What is a service lead and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted expert

Andrew Gilliam

A service lead is someone who oversees a team of customer service representatives. They are responsible for ensuring that the team delivers high-quality customer service and meets performance targets. They develop and implement strategies to improve customer satisfaction, streamline processes, optimize team productivity, and handle potential escalations from customers. They collaborate with other departments to ensure a seamless customer experience. Typically, they have years of experience in customer service and possess strong leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.

What general advice would you give to a service lead?

Andrew Gilliam

Customer Experience innovator and change agent,, Informa Tech

Searching for jobs is always intimidating, and this year provides many new reasons to be discouraged. However, based on research HDI conducted in July, 57% of support organizations are creating new positions or continuing to fill vacancies. Furthermore, 82% of organizations say it is likely they will continue working from home long-term. Many companies are opening their minds to hiring candidates who don't live near their offices. That's great news for anyone entering the job market!
When looking for work, the best thing an applicant can do is to think like a hiring manager. They're filling a position to meet their needs, not yours, so consider the context in which they're hiring. Right now, businesses are searching for applicants who can contribute to remote teams and support customers remotely. Experience with unified communications, mobile, cloud, and remote support technologies are in high demand. Additionally, organizations are changing how they work at a rapid pace. Understanding the fundamentals of knowledge management, enterprise service management, incident and problem management, and organizational communications will help candidates speak directly to prospective employers' challenges. Having a dedicated space and internet connectivity to enable working from home and a proven ability to work independently or remotely helps dissuade managers' fears of hiring remote candidates.
There are plenty of ways to build these skills and competencies, even without direct work experience. HDI offers numerous resources, many of them free, to expand your knowledge, including articles, webinars, toolkits, research, and virtual classroom training. Dedicating yourself to independent learning, experimenting in a home-lab, and networking at virtual industry events are fantastic ways to demonstrate your job-readiness.

ScoreService LeadUS Average

Salary

6.6

Avg. Salary $83,844

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.0

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.66%

Asian 5.75%

Black or African American 9.89%

Hispanic or Latino 18.24%

Unknown 4.81%

White 60.66%

Gender

female 51.88%

male 48.12%

Age - 48

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 48

Stress level

8.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.7

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a service lead?

Pros

Opportunity to lead and motivate a team
Possibility for growth and advancement within the company
Opportunity for variety in daily tasks and responsibilities
Potential for higher salary and bonuses
Possibility for flexible scheduling and remote work options

Cons

High stress environment with demanding customers and tight deadlines
Need to constantly balance competing priorities and demands
Dealing with underperforming team members or staffing shortages
Potential for long hours, including evenings and weekends
Pressure to meet performance metrics and sales targets

Key steps to become a service lead

Explore service lead education requirements

Most common service lead degrees

Bachelor's

53.0 %

Associate

18.3 %

High School Diploma

14.0 %

Start to develop specific service lead skills

Skills	Percentages
Food Service	14.44%
Food Safety	8.72%
Exceptional Client	6.02%
Client Service	5.90%
Customer Complaints	5.73%

Complete relevant service lead training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New service leads learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a service lead based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real service lead resumes.

Research service lead duties and responsibilities

Manage services and supports for intellectually and developmentally disable individuals, within compliance with all Medicaid and I/DD waiver regulations.
Deliver world-class customer service to patients and physicians while resolving issues regarding delivery and administration of specialty medications.
Deploy Citrix technology from scratch.
Provide monthly RSA VPN user reports.

Get service lead experience

Generally, it takes 4-6 years to become a service lead. The most common roles before becoming a service lead include cashier, sales associate team lead and customer service representative.

Prepare your service lead resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your service lead resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a service lead resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable service lead resume templates

Build a professional service lead resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your service lead resume.