Job Hunting: What You Need to Get a Job in Customer Service

The qualifications needed to excel in a customer service job are: patience, humor, patience, a willingness to listen, patience, a can-do attitude, patience, problem solving prowess, patience, the ability to take endless abuse and...more patience. As you've probably already sensed, patience is, or should be, the primary requisite for a customer service job.

All of that is good news for a person who has limited work experience or who has been out of the job market for a long time. In many customer service job interviews, your personality and willingness and eagerness will take you far.

If someone thinks he is too good to wait tables and make a hamburger the way the customer wants it, he has no business working in customer service. The ultimate goal of successful customer service is making sure the customer is happy.

It may be as simple as the customer needing to vent about being treated in a poor way by someone else in the company. The very next customer may have a very complicated problem. You may not have the answer, but it is your job (and duty to the customer) to find the person who does. No matter what job I've held, including the top ones, customer service has always come into play. It's something many managers need to be reminded of sometimes.

If you are a mom just re-entering the job market after caring for small children, or someone who has been dealt with the care of a frail, loved one, you have customer service skills that only real life can bring: empathy and, yes, patience.

At the end of the day, the term customer service translates to taking care of questions or problems the customer may have about anything and everything as it relates to the company. Think of it this way: the customer is the person who has spent money on your company's product. He's the reason you have a job in the first place, so helping him out shouldn't be too much to ask.

From a business point of view, it costs far more to gain a new client than to retain those the company already has. A customer service representative is generally the front line to the company. So, if you've thought of a customer service position as menial or lower level, keep that in mind. Good customer service is often what sets a business apart from the competition. Said another way, you could be the reason the customer keeps coming back to your company. How rewarding is that?