Customer Support Resume Tips: How to Stand Out

So it’s time to look for a new job.

And with the new job hunt, also comes the time to refresh your resume.

Writing a normal customer support resume is actually pretty easy, but writing one that stands out takes more effort.

But no need to worry, today we’ll go over various tips to help your customer support resume stand out from the crowd and get the attention of recruiters.

Let’s dive in.

Customer Support vs Customer Service

First a word on customer support and customer service. After all, these terms have pretty clear differences.

Writing a resume for a customer support position will require a different approach than one for a customer service position.

Remember, customer service is a proactive set of best practices that seek to improve every interaction between the customer and business.

On the other hand, customer support is a set of processes set up to help customers who might require further assistance with questions, problems or issues.

The confusion between these terms exists because customer service skills are a must-have in customer support. So, while all your customers might receive customer service in one way or another, not all of them will require special assistance via customer support.

Want to learn more? Read our article on the difference between customer support and customer service.

Customer Support Skills to Highlight

Now, let’s talk about some customer support skills you should highlight on your resume.

Of course, there are the basic customer support skills you should always highlight:

• Attention to Detail
• Positive Attitude
• Time Management
• Empathy
• Patience

But there are a few specific skills that are a bit more valuable than others. Of course, these might vary on a case-by-case scenario, but we recommend giving these two and extra focus.

Sales Skills

Every good customer support professional will know that customer support can also be a sales channel. Therefore, honing your sales skills can be what sets you apart from other applicants.

Learn how to identify upsell opportunities and how to use sales language that will motivate the customer to happily upgrade their product or service.

Mastery of Product

Training new staff can take a long time. Companies will either spend time and money improving their training process or fixing the problems caused by poorly trained employees.

This creates an opportunity for you to stand out through the hiring process. Especially if you can prove that you know the company’s product like the palm of your hand.

Highlight any projects or use-cases you have experience with that involved their product or service. For example, if the company is a software developer, talk about some of the projects you’ve worked on using their software.

Want to learn more about customer support skills you should highlight? Read our guide on the 10 must-have customer support skills for 2020.

Tools and tech

Current customer support jobs rely heavily on technology. From the tools you use to communicate with customers, to the tools you use to manage their data.

Learning and highlighting your skills with customer support tools and technology can help your resume stand out.

The tools that each company uses for customer support will vary from company to company. But familiarizing yourself with the general concepts and use-cases will be quite helpful.

For example, do you know what a CRM is and what it can do?

Or do you know some of the best practices for using live chat as a customer support tool?

Do you know what browser recordings are and how they can be used in customer support?

Flaunt your KPIs

In Customer Support, Key Performance Indicators (or KPIs) are important metrics that help you keep track of your customer support performance.

For example, some popular customer support KPIs include Average Response Time and Average Resolution Time.

If you’re not currently tracking your own customer support KPIs we encourage you to do so, since they will help recruiters evaluate your skills right out of the gate.

However, keep in mind that customer support KPIs exist within an important context.

We recommend you read our guide on Customer Support KPIs and which metrics you should be tracking.

A word on resume samples and templates

Fire up your browser and search for “Customer Support Resume Samples” and you will have access to pre-made professional templates for you to use and easily put together a good-looking customer support resume.

Sounds easy. Right?

That’s because it is.

And as a result, many (if not most) people decide to go with this route when putting together their resumes.

The result? Piles and piles of resumes that all look the exact same.

Can you use resume samples and templates as a reference? Sure! Should you use them as they come and just plug in your own information? You could, but don’t be surprised when you don’t hear back from recruiters.

Going beyond Customer Support

Focusing on your customer support skills is important and should be the meat and potatoes of your resume.

However, it’s also beneficial to highlight your skills in other similar fields.

For example, what are some technical support skills you could highlight?

Have you ever worked on a customer success strategy for your customers?

After all, the skillsets required to achieve what we just mentioned are different than the usual customer support skillset.

Customer Support Interview Tips

Lastly, let’s talk about the interview process for customer support jobs.

Preparing for a customer support interview can seem quite intimidating. Maybe you’ll feel nervous just thinking about it.

The truth is that recruiters and HR professionals do these interviews all the time, it’s just another part of their job. So do not worry about being judged harshly over small mistakes.

However, to make your preparation process easier, we’ve put together a guide on common customer support interview questions and what recruiters are looking for in candidates.