What is a Customer Service Representative?

In brief

As customer service representative you are the first point of contact for customers - the person who answers questions, solves problems and ensures satisfied customers. You are the voice of the company and know better than anyone how to end every contact moment in a positive way.

Cheerful man leaning on desk

What does a Customer Service Representative do?

A customer service representative helps customers via phone, email, chat or social media. You answer questions, resolve complaints and ensure a pleasant experience with every contact. You make sure customers are heard and hang up or close with a good feeling.

Main duties:

  • Answering customer inquiries via phone, email or chat
  • Registering and handling complaints and requests
  • Check and update customer data in the system
  • Advising on products, services or orders
  • Passing on complex questions to specialists or other departments
  • Report recurring customer issues to management

You in this role

This role is all about overview, precision and working safely. These are the skills you need:

Empathy and customer orientation
Strong communication skills
Stress resistant and solution oriented
Positive and service-oriented attitude
Accurate and administratively strong
Team player with a sense of responsibility

This is what your workday looks like

You start the day by opening your mailbox and reviewing current customer cases. During the day you take phone calls, answer questions about orders or subscriptions and process feedback in the system. Sometimes you resolve a complaint directly, sometimes you liaise with other departments to resolve the problem quickly. In between calls you update reports and help think about service improvements.

Training and advancement

No specific training is required for this position, but employers often require MBO working and thinking level (level 3-4). Useful training or courses are:

  • MBO Customer Service / Customer Contact

  • MBO Commercial Employee

  • MBO Office & Management Support
    In addition, it helps if you get along well with CRM Systems, Microsoft Office and communication tools.

Salary

A customer service employee's salary in 2025 will average between €2,300 and €3,100 gross per month, depending on experience, sector and language skills. Bilingual employees (for example, Dutch-English or Dutch-German) can earn more, especially in international companies.

Diploma

A high school diploma in communications, customer service or administration is often sufficient. Experience in customer contact or a commercial position is a plus. With additional courses you can advance to senior customer service employee, team leader or customer contact specialist.

Number of hours

Most customer service positions are between 32 and 40 hours per week. Part-time work is often possible, especially in larger customer service departments.

Working Hours

You usually work during office hours (08:00-17:30). In some sectors, such as e-commerce or telecom, customer service may also be open in evenings or weekends.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly does a customer service representative do?

You will help customers with questions, complaints or orders and make sure they are served quickly and friendly via phone, email or chat.

Not always. Many companies train you internally. With the right communication skills and service-oriented attitude, you can start right away.

Sure! You can advance to positions such as senior associate, team leader, customer contact specialist or customer experience coordinator.

Many companies offer hybrid working: partly from the office, partly from home. This varies by organization.

In international companies, English is often a requirement. German or French is a plus, especially in European customer service departments.