LiveChat

PureChat

Zendesk

C-Desk

Freshdesk

NetSuite

Claritysoft

Chime

Salesforce

Zoho Desk

General office software Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, et al.) Google Suite (Docs, Sheets, et al.)



Jobscan helps job seekers pick out the most important skills from the job description to make sure each resume is optimized for applicant tracking systems. Try running a resume scan below.

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Customer service soft skills

Soft skills are less important in some resumes, but a customer service resume can especially benefit from these keywords. Soft skills often describe personality traits, which are key in a position that deals with communication.

Soft skills for a customer service resume include:

Conflict resolution

Prioritization

Time management skills

Empathy

Interpersonal skills

Professionalism

Attentiveness

Reliability

Using summary statements for soft skills

Hard skills can be woven into a resume in the Work Experience section or in a separate “Skills” section. Soft skills, which can be trickier to find a place for, are often best-utilized in a resume summary statement, where the job seeker can state their goals for the position as they relate to current skills.

For example, a good summary statement for a customer service resume might read:

Experienced customer service supervisor with 15 years experience and an average LiveChat rating of 92%. Proficient in LiveChat and Salesforce and skilled in conflict resolution and diffusing customer complaints.

Combining hard skills and accomplishments with strong customer service soft skills creates a well-rounded summary statement that shows off your technical skills and your most-relevant personality traits.

Customer service resume format

Now that you know what to include in your resume, you’ll need to choose a resume format. For most job seekers in the customer service industry, work history and skills will be the most valuable sections to include. In most cases, a chronological resume format will work best. The chronological resume format highlights a job seeker’s work history.

However, if you’re entering the customer service industry for the first time, consider using a hybrid resume format, which focuses on a job seeker’s skills slightly more than work history. Coming from another industry, your work history will not be as relevant to the hiring manager as it would be for a job seeker with five years of experience in customer service.

A hybrid resume is great for you if you don’t have experience working in the customer service field, but you have many of the transferrable skills needed to excel.

If you need some help determining which skills you need to include, Jobscan can break it down for you.

Customer service resumes need to be unique because customer service positions are very unique positions. These employees are both tech-savvy and skilled communicators. Make sure your tailored resume reflects that.