With jobs in short supply everywhere, it's essential that your resume always at its best. Many resume tips focus on generic skills, but there are a few things you can do to boost your resume for any customer service job even further.
Be specific: Ironically, this resume tip may seem rather generic, but you need to consider how what you've done has helped people. If you've worked in a customer service job before, you should have lots of examples to choose from, but if you haven't, this might be a little trickier. You also want to show that you can problem solve and answer questions satisfactorily under pressure, so you should highlight situations that demonstrate this. If you've been working in another industry, you probably will have done this with coworkers; if you're in school, you may have done this as part of extracurricular activities. Consider a time when you helped someone—you might have been an usher at a school event or a volunteer. Include it, and then a recruiter can tick the "has evidence of customer service skills" box.
Incorporate hard data: If you're applying for a management position for the first time, you'll want to include raw data about your prior experience. For customer service managers, this might include the customer satisfaction rates for your department and general statistics relating to your department. If your statistics dipped while you were there, you might want to merely say that you maintained a satisfaction rate above a certain level without qualifying this. This resume tip shows that you understand the importance of data, and it gives the recruiter some measurable information to compare you against other candidates. Of course, different places measure customer satisfaction and other statistics in different ways, so the comparison may well be meaningless, but this resume tip at least gives your recruiter something to work with. Don't forget to review the stats you've used in your resume before any interview to ensure you're consistent.
Check your social media settings: Sadly, the first thing that many recruiters will do is check for all publically available information on an applicant. While this resume tip isn't strictly relevant to your resume, it does help if you can maintain a professional image in all public places, including online. Turn your Facebook profile to private to hide any embarrassing images, ensure your Twitter account doesn't contain anything controversial, and check your other social media profiles for similar issues. Don't forget to create a LinkedIn profile—94 percent of interviewers who use social media use LinkedIn. Customer service often involves being the public face of a company, so interviewers will want to ensure you can trusted to maintain the company's image.
Ultimately, the best resume tip is to be yourself and ensure you back up all of your skill statements with examples, whether in your cover letter or in your resume. Remove anything that's incriminating from your public profiles, and deliver the best impression you can.
(Photo courtesy of mrsiraphol / freedigitalphotos.net)
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