SKILLS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE RESUME: Best Tips and Examples

To land a job in customer service, you must demonstrate your best skills to potential employers. Customer service necessitates both technical and interpersonal abilities. This emphasizes the importance of having a diverse skill set! In this guide, we will uncover the best customer service skills to include on a resume. Plus we will state different key skills that a customer service representative should include in their resume including the hard or technical skills and then the soft skills. Let’s go into detail.

What is Customer Service?

Customer service is a job type as well as a set of job skills. Customer service professionals are responsible for meeting the needs of customers and ensuring that they have a positive experience. This customer service as a skill set entails several qualities such as active listening, empathy, problem-solving, and communication. Customer service is used in a variety of jobs at all levels.

While customer service is traditionally thought of as a service provided by a business to a customer, it is also applicable within a business. For example, you could be in a position where you provide services to other internal teams. In this case, you’d want to make sure you understood and could meet their needs.

What Are Customer Service Skills?

Customer service skills include the ability to communicate with others, solve problems, be patient and understanding, ensure customer satisfaction, and resolve customer complaints.

Employees who excel at customer service can have a significant impact on a company’s bottom line. These abilities translate into brand loyalty (96% of consumers say customer service is an important factor in their brand loyalty choice) and profit (a 5% increase in customer retention can result in a 25% increase in profit).

Why Should I Include Customer Service Skills on My Resume?           

When applying for a job in customer service, it is critical to demonstrate your ability to work well with others. Including skills on a resume allows you to highlight your strongest assets to potential employers. You can demonstrate your most relevant abilities for the job you’re applying for by including specific customer service skills.

You should never include skills just for the sake of including them. It is critical to always tailor your skills to the job description’s requirements. Furthermore, you should always be truthful about the skills you include. Never list a skill that you do not possess!

What Are the Best Customer Service Skills I Should Add to My Resume?

Before you can decide which customer service skills to highlight on your resume, you must first understand the two main types of skills:

#1. Interpersonal (Soft) Skills

These abilities rely on emotion and human interaction. Customer service is heavily reliant on interpersonal skills such as communication and problem-solving.‍

#2. Technical (Hard) Skills

Hard skills are related to your technical abilities, such as writing or working with software, and as a customer service representative, you should include them on your resume.

When listing your skills on a customer service resume, make sure to include both soft and hard or technical skills. Always plan out the skills you want to include when it comes to customer service. Making a long list allows you to narrow it down to the most relevant and best options.

Key Soft Customer Service Skills to List on Your Resume

Here are our top 10 soft skills for customer service to consider adding to your resume:

#1. Conflict resolution

Every day, conflict resolution, management, and de-escalation techniques are used in customer service. An agent must be a good negotiator and know how to calm a raging bull in order to provide good customer service. It can be difficult at first to deal with customer complaints and angry customers. You can, however, learn some useful statements and tricks to help you turn those situations around.

#2. Communication

Effective communication is critical for resolving a customer’s questions or issues while also representing the company well. It is critical that you speak and write clearly, and that you provide useful and helpful responses. You can confidently build rapport and trust with good communication skills.

#3. Empathy

Empathy is a social skill that many successful customer service representatives possess. Strong customer service includes demonstrating to a customer that you understand their situation and connect with their feelings. Being empathetic often entails considering your customer’s situation from their perspective and establishing a foundation of patience, kindness, and respect as you begin working with them.

#4. Problem-solving

When customers have a problem, they frequently contact customer service representatives. Thinking critically about customer complaints and coming up with creative solutions can go a long way. Listening to what a customer needs, determining the source of the problem, and resolving it by turning to your company’s products or services are all common problem-solving techniques.

#5. Patience

Customer service representatives should be patient. Even when dealing with a frustrated customer, they must be able to use positive language.

Or if they are exchanging messages with people who type their messages slowly. In addition, you can read customers’ messages before they send them!

#6. Active listening

Active listening is a technique that involves paraphrasing and reading nonverbal cues in a conversation. It provides you with more information about your customers and allows you to follow their train of thought. You can ensure that you are on the same page by asking follow-up questions. Active listening skills demonstrate to a customer that you understand them. It enables you to establish an immediate connection. Active listening conveys that their problems are also your problems and that you are responsible for finding a solution.

#7. Decision making

Working as a customer service representative necessitates quick thinking. You are not required to always make the best decision. However, you must be decisive and confident. Customers want to be taken care of, and they will not trust you if you are inexperienced. At the very least, you should try to make a good impression. Take care! Being decisive does not imply making arbitrary decisions.

#8. Time management

The concept of multitasking is a myth. People are unable to manage multiple processes at the same time. They can, however, divide their time into smaller chunks and use it more efficiently. It is yet another essential customer service skill.

#9. Positive body language

Body language plays an important role in retail customer service. However, it is difficult to fit it into a simple framework. According to some, body language accounts for 90% of communication. Others argue that 55% of communication is nonverbal, 38% is the tone of voice, and the remaining 7% is words and their meaning.

It is difficult to quantify the effect of your posture or voice. Controlling your body language, on the other hand, is a necessary skill for a customer service representative.

‍#10. Persuasion

It is especially important in sales positions to be able to persuade a customer’s emotions and viewpoints. You should be able to position yourself as the expert who can provide them with the best solutions.

Key Hard or Technical Customer Service Skills to List on Your Resume

Here is a list of key hard or technical skills for customer service to use on a resume:

#1. Foreign language fluency

Outsourcing customer service is extremely popular. There’s a good chance you’re not a native speaker of the language you’ll use to communicate with customers. One of the single most important key hard skills for customer service is improving your spoken language fluency and applying it to your resume.

Surprisingly, you don’t need to be concerned if you have a slight accent. It is more important to be able to communicate effectively than to have perfect pronunciation.

#2. Writing

Writing skills are critical in any job involving communication. In customer service, this frequently translates into the creation of emails and official company copy.

#3. Typing speed

This customer service skill is fairly simple. The quicker you type, the quicker you respond. It has a direct impact on your performance as an agent and greatly simplifies your life. This skill is also simple to learn and assess. Typing speed is typically calculated by dividing your accuracy by the number of words typed per minute.

#4. Knowledge of CRM software

CRM software solutions such as Zendesk or Zoho are commonly used by customer service representatives. The tools are very similar, and getting used to them will take some time. However, if you have prior experience with a dedicated customer service app, your chances improve.

‍#5. Microsoft Office & Google Suite

Microsoft and Google software is widely used in all industries. Knowing how to use these programs will give you a competitive advantage because employers will not need to train you on how to use them.

#6. Performance

Customer service representatives adopt a persona in order to persuade, empathize, and relate to customers. As a result, having a strong ability for performance and acting can be extremely beneficial in this field.

‍#7. Situational Analysis

Each customer and situation is unique. The ability to thoroughly analyze each situation is an important hard skill for customer service representatives to have. This can include taking notes, conducting research, gathering feedback, and a variety of other important tasks.

‍#8. Telecommunication

In an increasingly digital world, effective communication is critical for providing excellent customer service. This can refer to any digital interaction, including phone calls and online services.

‍#9. Bookkeeping

Keeping detailed records is an essential component of providing excellent customer service. Bookkeeping encompasses a wide range of transactions, contracts, and other activities. Honing these skills is beneficial for any professional looking for work in customer service.

‍#10. Closing Ability

A customer service representative must hone a skill known as “closing ability.” This is their ability to complete a transaction or close a deal with a customer. Many soft skills, such as negotiation and persuasion, are combined to create a more technical skill in order to make the customer service resume look good.