![5 Retail Customer Service Resume Examples [& Templates]](https://beamjobs.wpenginepowered.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/retail-customer-service-standout-resume-example.png)
To write the best retail customer service resume, focus on showcasing your retail and customer skills, metrics, and frontline experience that hiring managers scan for in seconds—while customizing each section to mirror the job description and brand voice.
When ready, pair your copy with a thoughtfully crafted cover letter for the job and follow proven resume tips to stand out instantly in the competitive retail market.
Here’s what this guide will cover:
- ↪ Three hire-ready retail customer service resume examples
- ↪ How to show you’re cut out for the retail world—even if you’re switching careers
- ↪ The proven formula to nab your dream job, no fluff, just what works
Why this resume works
- There’s a lot that goes into writing an effective retail customer service resume that will sweep recruiters off their feet. And unknown to most, it isn’t just about the content; it’s also about the presentation.
- Take advantage of succinct bullet lists for your work experience section, bolded, larger text for section subheadings and your name, and, to top things off, and maybe even splash a little color on your job titles and workplaces.
How to Write a Retail Customer Service Resume
In retail, you’re a business juggler with expertise in multiple fields, like sales, product knowledge, and emotional intelligence. Rightfully so, your retail customer service resume should show your ability to represent a brand professionally using past work experiences.
Summary
Highlight your quantified work experiences and problem-solving skills to be a standout candidate in front of employers.
The best way to do so is to build strong skills, work, and education sections. These parts form 90% of your resume, and it’s important that you get them right before applying. Here’s what you will need to focus on most:
- Contact section
- Skills
- Work experience
- Action words
- Education
Craft a simple contact information section
You don’t need to go guns blazing from the get-go; save that for later. Make it as easy as possible for employers to reach you.
For your personal details, make sure you first add your name and then the title of the role you’re applying to. Next comes your phone number, email, and LinkedIn (if you have one).
Below, we’ve attached an example of a good, easy-to-follow contact section:
Leverage strong action words
Here’s when some of that earlier energy is going to work. Think of the best, most impactful verbs you can use to begin each work experience bullet point. This doesn’t mean you pick out random action words. Rather, curate those relevant to customer service.
Here’s a short list of words that are suited for retail customer service:
- Handled
- Oversaw
- Reconciled
- Maintained
- Resolved
Being unique is important here. Don’t use the same action word twice in a resume. A bullet point generator can help you come up with unique action words.
Education and certificates improve your profile
While it’s completely fine to have a high school diploma, it doesn’t hurt to mention a bachelor’s degree in retail. In fact, any bachelor’s will give off a better impression than a diploma (unless you have a retail-based diploma).
You want to focus on certificates more here. They’re the best evidence of showing your dedication to continuous retail education. Some certs worth adding or pursuing are:
- Retail Customer Service (CVS Health)
- Voice of the Customer (VoC): Enhancing Experiences (Coursera Instructor)
- GenAI for Customer Service Representatives (Coursera Instructor)
These three are just a few examples. You can explore different platforms, like EdX and LinkedIn Learning to get a course that fits you best.
Pick and only present the skills the job wants
Skills are the most easily-skimmable way for recruiters to get an idea of what you’re capable of. They won’t spend long reading while they’re narrowing down the resume pile, so make it clear that you can arrange a display and restock at top speed.
Tailor each skill to your profession. In retail customer service, you probably utilize a lot of soft skills like de-escalation and active listening, so be strategic about what you list instead of flattening your abilities into generic terms like “people skills” or “hard-working.”
Ask yourself questions like “What do I help customers with?” and “How do I work on bettering my employer’s reputation?” And add a few hard skills, too—just to show how well-rounded you are.
9 most popular retail customer service skills
- Problem-Solving
- Conflict Resolution
- Compassion
- Detail-Oriented
- MS Excel
- Data Entry
- Data Analysis
- Display Planning
- Google Sheets
Score winning points with qauntified achievements from the past
As important as your skills are, your work experience can make you stand out even more. After all, many retail customer service duties share a pretty universal foundation, making your individual experiences and accomplishments key selling points.
Take a look at your skills list and think of the most versatile and impressive situations when you put them to use. What did you do to help defuse a customer conflict? How did your prowess with seasonal displays improve store ratings?
Oh, and those ratings are examples of metrics, or quantifiable ways that you can measure the impact you’ve had. Since your goal is to show your abilities in action, you’ll need to measure the difference you made for your store and its customers.
Here are a few quantified examples of what recruiters like to see:
- Exceeded sales targets by 14% by maintaining a robust knowledge of inventory and customer needs
- Re-stocked inventory and updated back-end inventory systems using MS Excel to reduce error instances by 11%
- Assisted an average of 124+ customers per shift, ensuring customer satisfaction and surpassing targets by 23%
- Managed customer returns and surpassed previous customer service satisfaction rate of 92%
- Leveraged compassion and empathy to resolve 97% of customer issues or questions
Top 5 tips for your retail customer service resume
- Spotlight your versatility
- Again: Since many different customer service roles call upon the same skills, make sure you highlight the ones that make you stand out, like inventory error reduction or exceeding store-wide sales goals. Think of ways you applied your skills creatively in various situations.
- Make it quick!
- Recruiters only spend an average of a few seconds skimming your resume, so you want to cut right to the chase with your experience points. There’s no room to ramble, so slam out those customer assistance stories and satisfaction or budget metrics immediately.
- Pick a sleek template
- Another way to keep recruiters happy is to ensure that your resume template’s layout is super easy to skim. Don’t over-crowd things, and let your biggest selling points take the spotlight—like that time you completely revamped the inventory system to reduce budget waste!
- Avoid redundancy by giving context
- If you find yourself struggling to spruce up your fourth customer satisfaction percentage, use context to add interest! Carry your experience further with ratings or dollar amounts from as many different sales strategy projects and customer resolution scenarios as possible.
- Pay attention to tone
- This should go without saying, but make sure you maintain a positive tone in your experience section, even when referring to stressful situations. Instead of focusing on a problem like customer conflict, mention it briefly for context and then enthusiastically emphasize your customer solutions.
Key takeaways
- Demonstrate your retail and customer service skills
- Bring numbers from your past achievements
- Position your resume for a win with the right format
- Leverage relevant education and certifications
- Keep things specific to the retail job and company you’re applying to
- Never leave any errors in your final copy
Retail Customer Service Resume FAQs
A retail customer service resume is a document that shows your overall profile and experience working in the field. It is the first impression an employer has of you and hence it’s best to align each resume as per the job description.
Use quantified bullet points to describe retail customer service on a resume. For each point, include a unique impact that helped a business. For example, write one sentence about improving the monthly resolution rate while writing another about lowering billing disputes.
Actually, yes. It’s best to avoid metrics involving random numbers that don’t really measure your impact. Examples include free-floating headcounts of team members or customers that you assisted. Go a step further: What did you accomplish in a team setting? What percentages or sales profits did you bolster with exemplary customer service?
You can use creative wording in your experience section, as long as it’s appropriate for retail customer service and matches the vibe of the job ad you’re responding to. Don’t go too off the wall, though—and don’t use distracting colors or fonts, either. Readability comes first.
