Click here to read a detailed description of the customer service resume book. RESUME WRITING TIPS FOR CUSTOMER SERVICE POSITIONS Many job seekers have gained experience in customer service, retail and clerical positions. Yet, their job titles often do not present a strong image when included in their resumes. As a result, many job seekers do not land interviews for higher paying Customer Service positions. This had happened to Terry. She had worked for a Salvage Company as a Production Lead and as a Cashier for a toy store and a drive-up restaurant. However, she had been given responsibility for managing customer service operations and staff that greatly exceeded her job titles. Since Terry had just completed a nine-month Customer Service Program, she wanted to emphasize the office and computer skills she had gained so she started her resume with those skills. She then described her customer service and supervisory experience. Reviewing the sections shown above, what salary range do you think Terry was qualified for? Abbreviated Section from Terry's Before Resume: ____________________________________ Clerical Skills: Wordprocessing application skills include MS Word for Windows, Excel and spreadsheets. Coordinated multi-line phones for 100 departments and 200 extensions. Customer Service Experience: Over 5 years working with the public. Assisted over 200 customers daily simultaneously, over the phone and in person. Handled over $10,000 cash daily, accurately. Supervision and Training: Supervised and trained up to 6 employees in cashiering and stocking. Trained employees in order processing. ____________________________________ Now let's take a look at an abbreviated section from Terry’s after resume. Does your image of Terry’s skills change immediately--knowing that she wants a corporate Customer Service Representative position? Who would you call for an interview? Abbreviated Section from Terry's After Resume: ____________________________________ Customer Service Representative Managed my own station in addition to training and supervising staff providing customer service to over 600 customers, processing up to $21,000 daily. Staff Supervision / Training Supervised and trained over 40 managers and customer service staff in sales, cashiering, problem solving, inventory control and schematics. Computerized Office Applications Produced reports including sales, transaction analysis and staffing reports. Prepared correspondence, tables, charts and spreadsheets utilizing Word for Windows and Excel. ____________________________________ If you have extensive customer service, supervisory, retail management, sales or related background--and are seeking a salary in the $20,000 to $100,000+ range--then I recommend that you purchase my newest book, Proven Resumes: Strategies That Increase Salaries. It includes skill lists and sample sentences for 40 career fields including Customer Service Management, Retail Management, General Management, Sales and Marketing. This 148 page booklet and skill lists are written at a higher experience and salary level than the 56 page booklet. Click Proven Resumes Book in the left column for a detailed, section by section description. If you are a recent graduate of a Customer Service Program, have limited work experience and are seeking positions in the $8 to $14 an hour range then I recommend that you purchase my customer service resume book which is titled, 6 Easy Steps to Create Resumes and Cover Letters for Customer Service Students. This booklet will show you how to market your training in customer service and combine it with past work experience from other career fields. The customer service resume book opens by analyzing three sets of full-length resumes and teaching you how they were improved. It then takes you through 6 easy steps to create your resume and provides detailed step by step worksheets that guide you every step of the way. The first step is to help you list all of your skills and skill lists are provided for 12 of the most common career fields (this allows you to market both your technical skills and skills gained from other fields besides Customer Service). In the second step, you're guided in determining if skill headings or job titles will market you the best. Many job seekers have titles that are unrelated to the jobs they want. In this instance, they are better off marketing skills. In the third step, you're shown how to analyze want ads to identify keywords and experience employers want and are shown how to incorporate them into your resume. In the forth step, you are guided in selecting which titles and skill headings that you've developed which are the best match for the ad - you then use these in your resume. In the fifth step, you begin describing each skill heading or job title you'll use in your resume. To supplement this step you're provided with 12 Questions to help you fully describe your skills as illustrated by the last example in red above. In the sixth step, you complete your objective, employment and education sections. Again, you're provided with worksheets for each step and examples of how to complete each section of your resume are included. Two examples are provided that show you how to target your resume for specific positions. Targeting your resume often makes the difference between landing or not landing interviews. You are also provided with full-length before and after cover letters and you are shown how to analyze ads to develop powerful keyword headings for your cover letter paragraphs. After the cover letter section you are provided with full-length thank you letters. The thank-you letter examples will show you how to remind the employer of your top skills and to market additional skills not mentioned in your resume or during an interview. The last four pages of the book cover how to convert your nicely formatted resume into scannable and ASCII format. 425-398-7378 aspublishing@provenresumes.com ©Website Contents, Regina Pontow, 1997-2005 Worldwide Rights Reserved Website contents derivative of Proven Resumes & Confidence Builders, 1992-2005 DISCLAIMER Hard copy of the book can be ordered through Ten-Speed Press (www.tenspeed.com) plus shipping charges