If your background is in customer service and you're looking for a job in this tough economy, your resume needs to be flawless. Thundering hordes of people are fighting for every job opening in customer service. If you've got experience in the field, and you're at ease in working with people, you're off to a good start. But how do you translate that background and those talents onto paper?

First Stop: The Resume Objective

Now, not every resume requires an objective statement. I often recommend opening with a powerful, 3-4 line profile or career summary, incorporating a few bullet points. But objectives are commonplace, useful, and they can be highly effective. Still, right out of the gate this is where fully half of your competitors blow it. They don't view their objective statement through the eyes of the employer - a critical mistake. Nail the objective, and your resume will immediately rise to the top of the teetering stack of resumes on the desk of that hiring official.

What Not To Say

Here are a few examples of objectives from resumes on the bottom of that stack, and [in brackets] the reason why they're on the bottom.

1) "Seeking a challenging position in Customer Service." [Too general. The candidate is offering nothing to the hiring official.]

2) "Seeking a position in Customer Service offering rapid advancement opportunities." [Again, the candidate is offering nothing to the hiring official, and possibly tipping his/her hand to a simmering disdain for actual, hands-on customer service work. Not a good strategy.]

3) "Seeking a position in Customer Service allowing me to fully utilize my skills and abilities for the betterment of the company." [What skills and abilities? None have been mentioned, yet. Nor is the hiring official likely to take the time to read further to try to identify those skills and abilities. And 'betterment of the company?' What does that mean? If the hiring official has to ask, it must mean nothing.]

Offer Up Specifics

Tricia was a client with 10 years experience in customer service and inside sales in a service-sensitive industry. After combing through her background on paper and via phone, I wrote the following objective: "A challenging position in Customer Service for a persuasive communicator and creative problem solver with a strong aptitude for sales." In this case, the candidate is offering a tangible skill set to the hiring official, each of which (communication skills, problem-solving ability, sales aptitude) directly impacts the position he's trying to fill.

First impressions count. And nowhere is a good first impression more important than on a resume. So now, the hiring official has a good first impression of Tricia. What does he do with that good first impression? He keeps reading her resume.

At this stage in the hiring dance, that's as good as it gets.