Customer Service Responsibilities in 2025: A Complete Guide

What separates two identical businesses in the exact location selling the same product? Customer service. From the time one human sold a stone wheel to another, customer service has been an integral part of making a sale. However, it hasn’t remained static. Customer service in ancient Rome differed dramatically from customer service during the Industrial Revolution, and it differs from customer service today. As people and cultural practices evolve, so do business practices. Being the best, as they say, takes work.

So, as business owners and customer service representatives, do you know what’s changed about customer service duties since last year? Let’s find out.

Top 12 Customer Service Responsibilities and Skills That Help

Communication and Customer Interaction

Customer service responsibility 1: communicating with customers

You could say communication is the heart of customer service. Anyone with the gift for gab can do well in customer service given the right tools to succeed. Good communication fuels customer service excellence, from anticipating a problem to answering the right questions with the right product.

What makes it more difficult in 2025 is the sheer amount of options available to communicate with your customers.

You can talk to your customer in any of the following ways:

• SMS (via text)

• In-person

• On social media

• On your website

• Via a chatbot

• Email

• Phone calls

• Snail mail

• Video chat

So, which is the best? That depends entirely on who your customers are. Preferred communication channels vary by generation:

• Boomers & Gen X: Prefer phone calls and traditional mail (A USPS study shows >50% of Boomers enjoy receiving mail).

• Millennials: Prefer receiving promotions and deals through email.

• Gen Z: Respond well to fast communication.

Consider all of these factors when talking to your customers, and make adjustments as needed, leading us into our next responsibility.

Customer service responsibility 2: resolving problems

While we mentioned the importance of communication earlier, there's a difference between general communication and resolving your customers' problems. If your customer has an issue with something, you've likely bypassed the initial greeting and question-answering stage and gone straight into managing someone else's distress.

However, while this stage may be intimidating, it's also a chance to provide a good experience for a customer. According to Qualtrics, half of consumers will walk after having a bad customer service experience. So make sure they don't.

As we'll outline in the next paragraph, a customer service problem is an opportunity to make their day better. This, in turn, will associate you with a positive interaction with your brand, even if the interaction started on a low note.

What's the best way to resolve a problem? Understanding it. If you're already familiar with your customers and your inventory, you're in a good position to resolve most customer issues with a product. If the customer received a defective product, help them by initiating the replacement process. If the customer ordered clothing that was the wrong size, use your knowledge of your product sizing to help them find the correct one.

Don't be afraid to ask clarifying questions. Nothing frustrates a customer more than being misunderstood and having their time wasted on an action that doesn't resolve the problem. If you're unclear about something, ask for more information. Write down the details so you don't forget anything specific, and use that information as a starting point to getting your customers' needs met.

Customer service responsibility 3: fostering empathy

This particular customer service responsibility can be hard to fulfill, especially if you're feeling overworked or are experiencing burnout (which we'll cover in the next paragraph). However, it's one of the most important tools in your arsenal, whether you're a business owner or a customer service rep.

If you're dealing with an angry customer, your first instinct might be to feel angry in return or feel like you're being attacked. Angry people, after all, are not rational people. Even if you're not the business owner, they might speak to you as though you have the power to do things a business owner can.

In these instances, you need to foster a sense of empathy to avoid the impulse to "clap back." If someone is yelling at you, they likely didn't start their day there. Somewhere along the line something bad happened to that person. Their pet might have recently passed away. They might have just broken up with a partner. Their workplace might be experiencing layoffs, and they're worried they might be next. You just don't know.

What you do know is that they're already starting a high level of agitation, and you responding in kind isn't going to make it any better. Start by placing yourself in their situation. "They're already upset, and now they have another problem to deal with. Your response can either calm them down or make things worse. If you were them, how would you want to be spoken to?

Start by acknowledging their emotions. The anger might not be rational but it is valid, especially to them. Show them that you empathize with them, and that you're there to help them get their needs met. Be an active listener when they describe their situation and frustration, and use the information you get to help them solve their problem.

Business owners and managers should provide training to their customer service representatives on how to respond to an angry customer, whether personally or through a workshop or online class. If your manager hasn't prepared you for speaking with an angry customer, take the initiative by researching tips and tricks so you're better prepared to face the next one.

Everyone involved in running a business and providing customer care should expect and know how to respond to an angry customer in a way that best preserves their peace of mind while achieving the goal of providing incredible customer service, which leads us to our last responsibility.

Customer service responsibility 4: getting customer feedback

One of the best ways to offer optimal customer service is by asking your customers how you’re doing. If they’re unhappy about your service, they might not tell you unless you ask them, or they might voice their displeasure via reviews, which is bad for business. Even if your customers seem happy, you should know what part of your customer service interaction they appreciate most. As a business owner, getting customer feedback on specific customer service representatives and sharing it with them can help lead to constructive criticism to improve performance. If the feedback is positive, it might lead to increased job satisfaction when your reps understand their work has been appreciated and noticed by both you and the customer.

There are several ways to seek customer feedback, from asking in person to emailing them after they’ve visited your store. Again, this is where knowing your customer comes in handy. If most of your customers are millennials, they might respond to an email survey more than a direct mail survey. If they’re Gen Z, they might respond to a text-based survey. If your business caterers to all generations, determine what combination of available formats works well financially and in response percentage. If more people respond to your emails than your texts, invest more in your text surveys. Offer a discount on their next purchase if they fill out a survey in-store. The sky is the limit in terms of options, so do some A/B testing to find out what your best customer feedback channel might be and what methods work best to incentivize your customers to respond.

Once you find out what they’ve said about your business, make adjustments if needed. For example, if your customers enjoy speaking to a specific representative, give that rep a raise to ensure they stay happy or offer them more hours. If your customers love a specific event that you hosted, find an opportunity to host another similar event.

Customer feedback is essential to keeping your finger on the pulse of your business, and you can use this information and adapt accordingly.

Business and Product Knowledge

Customer service responsibility 5: inventory expertise

When a customer poses a question about your stock, you should have an immediate answer for them. Regardless if you’re a business owner or a customer service representative, you should prioritize knowing your inventory like the back of your hand. How many of item A do you have left? Do you know where it was manufactured? What material is it made of? Your passion may not lie with every piece of merchandise you sell, but from the moment you clock into the moment you clock out, it should be.

Have you ever heard the expression “Fake it til you make it”? If you’re not obsessed with your inventory, fake obsession until you are. Know what you sell backward and forwards, and when you’re done with that, learn some more. There’s no shortage of information on your industry, so when you’re up-to-date on your inventory, research how people use your products. Survey your customers to find out what works and what doesn’t. That way, when a customer asks you an obscure question you’ve never heard before, you’ll be ready to answer it with a smile.

Customer service responsibility 6: order management

These days, managing orders is, more likely than not, done by a customer management system (CMS) or integrated into your ecommerce shop if you run a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business. However, even with technological advances, problems can still happen. Make sure you know how your order management works and how long a product might take to get to a particular location. For example, if a customer’s order is “In Process,” how long, on average, does it usually stay there? What company manages your deliveries? What is the process of finding lost packages for those delivery companies?

If you’re offering customer service in a brick-and-mortar shop, some customers might ship it to you to pick up rather than shipping it to their home if it costs less. In those circumstances, how are you keeping orders organized?

When customers come in expecting their orders, you must be ready to fetch them quickly rather than digging through a box or two to find them.

Customer service responsibility 7: managing information

Here’s where it can get tricky. If your business is successful, managing customer information becomes more and more difficult. You can start with spreadsheets, but if you rely on a CMS, it can be difficult to integrate one with the other. Your CMS might not also be equipped to handle additional information that’s pertinent to one customer but not another.

Keeping track of customer data—like demographics, preferences, and feedback—is a job in itself. But when done right, it helps your business grow and gives your team the tools to offer better service. If you’re a customer service representative, being able to handle multiple pieces of information at a time while you’re talking to a customer will help you streamline your job and make it easier.

Find what works best for your business, even if that means switching to a different CMS. Managing information effectively and in a standard way across your business can help with the following responsibility: analysis.

Customer service responsibility 8: analysis of customer information

If you own a business, you know the information and skills you need to analyze your customers. But, if you’re a customer service representative, you might feel that customer analysis is out of your depth. It’s not. Analyzing customer information isn’t always the responsibility of a customer service representative, but it can make you a better rep if you try.

For example, if you observe that one customer loves a specific product and comes back for it every three months, you can have it ready for them at the cash register when they come in, or you can offer to set them up with a subscription. That’s analysis. If you notice that most of your customers are young adults, you can display a section with products that they tend to like. That’s analysis. You may not have a degree in business or statistics, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have the skills or the intelligence to make logical leaps that will, in turn, make you a more successful rep.

Adaptation and Quick Thinking

Customer service responsibility 9: adaptation

One of the most important ways to keep your customers happy and coming back for more is adapting to their preferences. For example, how many digital channels have you invested in to reach younger generations? When Generation Alpha becomes a part of the workforce, you might have to pivot into a new method of communication completely as communication apps and social media platforms rise and fall over the next decade.

Adaptation isn’t only limited to communication styles. One misstep or a bad day on the customer’s part can turn a mild conversation into an angry one. Pivoting from a friendly demeanor to an empathetic one can be difficult, especially when you weren’t expecting it. However, the ability to do so is crucial to keeping your customer happy.

As time progresses, keep an eye out on technological changes in addition to reports on generational studies. Be ready to dive into a new app or platform head first to see if it draws in new customers or makes existing ones happier. According to one survey of CEOs, there are five megatrends they believe will reshape the business landscape:

• Technological advances

• Demographic shifts

• Shift in global economic power

• Resource scarcity and climate change

• Rapid urbanization

With this in mind, if you can adapt to new changes to the business landscape, you could be the first in your industry to tap into a new communication channel, putting you immediately ahead of your competition.

Customer service responsibility 10: identifying opportunities

As mentioned above, identifying opportunities is one of the most critical aspects of customer care responsibilities. If you see a customer staring at a piece of merchandise with a confused look on their face, that’s an opportunity to answer a question. If you see a frown, avoid an unpleasant interaction by asking if they need help. If you’re on the phone with a customer and they bring up another product, that might be an opportunity to upsell. Using the skills described above will put you heads and tails above any other customer care representative if you can use adaptability, knowledge of your customers, and good communication to find opportunities whenever they pop up. And they will.

Teamwork and Employee Well-Being

Customer service responsibility 11: working as a team

No one is an island, especially in customer care. Unless you own a small business, you’re not the only one interacting with customers. Businesses with several employees often hire more than one customer service representative or clerk to facilitate better business. So, if you have a customer service team or are part of one, make sure that team is a well-oiled machine.

Everyone has a strength. If one team member does better at upselling, tag them in if the opportunity arises. If another team member resolves problems more quickly, make sure they’re the ones to speak to the less happy customers in person or on the phone. One team member might be phenomenal at math, making them much faster at the cash register. Another might have eagle eyes that can spot an opportunity across the store; make sure they’re not bogged down so they can pounce on those moments when they happen. According to Gallup, employees who use their strengths daily are six times more likely to be engaged in their jobs, 8% more productive, and have a 12.5% higher productivity. If you’re an individual contributor, find your strengths and apply them to complement your coworkers’ strengths. If you’re a manager, find your team’s strengths and optimize workflow based on their talents. Teamwork, as they say, makes the dream work.

Customer service responsibility 12: self care

The idea of self-care isn’t exactly recent, but it is certainly a relatively new concept in the workplace starting in the 1990s. In earlier decades, it might have been an unfortunately laughable concept for people to expect their employers to prioritize their mental well-being over the happiness of a few irate customers. Today, however, businesses everywhere recognize how important mental health awareness, self-care, and work-life balance are to achieving success. According to KFF, about 70% of large employers offered workplace wellness programs by 2008. And initiatives prioritizing employee health and wellness are becoming even more commonplace. Why? It all boils down to productivity, of course.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported in 2024 that, globally, around 12 billion working days are lost every year to anxiety and depression at the cost of about $1 trillion in US dollars per year. And customer service jobs, such as call center agents, have an incredibly high risk of burnout and turnover. Attrition of call center agents can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $21,000 per employee.

Businesses need to prioritize their employees’ well-being, especially in roles such as customer service, where they are exposed to the public, increasing their likelihood of experiencing a negative social interaction.

Employees must also prioritize their well-being by practicing as much self-care as possible. Make sure to take breaks, eat healthy food, get good sleep, and enjoy hobbies that reduce your stress. If your employer isn’t prioritizing your well-being, do your best to set boundaries they must respect in regard to your time. If you’re off the clock, there should be no reason for them to call you or expect you to answer when they do.

Understanding the Role of Customer Service

Customer service often gets overlooked in importance, but when people need it, it’s incredibly important. It’s the facilitation of cooperation between business and consumer. Without it, customers would grow frustrated and leave, and businesses would cease to thrive.

In this sense, customer service also acts as the human face of an otherwise faceless business. Frustrated customers have some way to feel as though they’ve been heard. Happy customers whose problems have been resolved or questions have been answered suddenly have a name and a face to thank for the experience, which makes them much more likely to return in the future.

How Customer Service Responsibilities Have Changed Over Time

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, most business owners were also customer service representatives. If a customer was unhappy with a blacksmith, they would go directly to the blacksmith to complain. One of the oldest written customer complaints was carved into a stone tablet almost 4,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia.

Even then, a business rose and fell with its reputation, which is why prioritizing customer service has always been essential.

However, as businesses grew and manufacturing became more prevalent, the gap between owners and consumers also widened. If someone in The United States bought a Winchester rifle from a shop, and the rifle didn’t work, they would have to complain to the shop owner even if the manufacturer might have been to blame.

Customer service responsibilities in the modern era have shifted again. Thanks to the rise of social media, it was again possible for consumers and business owners to be in contact. Some CEOs make it a point to respond to customer comments on X, Instagram, or Facebook.

How AI Affects Customer Service Responsibilities

Over the last few years, AI has begun to assist by automating simple inquiries, reducing the workload for human agents. However, human reps remain essential for complex issues requiring emotional intelligence and problem-solving.

AI tools are evolving, but for now, they serve as enhancements rather than replacements for human representatives, and their use will increase. According to National University, 77% of businesses are either using or exploring AI adoption.

What the Future Looks Like for Customer Service Responsibilities

The evolution of technology has definitely affected how the duties of customer service representatives have shifted, but not that much.

Businesses are still expected to make their customers happy and encourage their return. Until AI becomes incredibly competent, people will still need human representatives to understand the minutiae of their problems.

However, the rapid development of technology emphasizes that, although the base of customer service remains solid, businesses must be prepared to adapt and integrate the new as it occurs. Stagnation isn’t an option now.

Which of these responsibilities will be the most important in 2025?