Top Customer Service Hiring Trends to Watch in 2025
One project I’ve been working on lately is refining my team’s templates when creating job descriptions. This led me to unearth a description of a customer service role in 2019. Though it was only from six short years ago, reading it was like looking through a time capsule: heavy emphasis on phone skills, high priority on experience with Facebook chat, no mention of AI whatsoever. My, how times have changed.
Customer service agents have always been the front-line representatives for your business, but their role and what’s required of them have shifted significantly in the last few years. Today’s consumers want instantaneous, seamless, and personalized support on whatever channel they’re most comfortable using, with 82% of customers saying they expect agents to resolve the problem they’re facing “immediately.” The brands that stand the test of time will be those that can deliver on this demand, and that starts with a strong customer service hiring strategy.
Being aware of these 12 customer service hiring trends will help you meet customer expectations while attracting and retaining exceptional talent.
1. Increased Competition
Though overall hiring for customer service positions has declined since the pandemic’s hiring highs, competition is fiercer than ever. This industry faces some of the biggest challenges with retention in any field, so companies are ready to snap up top candidates or lure them away from competitors with better pay or more flexibility.
The prevalence of remote work throws another wrench into the race for talent. Candidates largely prefer the option to work from home, but not all companies can offer it, making for an even tougher landscape for some firms.
In addition to offering competitive salaries and robust benefit packages, companies can set themselves apart in the talent shortage by focusing on strong employer branding, a highly tailored employee value proposition, and clear paths for career advancement.
2. Growing Specialization
Generic, catch-all customer service roles are being replaced with specialized positions requiring expertise in certain technologies or business areas. This is of growing importance as companies work to better sort and funnel inquiries to the correct person, improving the customer experience.
Our effort to update our job descriptions is one way we’re helping our clients adapt to this trend. Narrowing our focus and identifying the precise skills and knowledge each position requires yields a better, more relevant pool of candidates, allowing us to hire faster and see better results.
3. Necessity of Experience With AI-powered Tools
Think about the last time you needed support from a company. I’m willing to bet your interaction started out with an onsite chatbot, and then, if (and only if!) your issue couldn’t be resolved via self-service channels, you were routed to a live agent. AI has reshaped customer service interactions, and this hybrid AI-agent model is the new standard.
The use of AI has also sparked a shift for customer service as a revenue driver. With the help of AI-backed insights, agents are able to intelligently recommend products, solutions, upsells, and cross-brand selling that drives profits. Candidates must be comfortable using and working alongside AI-powered tools to enhance efficiency and deliver relevant support while contributing to sales growth.
4. Ability to Handle Omnichannel Interactions
As I touched on earlier, modern customers expect seamless service across platforms–phone, email, chat, texting, live chat, you name it. Customer service reps must be adept at managing interactions across these channels, ensuring consistency in their communications. This is something my recruiters always ask about when interviewing customer service applicants with a question like ‘how comfortable are you managing multiple support channels at once?’ or ‘tell me about a time you had to deal with two or more customers on different channels simultaneously.’
To support agents in this regard, employers should implement robust omnichannel training and equip agents with integrated technology to simplify and streamline interactions.
5. Proficiency With CRM Software
I don’t know of a single customer-oriented business that doesn’t use some form of a CRM. Employers should prioritize candidates who have experience navigating CRM and ticketing platforms to track customer interactions, manage cases, and personalize experiences. Again, training is key, as is investing in the tools that will support your teams’ success.
6. Data Analysis Empowers More Tailored Interactions
Data analysis plays a growing role in delivering high-quality customer service. Agents must be comfortable using data and customer history to personalize their conversations, anticipate customer needs, and decide on the most effective way to resolve issues. As such, consider including data analysis as a necessary skill in your job requirements and screen candidates for prior experience in this area.
7. Data as a Recruitment Tool
Data has another valuable place in customer service on the recruiting side. There’s more data available to guide your customer service recruiting than at any other time in history. Use it to reach the right candidates, identify the most desirable customer service traits, and analyze the fruitfulness of your efforts.
Recruitment tools like personality tests and behavioral assessments are especially useful when hiring for customer service roles. Personality tests are valid predictors of job performance. When compared against data from within your organization, results from tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator can help identify culture fit and detect the traits that are most associated with success in the role.
While personality tests focus on the traits of a candidate, behavioral assessments can help you understand a candidate’s reasoning and gauge their likely behavior when confronted with common on-the-job scenarios. According to the Society for Human Resource Management, using behavioral assessments can help reduce turnover and increase revenue.
Related: How to Leverage Recruiting Metrics to Improve Your Hiring Process
8. Human Touch Personalizes Experiences
We’re seeing an interesting dichotomy in customer service right now. AI is huge and customers want to use technology to independently resolve their own problems when possible, but they also want to be able to talk to a human who can provide personalized service any time it’s a necessity. Thus, look for candidates who can balance automation and technical service with a human touch, using their communication and interpersonal skills to create meaningful connections and build trust.
Find the perfect fit for your team.
Speak to one of our recruiting experts today.
9. Emphasis on Employee Experience
With increased competition for strong customer service talent, employers are focusing on improving the employee experience and using it as a recruitment tool. Employee expectations are high. Flexible work arrangements, mental health support, continuous learning opportunities, and a positive workplace culture can enhance job satisfaction and boost retention, which contribute to lower overall recruiting costs.
10. Training Takes Priority
I’ve mentioned several times already how important training is to keep pace with industry trends. It’s also one of the top benefits employees are looking for when deciding to work, especially Gen Z and millennial employees, who cite training and development among the top three factors they look at when choosing an employer.
Provide thorough training on engaging, job-specific topics like AI, automation, omnichannel communication, CRM strategies, and data literacy. This will not only satisfy employees but strengthen your workforce. You can also leverage AI to support your training initiatives. Data on things like individual employee performance and customer satisfaction by channel offer guidance on where to devote more resources to training and coaching.
11. Customer Service as a Business Strategy
When hiring for customer service roles, try to think of the customer service department as more than an individual department in your operation. Instead, consider customer service a key piece of your larger company strategy.
While all employees represent your brand to some extent, your customer service professionals are your figurative mascots, speaking and acting directly on the company’s behalf. How you use them and curate the talent in this department can shape and mold your brand perception among your customers and within the larger marketplace.
Ideally, you’ll seek candidates who can adopt this big-picture approach. They’ll see themselves as more than just cogs in the wheel; rather, they’ll embrace the opportunity to help determine the wheel’s direction and its success in getting to its destination.
When narrowing down candidates, look for those who approach service as part of a bigger philosophy on work rather than just a skill. Interview questions like, ‘What do you find most rewarding about your job? ‘ ‘ What role do you play in your organization?’ and ‘What core values are most important to you?’ are useful in shedding light on this.
12. Flexible Structure of Positions
Round-the-clock customer support has become commonplace, which means a rising need for qualified workers across time zones. You can meet this need with twofold approaches: tapping into the growing market for freelance and remote work and creating support positions beyond the traditional 9-to-5.
For many candidates, the ability to work remotely some or all of the time is not just a perk, but a requirement. It’s also good for employee engagement; the ability to work remotely increases employee happiness at work by as much as 20%.
High-quality part-time jobs are also in demand, particularly among women and seniors. Depending on your industry, your customer service positions may be well-suited to part-timers.
By offering flexibility in the structure of your customer service department, you’ll be better equipped to attract top talent in the field.
Related: The Pros and Cons of a Remote Workforce
Win Top Customer Service Talent With a Specialized Staffing Agency
Many of the trends we’ve discussed above rely on you having a working knowledge of the traits and skills that make for an effective customer service professional within your organization. But what if you don’t have that data?
That’s where a customer service staffing agency comes in handy. A customer service recruiting firm can draw upon aggregate data from dozens or even hundreds of other organizations to identify the particular skill set needed for success in a customer-facing role, then leverage the latest technology to help you find and connect with workers who fit the profile. A recruiting professional or headhunter will be able to provide insight about candidates that goes beyond what’s listed on their resume and cuts down to whether they’re a good fit for your company.
At 4 Corner Resources, we have access to a deep and wide pool of the top customer service professionals spanning the country. We specialize in recruiting for call center and customer service positions like help desk specialists and inbound customer service reps; in fact, I got my start in enterprise telephony delivering contact center solutions and strategies.
We understand that choosing the wrong candidate leaves no room for error when it comes to customer service. That’s why we focus on finding candidates who demonstrate the right mix of hard and soft skills necessary to serve your customers effectively. We offer hiring solutions ranging from direct-hire headhunting to contract-to-hire recruiting and contract staffing.
Ready to fill your customer service position?
Contact us today, and let’s get started.
