Customer service jobs are a critical aspect of modern business. According to Gartner, if customers have effortless customer service interactions, they are 94% more likely to repurchase the product or service, and there’s an 88% probability of spending more.

Read this guide to find answers to:

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What is a customer service job?

A customer service job covers any role that supports a business’ customers/users/subscribers by answering questions, providing information, or solving issues about the products or services being offered. This service can be done in-store, but is more commonly taken care of nowadays using digital communication channels like phone call, email, social media, or chat.

Customer service agents are the front-line employees with the day-to-day responsibility of managing data entry, attending all inbound calls, and delivering excellent customer service across various communication channels. A customer service rep is responsible for updating company policies on self-service portals used by customers to solve their issues. 

It is also the customer service team’s job to relay any insights from the customer base to the product, sales, and engineering teams at a company.

Who should apply for customer service jobs?

An ideal customer service representative is much more than someone with a good customer service resume. They need interpersonal skills like empathy, curiosity, and strong problem-solving skills. Some customer service jobs may require individuals to have the technical acumen to help customers troubleshoot advanced technical issues.

A good customer support representative also stays up to date with customer trends and behavioral changes. They are receptive to feedback and are willing to create or revise documentation if need be, reach out to the technical team for support on solving a ticket or surface a larger issue to your product team in time. Everything they do and focus on will be with the intent to improve the customer service experience, not just for existing customers but for potential users.

How to choose the right customer service job?

If you are just starting in the customer service domain, you will come across various customer service jobs. With new roles and titles being created and posted every day, customer service jobs may be offered on a full-time or part-time basis as required by companies. Customer service teams are facing new challenges every day and may need an extra pair of hands during the holiday season to attend to the ever-increasing number of customer queries. As a result, you may even find job alerts in customer care that offer remote work, allowing you to work from home rather than an on-premise contact center.

While most customer service roles are front-line, customer-facing roles - where the skill sets and the responsibilities are common, one way to think about finding the right job for you is to look for growth potential. Even if you are currently in a customer service role and are wondering what a career path might look like, here are the three primary job categories for career growth in customer service.

Operations

As support teams grow, they often need to find someone to shift their focus to the operational side of the team. This could mean shifting focus to customer service responsibilities like data entry, maintaining documentation, scheduling on-site client services, testing and implementing new tools, or other account management activities. This is a good role for people that like to organize and plan.

People

This job category suits customer support representatives who want to lead a team or become a supervisor. Their job responsibilities include managing the schedule for their team members, monitoring and evaluating their performance, and ensuring that the team feels happy and supported. 

This job type is also responsible for communicating the business objectives and assigning goals for the team members. This is a great role for someone who has great interpersonal skills and identifies as a “connector” or relationship-builder during the tenure of their customer service job.

Technical

If you possess technical acumen or are inclined toward the engineering side of things, this might be the job category for you. Usually, someone who chooses to go down a technical career path will be offered the job title of Support Engineer or Customer Support Specialist-IT. This job entails responsibilities like building tools for support, troubleshooting technical issues, or working on the actual engineering team at a company.

Tip: Make a list of the things that you enjoy doing in your current role, and try to find a customer service job description that underlines those skill sets.

Take a quiz to know your ideal customer service role

How to get a customer service job?

Always customize your profile while applying for a customer service job. This will help you highlight why you are a good fit for the role and make your profile stand out from other applicants. Here are a few steps that can help you build your job application.

STEP 1: Identify your skills

If you wish to have a career in customer service, you should be able to communicate effectively - and that starts with communicating what you’re good at and what you bring to the table. Start by noting down your skills, which you have honed over time. This will help you present your best version in front of recruiters. Don’t forget to browse through the ultimate list of customer service skills. This will help you present your story in a better manner.

STEP 2: Highlight your customer service experience

How much experience do you have in customer service? Which companies have you worked for? Remember, some companies may be looking for candidates with experience in larger companies or similar industries 

Take time to identify which type of company you are applying to and what they are looking for so you can highlight your experience accordingly. Based on your experience, don’t forget to check if the role you’re applying for is an entry-level job or needs someone with considerable years of experience to supervise teams or handle complex issues.

STEP 3: Build your resume

As a customer support representative, you will be expected to communicate your experience and skills, underlining why you’re qualified to be considered for the job. Ideally, your resume should be no more than one page. Use simple and crisp statements to convey what you have worked on, where your expertise lie, and the additional skills you bring to the table. For example, instead of saying, “I helped build a team,” you may write, “I assisted in hiring half of the new support team staff.”

Learn how to write a resume for a customer service job

STEP 4: Craft a cover letter

Once you have identified the right skill sets, made notes of your previous work, and communicated the same using your resume, you’re all set to search for the job that suits your profile. Sometimes, a resume is not enough to convince the hiring manager about your candidature. We recommend you write a cover letter for the customer service job you are applying to. This will increase your chances of being considered for the role.

Learn how to write a cover letter for a customer service job

What to know before a customer service job interview

Before you go into an interview for a customer service job, there are some things that you should educate yourself about. Make notes about the company, any challenges you may face on the job, details of the product/services, and the company culture.

We have made a list of questions for you to find answers to before stepping into the interview process.

Once you find answers to these questions, take a moment to analyze if it aligns with what you’re looking for.

Hiring for a customer service job? Get 40+ questions to find the perfect addition to your team.

What questions should you ask the recruiter?

During and leading up to an interview, it can feel like all of your focus is on preparing for the questions that the recruiter will ask you on the first call. But it can be just as important to think about what you will ask the recruiter. Your prospective employer would appreciate it if you have done your share of research and have opinions to share and questions to ask.

Here are a few great questions to get some conversation going:

What are the most important skills for this role?

This helps you to see if your expectations of the role and the reality of the role align. You can also then ask further questions about why they think those skills are so important.

What are some reasons that other candidates haven’t been selected?

This can help identify mistakes that other candidates have made so you can avoid them.

What do the compensation and benefits for the position look like?

You should get to know about the salary being offered for the position. Follow it up by getting clarity on the additional benefits offered before you or the hiring company put too much energy into the interview process.

How would you define the culture at the company?

Understanding a company’s values and culture can help you decide if it is the right fit for you. It will also help you anticipate what questions they might ask you about your personality and the type of working environment you flourish in.

How long has this position been open, and is it backfilled or newly created?

If the position has been open for a long time, you may ask why the position has been open for so long. Knowing a little history about the position can give you useful insight into the company. If the position has been open for a long time, it might indicate that the company is fairly picky about its hires or that the hiring process is long. If the position is a backfill, it could be useful to know whether the person whose place you’ll be taking was fired or left and why.

Do you need experience with a help desk to get a customer service job?

Almost all businesses today use some form of customer service software to streamline their service operations. And like salespeople and marketers call out the technology they have experience using right on their resumes, is it necessary for you to know your way around a help desk in order to win a job in customer service? 

Well, if you are just applying for your first-ever customer support job, it’s possible that you might not have any experience with helpdesk software, and that’s ok. Most entry-level roles will have an onboarding process that will walk you through the tools used by your new team. But, experience in help desk ticketing software is incredibly important, as it is likely where you will spend most of your time.

 

TIP: Many help desk software offer a free trial. Find out which one the company you’re interviewing with uses, and sign up to test it out before your interview.

If you do not have experience with helpdesk software, ask the person you are interviewing to give you a tour of what the daily process of a support agent looks like. If you do have experience with customer service software, ask questions about how the company you’re interviewing with uses the one that they are currently under contract with. You can even share how you recorded and analyzed customer data at your previous company and recommend best practices you swear by, adding immense value to your interview process.

Get the list of skills you can excel in before you receive formal customer service training

Get started with remote customer service jobs

Remote customer service jobs give you the opportunity to make a huge impact on the lives of your customers and potentially on your product from the comfort of your home. We hope the guide proves useful while applying for the online customer service jobs you’ve always wanted. Once you get that job, check out these blogs created specifically to make new service agents feel at ease at work.

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