What is a customer service representative?
Customer service representatives interact with customers on behalf of an organization. Their primary job is to address customer issues and resolve them in a timely and efficient manner. They answer questions and resolve problems, depending on which industry they belong to.
The target is to ensure excellent service standards, respond efficiently to customer inquiries and maintain high customer satisfaction.
How to become a customer service representative
You can take a college course before applying for a job. Courses are widely available and include:
- Level 1 Certificate in Customer Service
- Level 2 Certificate in Contact Centre Operations
You can also do a customer service intermediate apprenticeship or an advanced apprenticeship as a customer service specialist. For the entry requirements, you’ll usually need:
- Some GCSEs, usually including English and maths, or equivalent, for an intermediate apprenticeship
- 5 GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for an advanced apprenticeship
Customer Service Representative Duties:
Customer Service Representative duties are diverse and depend on the employer and specialty, but some responsibilities are common to most:
- Identify and assess customers’ needs to achieve satisfaction
- Build sustainable relationships and trust with customer accounts through open and interactive communication
- Provide accurate, valid and complete information by using the right methods/tools
- Review or make changes to customer accounts
- Communicating with clients and customers about their experiences with a product or service
- Providing advice on purchasing products or services
Customer Service Representative Skills:
To be an effective customer service representative, you’ll need certain skills and competencies. The following are often cited in job vacancies:
- Documentation skills
- Listening skills
- Phone skills
- Conflict resolution
- Organizational skills
- Adaptability
- Ability to work under pressure
- Patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
How to find a customer service representative job
These jobs are advertised online, in local newspapers and at your local jobcentre. To find all the customer service representative jobs near you, you need to:
- Search for customer service representative jobs on popular job websites such as; Indeed, Total Jobs and CV Library
- Use the DWP’s Find A Job Service
- Check local newspapers and local Facebook groups, especially groups dedicated to local jobs
Customer Service Representative Job Titles
When you search for customer service representative jobs online, be aware that the jobs might be advertised using a different job title. Popular job titles for customer service representative jobs include;
- Customer Service Assistant
- Trainee Technical Support
- Call Center Representative
- Customer Service Agent
- Implementation Consultant
- Customer Care Representative
- Client Service Associate
- Client Service Representative
- Guest Services Coordinator
What does a customer service representative do?
The day-to-day tasks of a customer service representative include;
- Answer customers’ questions by phone, email or webchat, on social media, or face to face
- Give quotations and check product availability
- Sell products or services and take payments
- Handle complaints or pass them to a supervisor
- Add customer information onto a computer system
- Track orders and arrange deliveries