[Updated Post for 2025: Trends and Latest Research]
Poor customer service is estimated to cost businesses more than $100 billion a year by 2025. In fact, when asked if they’d rather clean a toilet than speak with customer service, nearly 40% of customers still choose the toilet!
It goes without saying that great customer service is important, but it is really difficult to sustain. This is partly due to the challenges of maintaining the right combination of people, skills, processes, and technologies that make it easy to do business with you and remove the effort that is inherent in problem-solving and support. Much has changed in our world since the pandemic of 2020/2021, but the one thing that remains constant is the value of human connection.
When a customer contacts customer service, your frontline CSRs have the opportunity to solve problems and provide information. They can also turn around negative emotions, retain business, up-sell/cross-sell new business, and generate free advertising through positive word-of-mouth.
We also know that, with the introduction of alternate support channels (like self-serve, user forums, and online help functions), customers' frustration level is heightened when they finally pick up the phone to call customer service. The traditional customer service skills of the past are not going to cut it in 2025.
With all this as a backdrop, we identified the top 10 customer service skills your agents need to master in 2025 (in no particular order):
1. Empathy
Still at the top of our list, the ability to see things from the customer’s point of view is an essential customer service skill. Letting customers know that you understand their predicament and can appreciate their emotions can go a long way toward managing their situation. In fact, for most customers, how they relate to the experience is predominantly based on emotions, not facts.
Whether a customer service representative is ‘naturally’ empathetic or not, all CSRs need to learn how to leverage empathy to engage with customers. To make sure that each customer feels heard and valued – regardless of the outcome.
Why this skill is important:
Customers are 10 times more likely to be highly engaged when they receive what they consider to be empathetic customer support. ~ Gallup (2025)
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2. Adaptability
If we have learned anything from the past decade, it is the importance of adaptability and a keen willingness to learn and grow. Customer expectations are always changing, new technologies are always emerging, and the competitive landscape is always shifting. Every employee—but particularly customer service representatives who engage with a broad range of customers—needs to have the desire (and curiosity) to learn new skills, grow, and change with the ever-changing environment.
Why this skill is important:
We live in an age where the rate of change has been colossal. Almost every week, there's some transformation of some kind, whether technological or political or scientific, whatever. And I think it's bewildering to human beings to live in a time when they can't take anything as fixed - when everything is shifting and changing all the time.” ~ Salman Rushdie
3. Sales
As customer service increasingly intersects with sales, customer service reps who can identify up-selling and cross-selling opportunities will be highly valued.
The adoption rate of self-serve technology will only grow as these technologies become more prolific, easier to use, and more capable. Whether it is a simple online order form or an AI-supported chatbot, self-serve strategies must also consider the fact that self-serve customers will become more distant from an organization’s reach.
When a customer contacts customer service with a problem, it may be the only contact they have with a real person within your organization. This is a highly valuable interaction that can influence whether or not the customer remains a client and positively recommends you to others – or does not. It also provides a golden opportunity to look for opportunities to improve the value of the relationship – both of your organization to the client and vice versa.
This means that customer service representatives must be able to sell by looking for opportunities to add value and proactively introducing them to the customers they serve.
Why this skill is important:
According to Marketing Metrics, the probability of selling to an existing, happy customer is up to 15 times higher than the probability of selling to a new customer. Additionally, satisfied customers can be a valuable source of referrals to the sales team. That’s why your customer service team has a direct impact on the effectiveness of your sales.
4. Active Listening
Customers reach out to customer service because they need someone to listen to and address their problems or issues. If a customer service representative is not actively listening to the customer—and is fully ‘present’—then why bother calling? Often, CSRs are so intent on resolving a customer’s issue that they fail to listen at the moment and mentally jump ahead to the solution. As a result, they don’t fully hear and understand the customer’s real problem.
Active listening requires the customer service representative to be focused on what the customer is saying, interpret what it means, and then respond appropriately in a way that demonstrates that they not only understand what the customer is saying but also consider it important.
Why this skill is important:
The biggest communication problem is that we don't listen to understand. We listen to reply. ~Stephen R. Covey
5. Problem Solving + Ownership
With the growing acceptance and capability of self-serve options, most customers will attempt to solve their own issues before contacting customer service. That means that the types of requests customer service representatives receive are growing in complexity and emotion.
Great CSRs love problem-solving—the tougher the problem, the better! Sometimes, it means getting creative and thinking outside the box to arrive at a solution that will satisfy the customer, while other times, it requires tenacity and a willingness to stick with a problem until it is resolved. That means doing for the customer what they would do for themselves in the same situation.
No one expects CSRs to be able to resolve every problem every time, but customers do expect them to take ownership of finding someone or something that can. Often, this comes down to an organization's values and whether or not it is prepared to accept responsibility for resolving a customer’s issue fully or push responsibility back onto the customer. The need for organizations to remove customer effort from problem-solving is key to customer loyalty.
Why this skill is important:
50% of customers say that they feel they are working harder and investing more in the effort to solve a problem than the customer service representatives they work with. ~ Microsoft (2025)
6. Supporting Irate Customers
Conflict is inevitable in every business. Let’s admit it – customer service organizations have collectively trained customers to believe that the louder they complain, the more likely they will have their issue or complaint resolved. That is because, in many cases, it works!
Before the proliferation of self-serve options and multi-channel communication, customer service call volume was significantly higher, which meant that a CSR might have one irate caller a day. While the call volume is lower, the concentration of irate, frustrated, confused, and upset callers is higher. A CSR may receive several high-emotion calls in a day. In addition to the initial problem that needs to be addressed, the customer's emotions now complicate the conversation.
Yes, CSRs need to have a thick skin – but they also need to master several sophisticated skills that come effortlessly together (listening, questioning, empathy, problem-solving, and more). There are proven approaches and language to help support irate customers (and the agents who serve them) to arrive at a positive conclusion. Your customer service teams need them. After all, when a customer complains, you have an opportunity to turn them around. When they don’t complain, you do not.
Why this skill is important:
Only 1 out of 25 unhappy customers complain. 90% of unhappy customers who are non-complainers simply leave. ~ Kolsky (2025)
7. Communication Skills
It goes without saying that the ability to communicate clearly, concisely, and confidently is crucial in fostering positive customer relationships. In addition, the ability to communicate well helps to reduce the time to resolve customer issues and, in turn, enhances the overall customer experience (Zendesk). Makes sense.
In 2024, more businesses are recognizing that while Average Talk Time (ATT) can provide insights into operational efficiency, it does not capture the full picture of service quality. High-performing organizations are thus tracking more holistic KPIs that link directly to customer retention and revenue generation, moving beyond traditional efficiency metrics like ATT.
This trend reflects a broader movement towards treating customer service as a revenue generator rather than a cost center, with a focus on delivering personalized and effective support to build long-term customer loyalty.
Experienced CSRs also understand how to adjust their own communication style to match that of the customer to enable full understanding and to gain the customer’s confidence in their response.
Why this skill is important:
66% of customers do not fully trust the information they receive from customer service representatives, even if it is the right answer. ~ Kolsky (2025)
8. Technological Proficiency
Companies that care about delivering the best possible customer experience have typically invested in the technology needed to facilitate that. While business systems have improved in ease of use, there are many more systems/applications that CSRs must master. This constant bombardment of new technology often leaves CSRs feeling more frustrated and stressed. Having the capacity to understand (and even enjoy) technology helps minimize the impact and stress associated with constantly evolving systems and processes.
In addition, the most highly ranked customer service professionals tend to have superior knowledge of how their companies and products/services work. As products and services have grown in numbers and complexity, CSRs cannot be expected to know everything off the top of their head. That is where technology plays a vital role. Having access to tools that enable the seamless delivery of information to the CSR, or the customer directly ensures that the information provided is both accurate and consistent.
Why this skill is important:
9. Be able to positively say ‘no’
The #1 thing customers want when they reach out to an organization is a resolution to their issue with as little effort as possible. That is achievable under most circumstances -- but sometimes it simply is not. That’s where being able to say ‘no’ in a positive manner comes into play. After all, customers want to hear what you CAN DO, not what you cannot.
That means being able to present information in the most positive light, so the customer hears that you are supporting them fully. So, if the customer’s request is not doable, instead of saying, “I’m sorry, but there is no way I will have an answer for you by tomorrow,” the CSR would position what they CAN DO by saying, “I can send in your request now and follow up tomorrow morning to make sure that you have an answer by Friday at the latest.”
Why this skill is important:
Customers are more demanding than ever. They have more power than they used to. They are smarter and have higher expectations than ever before. While around 59% of clients still favor using self-service tools for straightforward issues, it means their expectations are higher when they need to speak with a CSR. ~ HelpCrunch (2024)
10. Attention to Detail/Accuracy
We ask a lot of our frontline staff. A customer service representative must be able to juggle systems, procedures, product knowledge, communication, and more on the fly. Not an easy task. With the added pressure of growing customer and corporate expectations, it should be no surprise that errors will be made.
The consequence of a single error can range from requiring the customer to call back again to a serious financial and/or emotional impact on both the customer and the organization. It makes sense to work hard to minimize errors at the point of origin. Technology, quality assurance, and other safeguards can only take you so far.
That’s why it is best practice to ensure that CSRs have an aptitude for detail. That means being able to methodically hear, interpret, and capture details while accessing systems and communicating with the client.
Why this skill is important:
It's all about the math: Loss Amount Due to Error/ Profit Margin = Sales required to recover from the mistake
Customer Service Skills - Summary
Exceptional customer service is not just about resolving issues—it's about creating meaningful connections with your customers that foster loyalty and drive growth. And although these customer service skills remain somewhat the same, as customer expectations continue to evolve, these foundational skills will grow in importance. By equipping your team with the right tools and training, you ensure that every interaction reflects the quality and values your organization stands for, turning customer service into a powerful catalyst for long-term success.
Why this is important:
High-quality customer service is directly linked to increased customer retention, which in turn drives profitability. For instance, studies show that 72% of customers consider excellent customer service a top priority in their decision to remain loyal to a brand. ~ ProProf (2024)
Moreover, customers who experience positive interactions are 5.1 times more likely to recommend a brand and 3.5 times more likely to make repeat purchases. ~ Nextiva (2024)
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