TL;DR
- A customer service representative, associate, adviser or agent is the person an organisation's customers deal with: answering questions, taking orders and payments, fixing problems, handling complaints and following up, in person, by phone, by email, by chat or on social media.
- The six duties are answering and advising, processing orders, payments and changes, resolving problems and complaints, keeping accurate records, meeting service standards and targets, and passing on what customers say. A call centre role does the same work by phone and chat, at volume, with measured handling times.
- Employers ask for clear communication, patience, product knowledge, problem-solving, accuracy with systems and resilience. In England the role sits within the level 2 customer service practitioner apprenticeship standard.
Every organisation has one job whose title changes with the decade: customer service representative, customer service associate, adviser, agent, consultant, specialist. The work behind the titles is the same, and it is the work that decides whether a customer comes back.
This customer service representative job description explains what the role involves, sets out six duties, describes the channels and settings, shows what changes in a call centre, lists the skills employers ask for, gives a job specification template that you can adapt and suggests how to describe the work on a CV.
Customer service teams are measured constantly, and the people doing the work should hear how they are doing as often as the dashboard does. See how New Dynamics continuous feedback supports check-ins between managers and their teams, so that the numbers come with a conversation.
What is a customer service representative?
The Cambridge Dictionary defines customer service as “the part of an organization that answers customers' questions, exchanges goods that are not satisfactory, etc.” and, in its business sense, as “the way that an organization deals with customers before, during, and after a sale”. A customer service representative is the person who does that: the organisation's voice to its customers, and their voice back to the organisation.
In England the role has an occupational standard. Skills England's customer service practitioner standard, at level 2, says: “The role of a customer service practitioner is to deliver high quality products and services to the customers of their organisation.” It describes the contacts as one-off or routine and lists what they include: “dealing with orders, payments, offering advice, guidance and support, meet-and-greet, sales, fixing problems, after care, service recovery or gaining insight through measuring customer satisfaction”. The standard adds: “You may be the first point of contact and work in any sector or organisation type.”
Titles vary by employer and country. Representative and associate are common in the United States and in large companies; adviser, assistant and agent are common in the UK. The job specification should say which and mean the same thing.
Customer service representative duties: six responsibilities
- Answer and advise. Respond to questions about products, services, accounts and processes, in the channel the customer chose, accurately and within the service standard.
- Process orders, payments and changes. Take orders, process payments and refunds, update accounts and arrange deliveries, exchanges and returns.
- Resolve problems and complaints. Find out what went wrong, fix what can be fixed, explain what cannot, and escalate the rest to the right person with a clear note.
- Keep accurate records. Log every contact, what was agreed and what happens next, so that the next person, or the customer's next call, starts from the facts.
- Meet service standards and targets. Response times, resolution rates, quality scores and, in sales-led roles, conversion, within the organisation's policies and any regulatory requirements.
- Pass on what customers say. Feed back recurring problems, product faults and requests to the teams that can act on them.
The standard also describes the knowledge behind the work: knowing who the customers are, internal and external, the organisation's purpose, values and “brand promise”, and its policies and complaints processes.
Channels and settings
The standard lists the channels a customer service practitioner may work in: “face-to-face, telephone, post, email, text and social media”. Chat and messaging apps now sit alongside them. The settings differ more than the duties.
| Setting | What is distinctive |
|---|---|
| Retail and hospitality counter | Face to face, queues, cash and card handling, returns |
| Contact or call centre | Phone and chat at volume, scripts and knowledge bases, measured handling times |
| Help desk or support | Technical questions, tickets, tiers of escalation |
| Branch or office | Accounts, appointments, identity checks, regulated products |
| Field | Visits to the customer's premises, as the standard notes |
Our bank teller job description shows the branch version, where the customer service adviser title is common.
What changes in a call centre
A call centre job description is a customer service job description with three additions. Volume and time: calls and chats arrive continuously, and handling time, queue time and calls per hour are measured. Structure: scripts, call flows and a knowledge base standardise answers, and quality is assessed against them. Environment: shifts across extended hours, a headset for the whole shift and screen work throughout, which in the UK brings the display screen equipment rules described in our data entry clerk job description. Say all three in the advert.
Skills employers ask for
- Clear communication, spoken and written, in plain language, adapted to the customer.
- Patience and empathy, especially with customers who are anxious, angry or confused.
- Product and process knowledge, and the willingness to look things up rather than guess.
- Problem-solving, and the judgement to know what to fix and what to escalate.
- Accuracy with systems, because the record is the service.
- Resilience, for the tenth difficult call of the shift.
- Teamwork, because most problems are solved by more than one person.
Prospects, the UK graduate careers service, describes the manager's side of the same work in its customer service manager job profile: investigating and resolving problems escalated by customer service assistants, handling complaints and major incidents, issuing refunds or compensation, keeping accurate records and setting performance targets for the team. Representatives who do the six duties well are the people those managers are promoted from.
No qualifications are usually required. Employers train on their products, systems and standards, and in England the level 2 apprenticeship, typically 12 months, formalises that training.
Customer service representative job specification template
Adapt the template to your channels and setting. Keep every line true.
Job title: Customer service representative (associate, adviser)
Reports to: Customer service team leader or manager
Hours and location: [Full-time or part-time], [shift pattern], [office, contact centre, hybrid or remote]
Purpose of the role: To help our customers by [channels], answering questions, processing orders and payments and resolving problems accurately and within our service standards.
Main duties:
- Answer customer questions by [channels] within the service standard
- Process orders, payments, refunds, changes and returns on [systems]
- Resolve problems and complaints, and escalate with a clear note where needed
- Record every contact accurately
- Meet response time, resolution and quality targets, within policy and [regulatory requirements]
- Report recurring problems and customer feedback to [the relevant teams]
Skills and experience:
- Clear spoken and written communication
- Patient, calm and accurate under pressure
- Confident with [systems], or able to learn them quickly
- Experience of customer-facing work welcome but not required; full training provided
Measures: [Response time], [resolution rate], [quality score], reviewed together each month
We provide: Training on products, systems and standards, a named team leader, regular one-to-ones and a route to senior adviser and team leader roles.
Say the channels, the shifts and the measures. "Customer service representative" alone could mean a shop counter or a night-shift chat queue. Our job description template explains the structure.
How to describe customer service work on a CV
Employers want channels, volume and results. The lines below are invented examples, to show the form.
- State the channels and volume. “Handled around 60 calls and 40 chats a day for a utility's billing team.”
- Show results. “Resolved 85% of contacts at first contact against a team target of 80%.”
- Show complaints. “Handled escalated complaints and refunds up to £200 within policy.”
- Name the systems. The CRM, telephony and ticketing tools you have used.
- Show feedback. “Reported a recurring billing error that was fixed for all customers.”
Common mistakes in customer service adverts
No channels. Phone, chat, email and face to face are different jobs to the people who do them.
Hidden shifts. Evenings, weekends and bank holidays belong in the first paragraph.
Targets without support. Handling time targets with no training, knowledge base or team leader cover produce turnover.
Advertising for a personality. "Bubbly" is not a skill. Ask for clear communication, patience and accuracy.
No route onward. Senior adviser, quality, training and team leader roles come from the front line. Say so.
Frequently asked questions
What does a customer service representative do?
A customer service representative answers customers' questions, processes orders, payments and changes, resolves problems and complaints, records every contact, meets service standards and targets, and passes recurring issues back to the teams that can fix them, by phone, chat, email, social media or face to face.
What is a customer service associate?
Customer service associate is another title for the same role, common in the United States and in large companies. Representative, adviser, assistant, agent and consultant are used elsewhere. The duties are the same; the job specification should say which channels and setting apply.
What is the difference between customer service and a call centre job?
A call centre job is customer service done by phone and chat at volume, with scripts, a knowledge base, measured handling times and shift patterns across extended hours. The six duties are the same; the pace, the structure and the environment differ.
What skills does a customer service representative need?
Clear spoken and written communication, patience and empathy, product and process knowledge, problem-solving and judgement about escalation, accuracy with systems, resilience and teamwork.
What qualifications do you need for customer service?
Usually none. Employers train on their products, systems and standards. In England the level 2 customer service practitioner apprenticeship, typically 12 months, formalises that training, and Skills England's standard describes the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected.
What should a customer service job specification include?
The title and its equivalents, who the role reports to, the channels, the shifts and location, the purpose of the role, six or seven main duties, the systems used, the skills required, the measures and how they are reviewed, and the training and progression offered.
Your next step
If you are hiring, write the channels, the shifts and the measures into the first paragraph of the advert. If you are applying, rewrite one line of your CV with a channel, a daily volume and a result.
For a method that gives frontline staff regular, useful feedback rather than a monthly dashboard, read and download our employee feedback guide. The guide is free to read, and the PDF uses our short download form.
Want service targets, check-ins and development in one place for every adviser? Book a New Dynamics demo and bring your current approach. You can also email contact@new-dynamics.com.
