Best Customer Service Keywords to List on a Resume With Examples
When employers have an open customer service position, they’re often bombarded with resumes of potential candidates looking to get hired. If you’re one of those candidates, you can make some improvements to help your resume stand out. In practical terms, your resume may not even be read in its entirety even if the formatting and content are all flawless. This is due to the increasing prevalence of application scanning technology. Learn how you can get your resume noticed by including the best customer service keywords.
Best Customer Service Keywords
A keyword is the search term employers use when scanning your resume. There are a variety of keywords related to customer service positions, all with varying importance that serves to highlight various skills. While it is essential that you include high ranking keywords in your resume, try not to ‘overstuff’ keywords to the point at which your resume is repetitive or awkward.
Here are the best customer service keywords to include in your resume:
Service
Service may be the most important factor in any customer service position. While there are hard skills involved in virtually every customer service position, your service abilities are going to be what you use the most. This word can show up in your skills section as well as your experience section to highlight previous jobs in which you provided customer service. It’s generally a good idea to mention service extensively throughout your resume, but that will likely come naturally, especially if the job title you’re applying for includes the word.
Customer
Similar to service, customer is an essential keyword for any customer service position. This should come as no surprise as customers are the central focus of the position. You can use this word in a variety of areas from previous experience to skills. Even upselling could be framed using the word ‘customer.’ For example, ‘Practiced upselling to customers and increased sales of special items by 14%.’
Communication
One of the most common skills listed on any resume is written and verbal communication. This is because it’s applicable in just about every imaginable position, though it’s especially important for customer service jobs. When listing your skills, it’s always helpful to put communication near the top of the list to emphasize your prioritization and to get picked up by resume scanners.
Organization
Being able to keep your workspace and materials organized is key to providing the premier customer service experience your clients will expect. That’s why organization is one of the most important keywords to include on your resume. Quite a few factors are involved in effective organization, including managing customer orders, storing customer information and simply keeping your workspace neat.
Answering
Answering takes on two primary roles when it comes to customer service. It could either be in reference to answering phones or answering questions from customers. Most positions have you doing a bit of both, so it can be an easy way to include a few mentions of answering in your resume simply by describing your skills and previous job experiences.
Phone
The phone is a key part of many customer service positions. Talking on the phone is a skill worth mentioning in general, but it’s especially important in the field of customer service. You can mention this keyword in your previous work experience to emphasize the volume of calls you handled as a way to quantify and highlight how strong your phone skills are.
Scheduling
Many customer service positions require scheduling skills, especially if you’re helping clients enjoy a service. Scheduling can involve a variety of factors including software proficiencies and database management, so including this keyword a few times should be easy. Considering that some positions center around scheduling, the inclusion of the keyword is essential for any resume.
Database
Databases are used by numerous companies to keep track of customer information and orders. In a customer service position, you’ll have to access a database, in most cases, to find the information required to help with certain customer requests. While most jobs will be willing to train you to use a database, employers are always going to prefer that you have some previous experience beforehand. Mentioning database specifically as a keyword is an effective way to get picked up on a resume scanner looking for candidates who won’t take long to train.
Manage
Even for customer service positions that aren’t technically managerial positions, having experience or skills as a manager will always help your resume stand out from the competition. Customer service is meant to handle all customer concerns so upper-level management doesn’t have to. That’s why it’s important for customer service staff to be able to make executive decisions and judgments, within the extent of their own authority, to address and solve customer concerns efficiently.
Solutions
Solutions are essentially what customer service workers specialize in. Being able to provide and find solutions to complex problems is an essential requirement for the position. Detailing your proficiency in finding solutions in addition to creative problem-solving can do much to make your resume stand out among the rest.
Team
Customer service workers rarely work alone. Since no single worker is likely to be the complete source for solutions all customers could potentially need, being able to work as a team is necessary to maintain operational efficiency. By detailing your teamwork abilities as well as describing past work experiences working or managing a team, your resume will showcase your collaborative abilities.
Computer
Nearly all customer service positions require the use of a computer. Resume scanners will often search for computer skills in resumes if the company you’re applying to doesn’t want to spend extensive time training candidates. By listing your computer skills along with programs you’re familiar with that are relevant to customer service, your resume will put you in a much better position to get hired.