Customer service objectives: 7 objectives you can copy

There are two sides to customer service objectives. First, there are the goals and customer service KPIs that your teams attempt to achieve. Then, there’s customer service resume objectives.

It’s important to understand the connection between the two: Writing a strong customer service resume objective starts with understanding the objectives of the field and its depth and possibilities.

We spoke to industry experts to gain insight into both sides of customer service objectives.

More in this guide:

• What is the objective of customer service?
• Examples of customer service objectives
• Customer service resume objectives
• Frequently asked questions
• Think beyond customer service resume objectives

What is the objective of customer service?

The prime objectives of customer service are to answer customer questions quickly and effectively, resolve issues with empathy and care, document pain points to share with internal teams, nurture customer relationships, and improve brand credibility. Great customer service can make buyers loyal to your brand, products, and services for years to come.

Support teams can measure objectives with key metrics such as:

• Average first response time or wait time

• Average resolution time

• A customer’s CSAT rating over time

• CSAT ratings by channel

• Ticket backlog

• Customer retention rate

• Net Promoter ScoreⓇ (NPS)

Using customer service software can help you track these metrics and provide the best experience possible across all channels.

Examples of customer service objectives

Here are tips from industry experts to help you deliver the best service possible.

1. Become a customer advocate

Expert: Dr. Jonathan Brummel, senior principal customer experience manager at Zendesk

“Your first obligation when you talk about customer service is being a brand ambassador. Customer service representatives are the public face of the company. They’re the front echelon.

“As an agent, you’re the person whose interaction with the customer or client is going to make or break that relationship. The company, product, or leadership may be great. But if that one experience wasn’t great when the customer reached out at 2 a.m. when everything was on fire, that’s going to taint their entire relationship with the brand.

“Another objective for customer support professionals is being a liaison. We call them Customer Advocates at Zendesk because we expect and train people to be an advocate for the customer. That doesn’t mean I’m going to roll over and do what a customer wants every single time. But I’m going to be their champion. I’m going to be their gladiator.

“I guide my team toward giving the best service possible. Sometimes, we’re not delivering good news. But the objective is to do that with compassion and empathy and in a way that we give the customer constructive next steps to move forward.

“No one will be as close to customers’ needs and pain points as agents. It’s also my job to advocate to ensure the right stakeholders are informed internally, whether that’s on an engineering, infrastructure, product, or finance level. That doesn’t mean we can track down everybody in the company for every engagement. But when you find a pain point, internal stakeholders need to know about that.”

2. Trust AI to improve team efficiencies

Expert: Naomi Rankin, global customer care manager at Lush

“Be clear with how you are using AI. Use AI as a tool to help make your team’s role easier and more efficient, not as a looming threat to their employment. Help them to understand exactly where in their workflow it is helping, and ask them to contribute ideas to where it can relieve their pain points. What we as leaders may think is useful may be inconsequential to those on the ground.”

3. Build customer loyalty

Expert: Mina Aiken, former director of customer experience at Taylor Stitch

“Loyalty is something we strive to achieve with every customer we meet. To us, that involves demonstrating empathy, transparency, and, above all, consistency. We know first impressions matter a great deal.

“We also know that as a newer, younger brand, customers may be wary of our credibility. It usually takes a few consistently excellent customer experiences to feel connected and loyal to the brand. That awesome experience starts from the very first touchpoint—whether it be web, email, brick and mortar, or Instagram—and carries through to when they’re wearing our product. That’s why every time we set out to do something, we ask ourselves, ‘Will our customer enjoy this?’”

4. Customize communication styles

Expert: Peter Neels, senior director of customer experience innovation and strategy at Zendesk

“It is very beneficial to have different communication styles—it allows you to understand different learning styles and intake styles of information. Some folks are very analytical, [and] some need to have high-level overviews. The key is that you learn from others the best way to share information and how to [inquire] and set discovery questions. This skill is something that will also help with how you approach the discovery and listening to your customer engagements.”

5. Deliver fast, effective resolutions

Expert: Matt Searle, former support operations manager at VendHQ

“The most important objectives for customer service are to be timely and helpful. One without the other doesn’t cut it. A three-minute response time is no good if it contains nothing of value to the customer.

“Similarly, an exhaustive and detailed response complete with bullet points and annotated screenshots isn’t much help if it takes four days to arrive. There are plenty of studies out there that will tell you that your first response time is the most important metric on a ticket—while it’s good to keep track, don’t be blinded by it. We learned the hard way that too great a focus on the first response will cause a delay [in] every subsequent reply to your customers.”

6. Align support goals with business priorities

Expert: Chris Karp, chief customer officer at Auctane

“Figuring out the ‘love language’ of your senior leadership team—and what matters to them—is one of the first things you need to do. Then, work backwards to understand support or customer success and implementation—how do those then connect into what really matters?”

7. Improve customer satisfaction

Expert: Phil Holcombe, former VP of customer care at Vonage (previously Nexmo)

“The most important customer service objective? Since customers demand rapid service, we set response and resolution time objectives. More importantly, satisfaction surveys allow us to measure customer perception of the quality of our support.

“But since many customers prefer resolving issues themselves, we measure how many queries are resolved through our docs and knowledge base. But our most important goal is to remove any potential causes of dissatisfaction, to help the company better understand the customer experience, [and] to produce ever-better products and services so customers encounter ever-fewer problems.”

Customer service resume objectives

Now, let’s turn our attention to customer service resume objectives.

Why is a strong customer service resume objective important?

A strong customer service resume objective underscores your skills and experiences contributing to customer service goals and objectives. Meeting customer service benchmarks involves more than answering phones and emails. It’s an entire world of solutions development, intuition, empathy, brand management, and time management—all the skills that help connect people and create trust.

A customer service resume objective is an opportunity to showcase your understanding of those KPIs as you introduce yourself to the brand and summarize what you bring to the table.

How to write a customer service resume objective

Most resume objectives are only one to three sentences, making it difficult to decide what to include. Here are a few things to focus on.

Highlight your experience

If you have experience in customer service or a related field—especially longer-term experience—be sure to highlight it in your objective.

But this doesn’t mean you need a formal background to break into the industry. “Some of our best agents, and also myself, had a different background than most support professionals,” says Brummel.

What’s important is showing your ability to stick to something, according to Brummel. Being a customer service professional takes grit.

“The way you stand out as a support professional is having a track record of sticking to something for a while to show you’re invested, and not just doing this for six months while you’re looking for the job you actually want,” he says.

Balance your technical skills with soft skills

Customer service professionals need a mix of technical skills and soft skills. More often than not, interpersonal skills stand out more than mechanical skills.

“Hire the smile, train the skills,” advises Brummel. “I can train technical customer service skills all day long. But how do you handle a livid customer? What are you going to do when you have to get another team to understand a customer’s problem? Those skills take longer to train. They take intent, openness, and heart. If you don’t have the people skills, you can be right all day long, but the customer isn’t going to hear you.”

Adapt a customer-focused mindset

The primary objective of customer service is customer advocacy, so you need to write a resume objective that shows you’re customer-focused.

“Customer service professionals also stand out by having a willingness to serve and an interest in taking care of the customer,” says Brummel. “The best agents do whatever it takes to resolve a customer’s issue and can identify what a customer really needs.”

Do your homework

Research what customer service means to the company you’re applying to. Find out who the business is serving and what it values. Writing a resume objective that resonates with the brand is one way to ensure your application stands out.

For instance, Shopify looks for agents with real-life experiences in building a business. Meanwhile, Apple looks for support professionals who have an aptitude for acquiring skills in technical repairs.

Brummel suggests, “Do your homework. You need to figure out what the company is about: what it believes, its brand ideology, and how it talks to customers. If you don’t believe in the product and the company’s values, you won’t be engaged or able to speak to customers with authenticity. Your conversations with customers will feel like a transaction.”

Frequently asked questions

Think beyond customer service resume objectives

A strong resume objective isn’t the be-all and end-all of a strong applicant. When Brummel hires customer service professionals, he focuses on their cover letters and in-person interviews.

“What makes you stand out as a customer service representative is telling a potential employer why you’re interested in that gig,” he says. “It’s the nuance, interpersonal skills, interest, character, personality, and flavor that often will be a differentiator. Being able to build rapport and trust is the special sauce, and that comes across in live interviews and a cover letter.”

Net Promoter, Net Promoter Score, and NPS are trademarks of NICE Satmetrix, Inc., Bain & Company, Inc., and Fred Reichheld.