Administrative professional vs customer service representative

The differences between administrative professionals and customer service representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become an administrative professional, becoming a customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, an administrative professional has an average salary of $39,486, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.

The top three skills for an administrative professional include customer service, powerpoint and data entry. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.

Administrative professional vs customer service representative overview

	Administrative Professional	Customer Service Representative
Yearly salary	$39,486	$32,260
Hourly rate	$18.98	$15.51
Growth rate	-8%	-4%
Number of jobs	87,372	209,515
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	High School Diploma, 33%
Average age	50	40
Years of experience	2	12

What does an administrative professional do?

An administrative professional specializes in performing administrative support and clerical tasks in a company or office, ensuring accuracy and smooth workflow. Their responsibilities typically revolve around managing schedules, arranging appointments and meetings, producing progress reports and presentations, delegating tasks, and attending meetings on behalf of executives or staff. There are also instances when an administrative assistant must answer calls and correspondence, respond to inquiries and concerns, welcome guests, relay messages, and provide staff with any support tasks or documents.

What does a customer service representative do?

Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.

Administrative professional vs customer service representative salary

Administrative professionals and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Administrative Professional	Customer Service Representative
Average salary	$39,486	$32,260
Salary range	Between $23,000 And $65,000	Between $25,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Des Moines, WA
Highest paying state	Connecticut	Washington
Best paying company	HomeOwners Advantage	Oracle
Best paying industry	-	Insurance

Differences between administrative professional and customer service representative education

There are a few differences between an administrative professional and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:

	Administrative Professional	Customer Service Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 55%	High School Diploma, 33%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	Western Carolina University	-

Administrative professional vs customer service representative demographics

Here are the differences between administrative professionals' and customer service representatives' demographics:

	Administrative Professional	Customer Service Representative
Average age	50	40
Gender ratio	Male, 17.4% Female, 82.6%	Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.4% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.4% Asian, 3.8% White, 65.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	6%	7%

Differences between administrative professional and customer service representative duties and responsibilities

Administrative professional example responsibilities.

Manage documentation, folder structures and user permissions in SharePoint.
Participate in committee meetings by preparing minutes and presentation summaries, planning meeting agendas, and organizing and managing meeting logistics.
Keep vendors accounts up to date, process payroll, collect on accounts receivable, keep accounts payable up to date.
Create document libraries for several hospital initiatives in SharePoint.
Receive and distribute payroll garnishment/bankruptcy notification letters to employees.
Develop and maintain relevant organizational charts, facilitating retrieval of staff data in PowerPoint format.

Customer service representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Maintain cleanliness and safety and assist patients as necessary.
Operate POS system and maintain exceptional and consistent customer service.
Exercise proofreading and basic math skills to maintain quality control over documents process
Work in customer service department entering information into customer relationship management (CRM).
Develop highly empathetic client relationships and earn reputation for exceeding good customer service rep goals.

Administrative professional vs customer service representative skills

Common administrative professional skills

Customer Service, 16%
PowerPoint, 12%
Data Entry, 11%
Travel Arrangements, 7%
Administrative Tasks, 3%
Office Equipment, 3%

Common customer service representative skills

Cleanliness, 10%
POS, 7%
Data Entry, 6%
Sales Floor, 6%
Customer Service, 5%
Home Health, 5%

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Administrative Professional
Administrative Professional vs Customer Service Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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