How To Become A Service Planner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a service planner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Service planners are extremely detailed executors of programs and operations. This includes research, analyzing consumer data, collaborating with other vendors and suppliers, and monitoring and ensuring the progress of operations. Service planners create budgets, oversee logistics, negotiate contracts, manage inventories, and ensure smooth communication between all parties involved. They also liaise with external suppliers, negotiate prices, and strengthen the company's networking potential. Other duties could involve functioning as a product planner, which would involve research, design, creating software product roadmaps, and creating forecasts.

Service planners must have keen eyes for detail. They must also be creative, great communicators, and possess customer service skills, inventory management skills, and product development skills, depending on the job. To be a service planner, you need a bachelor's degree. Experience also helps in your career as a service planner, especially if you have previously worked as a customer service representative. Previous administrative roles help in boosting your chances of landing employment as a service planner. In the United States, the average service planner makes about $51,676 annually

ScoreService PlannerUS Average

Salary

4.4

Avg. Salary $56,421

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.8

Growth rate -3%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.2

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.53%

Asian 7.01%

Black or African American 9.69%

Hispanic or Latino 16.82%

Unknown 4.94%

White 61.01%

Gender

female 55.48%

male 44.52%

Age - 45

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 - 45

Stress level

7.8

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

5.3

Complexity level is intermediate

7 - challenging

Work life balance

3.9

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a service planner

Explore service planner education requirements

Most common service planner degrees

Bachelor's

61.1 %

Associate

16.0 %

Master's

10.2 %

Start to develop specific service planner skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Complaints	10.00%
Data Entry	9.16%
Customer Service	8.88%
Delivery Dates	8.02%
Purchase Orders	4.43%

Complete relevant service planner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New service planners 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 planner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real service planner resumes.

Research service planner duties and responsibilities

Create budgets, select sites, negotiate contracts, manage logistics, oversee food and beverage, and coordinate vendors
Generate MRP on a monthly basis; run weekly selective MRP to include any addition requirements receive.
Review inventory and plan releases for assign accounts using customer's spreadsheets, EDI or MRP releases.
Generate shop order paperwork including Kanban pull card system and manual shop orders base upon customer demand.

Prepare your service planner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your service planner 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 planner 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 planner resume templates

Build a professional service planner 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 planner resume.