Customer service CV: example and tips

What employers look for in customer service

Customer service exists in almost every industry: energy, telecoms, banking and insurance, online retail, travel and the public sector. The tasks are similar. You answer enquiries by phone, chat, email and social media, solve the issue or pass it on to the right person, and log everything in a system. The employer wants to know that you can handle the pace, are accurate and will stay in the job over time.

Contact centres often receive many applications and almost always use an applicant tracking system. That is why the words matter. Use the ad's own words where they match what you have done, and name the channels and systems. With the ATS score you can see which words from the ad are missing from your CV. These words come up often:

• Customer service, customer care and customer experience.
• Enquiries by phone, chat, email and social media.
• First line, second line and case handling.
• Solution oriented, patient and structured.
• Customer satisfaction, NPS and first contact resolution.
• Sales, upselling and customer loyalty, especially in telecoms, energy and insurance.
• Good spoken and written Norwegian, often English too.

Formal requirements and what should stand out

Most customer service jobs have no formal requirements for education or certificates, and many contact centres provide thorough training in the first weeks. That means other things carry more weight: language, availability and reliability.

State your language level clearly, for example “Norwegian: fluent spoken and written” and “English: very good”, and include any other languages you can use in the job. Also say whether you can work evenings, weekends or shifts, and whether you have worked from home with fixed routines. If you have courses from previous employers in, for example, complaint handling, sales or data protection, list them under courses with the year.

If the ad asks for a specific education, approval or course, for example at a bank or an insurance company, put what you have of that high up in your CV with the name and year. It is often the first thing the reader looks for.

Example of a summary for a customer service CV

The summary should mention the channels you have worked in, the volume and something you are particularly good at. Here is a made up example:

Example: “Customer service adviser with three years of experience in contact centres for energy and telecoms. Handled 60 to 80 enquiries a day by phone, chat and email, with customer satisfaction above the team target every quarter. Knows Salesforce and Puzzel well, and has trained new starters in complaint handling routines. Looking for a role with more responsibility for complex cases and customer follow up.”

Adapt the summary to each ad. If the job involves sales, put sales first. If it is a second line role, put case handling and product knowledge first. Read more in our guide to writing a CV summary.

Bullet points with results: weak versus strong

Customer service is one of the jobs where numbers are easiest to find, because almost everything is measured. Use that. Number of enquiries, customer satisfaction, share of cases solved at first contact, response time and sales are figures a contact centre manager understands at once. Ask your manager for the figures if you do not have them.

• Weak: “Answered the phone.” Strong: “Handled 60 to 80 enquiries a day by phone and chat about invoices, moving house and changing contracts.”
• Weak: “Happy customers.” Strong: “Achieved customer satisfaction of 4.7 out of 5 over a year, against a team target of 4.3.”
• Weak: “Solved cases.” Strong: “Solved 85 percent of cases at first contact, so fewer customers had to call back.”
• Weak: “Worked with sales.” Strong: “Sold add-on services to 15 percent of customers who called about other matters, and reached the sales target nine months out of twelve.”
• Weak: “Handled complaints.” Strong: “Took over complex complaints from the first line and cut case handling time from ten days to four.”
• Weak: “Wrote email replies.” Strong: “Wrote 20 new standard replies for email and chat, which shortened response times for the whole team.”

Systems, skills and courses worth including

Name the systems. It helps both the applicant tracking system and the person reading, and shows you will need less training. Only include what you have used in practice.

• Customer relationship systems (CRM) such as Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics or HubSpot.
• Customer service and case handling tools such as Zendesk, Freshdesk or Puzzel.
• Chat and social media: replying to customers on Facebook, Instagram and in website chat.
• Office, Teams and internal knowledge bases.
• Fast and accurate writing in Norwegian, ideally English too.
• Courses in complaint handling, sales, communication or data protection.

First job in customer service, or long experience

Customer service is a common first job, and many contact centres hire students and people without experience. If you have worked in a shop, a restaurant, at a reception desk or in telesales, you have customer experience. Write it like this: how many customers, what kind of questions and how you solved them. If you have no work experience, school, positions in clubs and volunteering can show that you are reliable and like helping people. Also say when you can work, especially if you can take evenings and weekends. See our guide to relevant work experience as a student for more ideas.

If you have worked in customer service for many years, your CV should show progression: from first line to second line, super user, team leader or quality lead. Include what you have improved, for example new routines, training new starters or work on the knowledge base. Shorten the oldest jobs, and put the figures from recent years at the top.

Common mistakes in a customer service CV

These mistakes come up again and again, and most are easy to fix:

• Only tasks and no numbers, even though the job was full of measurements.
• “Good at communication” without an example. Show it with a result instead.
• Spelling mistakes. In a job where you write to customers every day, they get noticed.
• Systems without names, such as “various customer systems”.
• No clear information about languages and when you can work.
• The same CV for sales, support and case handling, even though the roles look for different things.

The application for a customer service job

The application is often the first thing the employer sees of how you write. Keep it short, correct and friendly. Explain why you want to work for that particular company, and give one or two examples of customers you have helped. Our guide on how to write a cover letter walks through the structure.

Selja can create both the CV and the cover letter for you. Paste in the ad, and you get a professional, ATS-friendly CV and cover letter tailored to the job in under a minute, based on the CV you already have. Nothing is added that you have not done. Many contact centres start with a phone or video interview, so it is worth practising with the interview questions for the role.