Originally published on Forbes in Jul 2025. This article has been republished here.
20 High-Impact Tips For Attracting And Retaining Service Reps Who Deliver
Customer service representatives are often the first, and sometimes only, human connection customers have with your brand. Their ability to communicate clearly, solve problems quickly and reflect your values makes them one of your most valuable assets.
In a competitive hiring landscape, attracting and retaining top-tier CSRs takes more than just a good job description. To help your company build stronger frontlines, 20 members of Forbes Business Development Council share their top strategies for recruiting and retaining customer service reps who not only support the brand but elevate it.
1. Center Customer Advocacy In Your Hiring Process
The issue of finding and retaining the best customer service staff is found in the individuals’ “ethos.” The candidate must be able to demonstrate in a discussion how they support the customer and also utilize that customer support to resolve the customer’s issue and drive corrective action back into the company. The foundation I use is the one developed by Cisco Global Customer Advocacy. – Mike Quinn, Active Cypher
2. Hire Strong Communicators With Storytelling Skills
I recommend hiring English majors! Seriously, you want great storytellers who know how to speak about your brand, but who also know how to give your customers a role in telling the story of your brand. Great communication is a two-way street. – Kelly Leonard, The Second City
3. Empower Reps With Tools, Growth And Recognition
You can attract and retain top CSRs by fostering a culture of empowerment. The goal should be to provide robust training, clear career paths, cutting-edge tools and competitive compensation. Crucially, you must treat them as brand champions, not just cost centers, and value their direct customer insights. – Andrew Faridani, BreezeMaxWeb
4. Prioritize Empathy And Long-Term Development
Brands can attract top talent by aligning purpose with culture—hire for empathy, not just experience. You can retain them by investing in growth, recognizing impact and giving them tools to solve problems with confidence. Empowered reps don’t just support your brand—they become it. – Rahul Saluja, Cognizant
5. Align Daily Work With Strategic Impact
Attracting reps requires a service-first mindset. Then, you can retain them with strong job aids, smart tools and support that strategically aligns their work to the bigger picture. When they’re equipped to solve problems fast and see how it drives impact, they deliver and stay around. – Michael Fritsch, SavvyCOO
Forbes Business Development Council is an invitation-only community for sales and biz dev executives. Do I qualify?
6. Hire For Heart; Train For Problem-Solving
Attracting and retaining top customer service reps starts with one core truth: They’re the voice of your brand, so don’t just hire for skills—hire for heart. You need to look for people who genuinely enjoy helping others, not just checking boxes. Once you’ve got the right people, empower them by giving them the tools and training to solve real problems, not just read from a script. – Richard Lindhorn, VivoAquatics Inc.
7. Value Attitude Over Experience In Recruitment
You have to hire for attitude. I’ve hired people who don’t explicitly have the experience I want for the job, but I know they have the right attitude. Managers can train for excellence, but someone’s attitude and social skills are much harder to develop. – Wayne Elsey, Funds2Orgs
8. Offer Upfront Transparency And Genuine Growth
You can attract reps by being honest about the role and offering real growth, not just onboarding. Clear goals, steady feedback and real skill-building are what keep great people around. A flexible schedule and great pay help, as well! – Bryce Welker, The CPA Exam Guy
9. Build Loyalty Through Purpose And Empowerment
To attract and retain top customer service talent, you must start with aligned values. People stay when they feel their voice matters, their work makes a difference and their impact on brand perception is real. You must recognize their contributions, empower them and give them purpose—this builds long-term loyalty and pride in the role. – Anna Jankowska, RTB House
10. Position Service As A Strategic Brand Function
Brands can position customer service as a strategic brand driver by recognizing its power to shape perception, foster loyalty and deliver long-term value. Every interaction is an opportunity to reinforce brand values, build trust and create lasting impressions. Enabling representatives with tools, insights and autonomy transforms routine inquiries into brand-defining moments that fuel business growth. – Salice Thomas, Wipro Limited
11. Support Personal Wins And Career Growth
You attract the best by setting an example as well as an audacious vision. You retain the best by supporting them through their unique personal wins and their short-term and long-term career goals. – Anoma Baste, Space Matrix
12. Treat Service Roles As Launchpads For Advancement
The best reps rarely want to stay reps forever, so stop designing the role like a dead end. The best way to attract talent is by positioning customer service as a high-visibility path to marketing, product or sales. Then, you can retain them by treating frontline insight as career currency. When you make the CSR role a growth engine, top performers come and stay. – Alexander Masters, MBA, BIDA, Siemens
13. Strengthen Culture And Brand Values Internally
Attracting exceptional customer-facing reps doesn’t start with a job description; it starts with the company culture and brand reputation. At our company, one of our values is “we champion the customer,” which is evident in our day-to-day work. Current and prospective employees can be more engaged when they’re connected to a brand’s values and mission, especially when they are on the front lines. – Hayden Stafford, Seismic
14. Create A Culture Of Trust And Recognition
The best thing to do is to hire people who truly care about helping others. Then, you need to give them the freedom, support and reason to do great work. You must also listen to them, trust them and cheer them on. When your team feels happy and valued, they give their best—and that’s how great brands shine. – Vipin Thomas, SparrowGenie
15. Hire Based On Observable, Value-Aligned Behaviors
Hiring for cultural fit isn’t a buzzword—it’s a blueprint. As a brand, you can start by translating your values into observable behaviors. If innovation matters, what does that look like day-to-day? Is it challenging assumptions, seeking feedback and taking initiative? You should use those signals in your interviews and evaluations to build a team that doesn’t just align with your mission but embodies it. – Umang Modi, TIAG, Inc.
16. Train Reps As Core Members Of The Revenue Team
I recommend training your customer service team the same way you train your frontline sales force. Customer service representatives should have access to your sales methodology, training and toolsets to ensure that they speak the same language as other professionals in your revenue organization. This provides a frictionless experience for your customers. – Julie Thomas, ValueSelling Associates
17. Look For Empathy And Enable Internal Influence
Experience and prior achievements aside, you have to dig into their past to learn about stories and nuggets that highlight EQ, empathy and a customer-first mindset. Retaining them requires empowering decision-making internally and externally, giving them a platform and voice in the organization and incentive alignment with organization goals. – Aman Rangrass, Skan.AI
18. Invest In Expertise And Lifelong Learning
At our company, PhD experts are naturally passionate about their areas of specialization. We cultivate lifelong curiosity by giving our customer success team opportunities to deepen their expertise through meaningful, challenging projects. This commitment to growth not only drives personal fulfillment but also directly elevates the service we deliver. – Eric Steele, SIB Fixed Cost Reduction
19. Foster Connection To Boost Energy And Retention
We find that when customer service reps feel a sense of achievement and genuine connection at work, everything shifts. Their attitude improves, they show up with more energy and performance naturally follows. That’s the kind of environment that not only attracts top talent but keeps them, and your brand, thriving. – Angelica Kopec, She Knows Business
20. Align Culture, Vision And Success Tools
Hiring the best CS rep is just the same as hiring the best for any other role. The first thing you look at is whether there is cultural and value-set alignment between you, the organization and the individual. After that, you look at how the scope fits with their career vision and how to calibrate the tools, technologies and skills for them to be successfully represented in front of the customers. – Mustansir Paliwala, Zomara Group
