A good customer service representative is worth his or her proverbial weight in gold, making competition for top talent in the field quite stiff. The situation is further complicated by the glut of mediocre applicants who are still developing their service skills or who just aren’t cut out for the hard work involved in keeping customers happy. Separating the wheat from the chaff begins with the words you choose when drafting a job description. A well-written announcement helps to weed out those who would otherwise waste your time, while also helping the best prospects to see themselves working for you. Consider this customer service representative job description sample when deciding how to frame your approach to finding top talent.
Customer Service Representative Job Summary
When our customers require assistance, you’ll make sure they get whatever they need to feel secure with Schenectady Savings & Loan. You will greet all clients with a smiling face and an attitude that declares your eagerness to serve. You’ll answer the phones with a smile that can be heard on the other end. You’ll use your charm, pleasant demeanor and can-do attitude to offer banking the SSL way! Along the way, you’ll help our customers manage their accounts, make deposits, send money to friends and family, and more.
Schenectady Savings & Loan offers industry-leading benefits that include:
• Competitive salaries
• Company-provided healthcare
• Roth IRA and 401K
• Paid Time Off
• Tuition assistance
• Management development courses
Customer Service Representative Job Responsibilities
- Greet all guests as they enter your assigned branch
- Open and close saving and checking accounts for customers
- Process wire transfers and issue certified checks
- Collect and safeguard sensitive financial data
- Identify opportunities to promote banking products and refer clients to appropriate managers
- Overcome objections and resistance in a positive, “non-salesy” manner
- Courteously and competently resolve all customer complaints, taking ownership from first contact to final resolution
- Assist customers with inquiries and issues over the phone
- Complete telephone banking transactions with clients
- Provide accurate information about the bank and our products and services
- Maintain positive ratings based on customer feedback
- Meet and/or exceed performance evaluation metrics
- Obtain and maintain all federal, state and local licenses and certifications
- Comply with all applicable laws and regulations
- Uphold the bank’s values and policies
Customer Service Representative Skills and Qualifications
- Associate’s Degree
- Bachelor’s Degree in business or related field preferred
- Six months of experience as a bank teller, or one to two years of customer service experience with at least six months of cash-handling experience
- Self-starter and fast learner who can adapt to an ever-changing environment
- Sales experience
- Strong work ethic
- Ability to defuse difficult situations under pressure
- Excellent, professional interpersonal, oral and written communication skills
- Multitasker with ability to juggle multiple, competing priorities in a fast-paced workplace
- Verifiable touch-typing speed of 45 WPM or greater
- Proficient in Microsoft Office
- Licensed and certified in compliance with applicable laws, or eligible to secure required licensing and certification within 90 days of employment
Company Profile
Schenectady Savings & Loan has been a household name in the Mid-Atlantic Region for over a century. We take pride in our role as a financial bulwark that has helped people and businesses in New York and beyond achieve their dreams. As a new century picks up steam, our momentum continues to grow along with our strength. Thanks to our sound judgment, consistent values and the best employees in the world, the next hundred years look just as bright for SSL as the first.
Some Job Description Do’s and Don’ts
- While writing your posting, keeping the following best practices in mind can help you get the most out of your efforts:
- Do incorporate bullet lists to organize your content. This helps potential applicants get the information they need without feeling overwhelmed.
- Do create a complete picture of the work involved in a position to help prospects assess their abilities to meet the requirements of the role.
- Do accurately represent the company’s values and business philosophy, so candidates can get a feeling for whether they would be good fits.
- Don’t use vague verbiage or omit less glamorous aspects of a job to try and get more interest. Being honest about the job helps weed out those unprepared or unwilling to do what is needed.
- Don’t go overboard with the keywords. While search-engine optimization is undeniably important, you don’t want to stuff your description with keywords and leave it unreadable.
Customer Service Representative Job Responsibilities
Customer service representatives are the backbone of your business and often the first and only point of contact customers have with your company. Building a strong customer service team means hiring the brightest talent, but finding that talent is hard if you’re falling back on a lackluster responsibilities section in your customer service representative job description.
Liven up the responsibilities section of your customer service representative job description with action verbs. Use punchy bullet points that launch each sentence into motion. Be specific! CSRs cover a wide range of duties. Do you expect the candidate to know specific products for a certain industry? Is the role centered around order entry or more focused on service management? Is this a face-to-face role or a call center environment? Make sure you cover the exact duties your applicants will handle so they can determine beforehand if they’re qualified.
Take these sample customer service representative job responsibilities that focus on a call center service representative acting as an appointment setter for an auto repair service center:
- Represent the company in telephone customer interactions as the face of a major automotive brand
- Respond to inbound calls, including requests for warranty or service information
- Assist customers in scheduling or rescheduling service appointments
- Take basic information regarding vehicle issues, make and model for transmission to service team
- Handle customer callbacks to confirm appointments or follow up on escalated issue resolution as needed
Customer Service Representative Job Specifications
No customer service representative job description is complete without a list of job qualifications and skills. Think of it as similar to the minimum system requirements for installing a software package on your computer; if your computer doesn’t meet the conditions, the software won’t work. Applicants who don’t meet your conditions won’t perform well, and you can’t recover the time you wasted screening their applications.
Improve your pre-screening and self-screening criteria by adding core requirements in the qualifications and skills section of your customer service representative job description. This list may be short, but it’s vital in boosting applicant quality and cutting down on unnecessary submissions. Focus on the essentials. In this role, education might not be a critical factor; you may prioritize experience and a positive attitude. Communicate with existing team members, and find out from them just what makes them tick. Identify your scheduling and call volume needs. Review customer feedback and pick out the traits customers prefer most before including those traits in your job qualifications section.
Here’s an example of how to write a short list of customer service representative job specifications:
- Experienced handling high call volume in a 24 x 7 call center environment
- Willing to work flex shifts on weekends or graveyard hours
- Available for at least one holiday shift per year
- Able to maintain calm in the face of high-pressure customer situations
- Capable of bridging communications between customers and service team members