In this day and age, material goods are at the disposal of the wide populace like never before in history. With the growth of the offer and demand for various items, the role of people in the world of commerce is growing ever so important.

This fact cannot be overstated enough when it comes to the position of a customer service representative!

Are you good at multitasking and human relations? Are you quick to respond to any inquiry a customer may have? Do you have excellent trouble-shooting skills? Are you communicative, easy to adapt, and eager to proactively find solutions to various customer issues?

If that’s the case then this is a perfect job for you!

But to get the job uniquely suited to your skills and/or previous job experiences (having previous job experience in the industry is always an advantage), you must first apply for it, and in order to apply, you need to write a resume.

However, it must be said that the competition for any job position is fierce!

That’s why it’s so important for your resume to stand out, so your potential employers could notice and pick you.

But don’t worry! We’re here to help you write the perfect resume, where you’ll display all your skills, education, work habits and abilities with precision and clarity!

In this guide, we will show you how to impress your potential employers with your professionally written resume.

It takes a bit of time to write a good resume, and you also need to know what to put in, in which order, and what you need to leave out.

Your resume should have answers to the following questions:

  • What is it that makes you stand out among your competition?
  • How are the various section of your resume ordered?
  • Is there a pattern/template for writing a CSR resume?
  • What is the proper length of the CSR resume?

This guide will offer the answers to these questions, and give you some practical examples of customer service representative resumes, which we will analyze in-depth to see just how to write a perfect customer service representative resume!

Customer Service Representative Resume Example

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Customer Service Representative Resume Sample

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DYI: WRITING YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE RESUME

Just like we promised, we’ll start with examples of properly written CSR resumes. In the next part of the text, we’ll go through them step by step and teach you how to write your very own resume.

What your resume is, essentially, is a longer and more detailed version of a business card, of sorts, a condensed representation of you and your customer service skills.

That’s why the first thing you should start with is your first and last name, profession, address, and the most important contacts, such as phone and cell phone numbers and your professional email address.

And since social networks are major players when it comes to communication, it would also be useful to add a couple of your social network accounts.

Let us delve into the process of writing your CSR resume! It’s a pretty simple thing to once you learn the ropes, and we’re here to help you do just that!

In the Beginning, There Was a Name

Like we’ve mentioned earlier, your resume is kind of like your business card, and the first thing we see on a business card is the person’s name. That’s how you should start when writing your resume: with your full name and last name.

Writing your full name and surname is more important than you think. Doing so demonstrates your levels of professional etiquette and how serious of a job candidate you are. Under no circumstances should you use your nicknames, however witty and entertaining they may be.

There are exceptions to this rule of course (in the entertaining industry, from gaming to acting, nicknames and aliases are allowed, written next to your real name), but in most professional environments, using your full name and your full name alone is mandatory.

Let’s see how this works in one of the examples from above. The resume of both Franklin Snow and Diana Spaulding starts with their full name and last name and not a nickname.

If Franklin chose to write Frankie instead of Franklin, he would most likely not be taken into consideration by most of his potential employers.

Franklin Snow
Right
Frankie Snow
Wrong

CSRs! What is Your Profession?!

In order for you get the job you applied for, you’ll need to state your profession just under your name.

The reason for this is because your potential employers want to see whether or not you have any experience in the field.

But what if this is the very first job you’re applying for? What if you don’t have a job title?

The anxiety in this regard is understandable, but don’t be too alarmed. Simply state your highest education title instead of the job title, and you’re all set.

THE PORTRAIT OF A CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE AS A POTENTIAL EMPLOYEE

It has become a custom for the applicants to add a photo into their resume, and today, literally everyone is doing that.

However, when adding photos, people make the same mistakes en masse, almost always starting with this one: using photos from their various social network accounts.

It’s not that your pictures from your vacation or a friend’s birthday party aren’t beautiful, there’s nothing wrong with them per se.

Yet, using those kinds of photos in a professional setting is considered to be highly inappropriate.

To see just what and what not to do when taking a photo for your resume, take look at the table below.

Photo instructions

  • A pleasant, natural smile
  • Neat haircut
  • Moderate amounts of make-up
  • No beard/Trimmed beard
  • Proper-looking environment
  • Formal attire
  • Straight posture

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Photo instructions

  • Fake smile or grinning
  • Messy and bad-looking haircut
  • Exaggerated use of make-up
  • A bushy, messy beard
  • Busy and colorful surroundings
  • Sweatpants and hoodie
  • Slacked posture

Wrong

Pay attention to these instructions, and you’ll have a perfect resume photo!

Writing Down Your Phone Number

Despite the influence and accessibility social networks and emails provide, it’s always useful to include your phone number into the resume, and for several reasons.

Firstly, recruiters often use phone calls to gauge out the level of your communication skills (this goes double for the call center recruiters), and some of them simply prefer calling you over sending you an email.

Secondly, emails can often be buggy and not work properly, as is often the case with all types of technology. Mails often either end up either not received or in the spam folder.

That’s why we recommend you to leave your phone number, just in case.

Oh, Brother, Whence Dost Thou Come?

Adding your home address is not always necessary, but just like adding your phone number, it has its uses.

For example, if you’re applying for a position in a large, multinational company with offices all over the country (or world!), there’s a good chance for you to be placed in the office closest to your home.

Also, if you live far away from the offices, you’ll probably get a slightly higher salary to pay for transportation.

Adding your Email – Dos and Donts

Much like your picture, your email address can also send a message regarding the levels of your professional demeanor and seriousness.

When adding an email, make sure it does not consist of random letters and numbers, or some of your nicknames.

It could also prove wise to make a separate email account for job-related matters if you don’t have a more “serious” email.

Take a look at this example:

DianaWSpaulding@gmail.com
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SuperDuperDee@gmail.com
Wrong

So yes – always use your full name, or a variation of your full name, never a nickname! Also, when making a business email, make sure you choose the more well-known providers. You can never go wrong with Google and Yahoo.

The (Condensed) Story of Your (Professional) Life

As you can see when observing the examples we showed you, one of the key parts of your customer service representative resume is, of course, the summary.

Summaries are not supposed to be long. You need only 4 or 5 sentences to present the basic information about your experiences in your field of expertise, the length of the said experience, some new professional/personal skills you gained in the process, and some accomplishments if any.

Depending on the content of your summary, people from the HR department may or may not hire you.

Observe these examples:

Summary

An economist with 4 years of experience working as a customer service representative. Working both small and big companies made her a capable communicator, outgoing and full of understanding for every customer’s needs and demands, and able to efficiently resolve any issue they may have.

Right
Summary

An economist with 4 years of experience working as a customer service representative.

Wrong

Why is the summary on the left right, and the summary on the right wrong?

Summary on the right is not wrong per se, but it is severely lacking in detail. The recruiters get dozens of job applications a day, but around 90% of them have these super-short summaries.

Such a summary does nothing to make you stand out, and for you to get the interview invitation, standing out is a must.

That’s why you should avoid generic resumes at all costs.

Add more details and write about certain activities related to your previous CSR experiences. This will help you get noticed by the recruiters, and if they notice you, chances are they’ll call you to schedule an interview.

Take care not to write too long of a summary! You want to share as much relevant info as possible within as few sentences as possible. Don’t write too much!

PES: Pro Experience Section

After the summary part, we start getting serious. This means it’s now the time to write about your previous experiences and related jobs.

When it comes to this section of the resume, the vast majority of people list every single job they’ve ever had in their lives, from babysitting their neighbor’s kids to being a customer service representative in the local accounting company.

Thus, we need to answer two questions here:

  1. How far back do we go with listing jobs?
  2. What jobs should we list?

When it comes to listing previous jobs, start from your latest job and go backwards from that. And as for the job you need to list, this is the golden rule: ONLY THE RELEVANT ONES!

Your customer service representative resume should have only the jobs connected to your fields of expertise listed within the resume.

However, don’t simply list your previous jobs. Write about your responsibilities there, and especially about your accomplishments.

For example, write about how you successfully dealt with major shipment misplacement or a particularly troublesome customer.

This is a great way of displaying your customer service representative capabilities, thus increasing your chances of getting the job you applied for.

We Do Need Some Education…

Listing your schools in your customer service representative resume works in pretty much the same way as listing previous jobs. Here, too, we use the backward chronology.

Always start with your highest level of education: the name of your college, years of study, and the type of diploma, then go backward, finishing with your high school.

If you have a rich job career with many jobs, we strongly suggest not spending too much time and space in your resume on giving an overly detailed list of schools. Just list your college and your school, and you’re all set.

Right
Wrong

Adding some interesting details about your college/high school education is also a useful idea, just like with job experience.

Getting on the Dean’s list for several semesters in a row is another useful information, though we advise against stating it unless the conditions for it were higher than customary.

…And Some Useful Skills to Boot!

The more skills you have, the better your quality of both your business and your private life. Your potential employer should know about your skills, so this part of your customer service representative resume serves to do just that.

Again, this part of the resume should also be concise, yet informative, so the skills you need to list are only those connected to the job position you’re applying to.

Take a look at this example:

Skills

  • Interpersonal skills: Great
  • Troubleshooting skills: Excellent
  • Communicative skills: Excellent
  • Administrative skills: Great

Right
Skills

  • Geek
  • Gamer
  • Painter

Wrong

It’s nice to be skillful when it comes to your hobbies, but unless they’re connected to your job, you shouldn’t bring them up in your resume. List only the relevant skills, and don’t describe them in too many details!

ADDITIONAL TIPS: HOW TO MAKE YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE RESUME LOOK EVEN MORE PROFESSIONAL

This it! You have all the essential tips and tricks when it comes to writing a perfect CSR resume. You know what to add, you know what to exclude, and you know how to properly organize it.

Is there any place for improvement?

Absolutely!

Let us give you some additional tips about how to make your CSR resume even better, both aesthetically and structurally.

  • Proper Font Makes the Resume Prettier. There aren’t too many hard rules when it comes to choosing a font for your resume. The best thing you can do, however, is to choose a font that matches the resume template you’re using, though almost any other font will work just fine. Avoid using the hand-written font! This font, however beautiful from the aesthetic point of view, is not that easy to read, and you really don’t want to make it hard for your recruiters to read your resume!
  • Resume Size Matters. Like we already mentioned, overly long resumes are always to be avoided. You don’t wish to bombard the recruiters with excess information about yourself. Concise and relevant are the keywords here. Thusly, your resume should be one page long, two at most. Add only the information that is connected to your skills and experiences in your field of expertise, remove unnecessary words and phrases, and everything should be just the way you need it to be.
  • Bulleting Lists – Useful and Pretty. Bulletins are extremely useful when writing a resume. Not only do they make it look neat and well organized, but they also make it easier for the recruiters to get the necessary information about you and compare those with the job requirements.
  • Mind the File Format. When it comes to choosing your resume’s file format you can’t go wrong with the TXT format. It’s the most common type of format and can be read by most of the document readers. TXT format is also easy to edit, which is a great bonus when it comes to keeping your resume and the relevant info up to date. PDF file, on the other hand, is prettier and easier to read, and it is widely used for books. However, it’s slightly harder to edit, which can be a real bother at times. Our suggestion would be for you to have two copies of your resume: one in TXT and the other in PDF file format. You can quickly and easily edit the TXT version, then convert it into the PDF more professional looking PDF version.
  • Equipping CSR Resume with Proper Template. Other than bulletins, templates can help you with organizing and composing your customer service representative resume. Most of the resume templates out there are composed to look very neat and precise. However, it may be best at times for you to make your own template. In case you don’t have the time to spend on doing this you can always download some premade templates from various websites. Just chose one which best reflects your personality and the job position you’re applying for. Here are some templates for you to choose from!
  • Read and Read Again. So, your resume is finished, and everything looks well. All you need to do is hit the send button and wait for the good news, right? Well, wrong! The golden rule after writing your customer service representative resume is to reread it, and more than once! You want to avoid any grammar mistakes, accidental or otherwise! Go through the resume carefully, send it to a friend to check it for you just in case you’ve missed something, and send it after you’re absolutely sure all’s well. You also use the Grammarly site to check the grammar and make sure that no mistakes are made.
  • Political Opinions in a Customer Service Representative Resume. There’s nothing wrong with having your political beliefs and opinions, but should you put them in your CSR resume. Well, that’s a bit of a tricky issue. There is nothing wrong with adding them to your resume if you’re sure that your potential employers share them. There may even be some benefits to that as well. However, if the recruiters disagree with you, or favor a party opposing yours, then you’ll probably just ruin your chances of getting a job. Even in the case they do, you’ll never be sure whether they hired you because of your qualities, or simply because you’re all members of the same party. That’s why you should probably avoid sharing your political opinions in your resume, and stick to only the most relevant themes – your skills and experiences.
  • Resume Update. Age of information is the age of quickly advancing changes, heavily reflects in the business sphere. Jobs are also easier to find than in the past, and with the new job opportunities often suddenly appear, you better keep your resume updated so you can send at the moment’s notice. One must always be prepared for any eventuality!
  • Liar, Liar, Chances to Get the Job on Fire. We all heard the stories of people who lied about something in their resumes. Some of them may have even recommended to you to also embellish the truth for a bit. Our advice to you is: don’t. Just don’t. It’s a terrible idea. Lying in your customer service representative resume may give you some advantage, but that advantage is short-lived at best. There will come the moment where you’ll have to prove you can walk the walk, not just talk the talk, and then what? For example, you lied that you speak fluent Norwegian in your resume, which gave you an edge over your competitor. You’re convinced that there’s no way you’ll ever have to actually use this “skill”, so your secret would be safe. Or at least that’s what you think. One day, your superiors ask you to deal with a Norwegian customer who calls from Norway, but since their English is very bad, they ask if someone speaks Norwegian. Your superiors call you to resolve the situation. And since you don’t really speak the language, you fail miserably. Consequences: a failed task, a deeply unsatisfied customer, some very, very unhappy bosses. Finally – you’re unceremoniously fired. Never lie in your resume. By lying, you’re not only endangering the systems and networks entrusted to you, but you’re also endangering your own career.

CONCLUSION

That’s all folks! These are some basic instructions about writing your customer service representative resume.

You’ve seen some examples of a well-written resume, you know what to write and how to organize it, and you also know what not to do, which is equally important.

Get a resume template from the internet (or simply make your own) add only the relevant information about your skills, previous job experience, and accomplishments, and whatever you do, do not lie! It’s not ethical, and it can be more dangerous than you realize.

Now get out there, write and submit your resumes, and best of luck!

Customer Service Representative Resume: Sample and Complete Guide

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