CV Example Customer Service
If you enjoy helping people and solving problems, then a role in customer service may be for you. Customer service representatives can work in almost any industry, performing a wide range of tasks. For instance, if you work in a retail environment, you may spend most of their time serving customers at the tills or monitoring stock. In a bank, you’ll be answering questions about account balances and overdrafts, while at a utility company, you’re handling questions about late bill payments.
In a B2B (business-to-business) or in a call centre environment, your responsibilities may be more focused on making outbound calls and generating sales leads.
As you can see the tasks of a customer service rep can vary greatly; however, recruiters typically expect to see the same things on a customer service CV: strong communication and conflict resolution skills, the ability to deliver a great customer experience, adaptability and more. Here’s how to package all this up in your CV.
Personal statement or profile
In customer service, you only have one chance to make a first impression. Whether you interact with customers over the phone, online or in person, the initial impression can set the tone for the entire customer experience.
The same applies to your personal statement or profile. As turnover in the customer service industry is high, recruiters want to know whether you’re just looking for your next job or whether you genuinely care about helping customers.
To stand out from the crowd, it’s worth mentioning any qualifications you have or specific areas of expertise:
Profile
I am a Customer Service Representative with over 2 years of experience in retail environments, including sales, tech support, and customer care. I am adept in customer care software, conflict resolution and quickly developing product knowledge, with an NVQ Level 2 qualification in Customer Service. I enjoy helping clients, customers and individuals, and solving any problems that they may have.
Work experience
There’s no shortage of customer service jobs. In fact, most entry-level roles only require 1-2 years of experience, if at all.
That said, if you’re looking for a position with a better salary, you will need to have some experience under your belt and demonstrate above-average customer service skills.
For example, do you handle calls fast while maintaining customer satisfaction? Perhaps, you consistently resolved complaints within a given deadline? If your experience is mainly from retail environments, focus on the additional revenue you generated by upselling products or how you processed transactions accurately under pressure:
Work experience
Jan 2019 – present Customer Service Associate, Hemsley Financial Services, Watford
- Answered 80+ incoming calls per day and consistently met targets for call length and call waiting times.
- Delivered high-quality customer service, winning compliments from 15 customers.
- Received an average feedback rating of 98% on monthly customer satisfaction surveys.
Sep 2016 - Dec 2018 Customer Service Agent, Primark, Watford
- Resolved 95% of all allocated complaints within a 7-day timeline and won best customer service agent of the month.
- Sold over 200 units of luxury goods daily and generated £700 in additional revenue.
Education
In the UK, there are no specific degrees in customer service, unless you specialise in supply chain management, customer relationship management or service sector management.
However, there are a number of accredited courses available to help you provide excellent customer service and improve your interpersonal (communication and interaction) skills.
Although it’s not necessary to take a course in customer service, a certification can give recruiters and hiring managers confidence that you have a higher than average ability to do the job. It also shows that you’re committed to excelling in your work.
Education
Jul 2015 - Aug 2016 NVQ Certificate/Diploma in Customer Service: Level 2, City of Westminster College, London
Modules: delivering customer, understanding customers, principles of customer service, understanding employer organisations and managing personal performance and development
Sep 2012 – Jun 2015 BA (Hons) Media Communications: 2:1, Regent’s University, London
Skills
In customer service, you may need a range of different skills. One day, you may be calming an upset customer and the next, you may be liaising with a supplier.
Some of these skills can include:
- Interpersonal: Making customers feel comfortable and putting them at ease in stressful situations.
- Accounting: Processing 80 daily transactions (sales and refunds) accurately.
- Conflict resolution: Calming agitated customers and creating effective resolutions for companies and the business.
- Product knowledge: Developed comprehensive product knowledge, contributing to an increase of £100 in daily sales.
Languages
In a customer service role, you’re likely to be exposed to a good deal of customers from different cultures with varying levels of English. This is where your foreign language skills can help.
As with any contact job, the ability to interact with customers in their language can facilitate interaction, put them at ease and lead to sales.
Depending on the needs of the company where you will be working, just being able to greet the customer and exchange a few words may be enough, if you’re mostly going to be serving customers or operating the tills.
However, the role will most likely call for more advanced language skills if you’re going to be dealing with account managers or sales executives:
Languages
English - native
French - fluent
Spanish - basic
Hobbies and Interests
While this section is optional in your CV, including your hobbies and interests may help sway a recruiter’s decision if they’re related to customer service, in any way.
For example, if you provide extra tuition at the weekends, you need to make sure your customers are satisfied or if you are captain of a sports team, this demonstrates an ability to work well with others:
Jan 2021 – present, Private English tutor, Online
- Provide English lessons to young, foreign students, seeking to improve their spoken English.
- Maintained 100% customer satisfaction.
Jan 2019 – present Sports Captain, Wetherby County Football Club
- Coach and mentor under 16s
- Focal point for team-related questions
Volunteering
Almost every role involves some form of customer service, whether it’s replying to internal or external emails, talking to clients on the phone or replying to social media posts.
However, if you don’t have direct customer service experience, a good tip is to include volunteer experience, for example, helping out in a charity shop or volunteering at a soup kitchen:
Aug 2018 – present Volunteer cook, Haley’s Soup Kitchen, Watford
- Serving customers from all different backgrounds
- Offering advice on housing and job searching.
FACT
82% of managers surveyed by Deloitte said they would prefer to hire candidates who had volunteering experience. This is because volunteering offers the opportunity to develop a wide range of professional skills, including leadership and communication.
Format and layout
Format
As you can gain customer service in a range of different settings and roles, which resume format you use will depend greatly on your skills and experience.
If you’ve got the natural talent to help customers, but lack the practical experience, the functional or skills-based CV may be for you. This CV format highlights skills, while de-emphasising work history or gaps in experience.
Already have direct experience in the customer service industry? Then, you can opt for a reverse-chronological format, which focuses on your most recent experience first or a combination / hybrid CV, which highlights your work experience and your skills.
Layout and design
In a customer service role, you represent the face of a company. Therefore, it makes sense for your CV to reflect the style of the company.
For instance, if you’re applying at a trendy fashion brand, you can afford to be more creative with the design of your CV. On the other hand, if the company is more conservative, opt for a discreet and classic design to be on the safe side.
If you do decide to use colours on your resume, opt for pale grey, blue or green to make section headings and borders stand out. Avoid colours that contrast too greatly, such as red, orange or yellow as these can impair legibility.
With regards to fonts, 14 and 16 points are best to emphasise headings with smaller headings for normal text. Best fonts to use include Arial, Calibri, Georgia or Times New Roman, which all convey professionalism and dependability.
Hopefully, you now have everything you need to create your own customer service CV.
