Administrative staff vs customer service representative

The differences between administrative staff 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 staff, becoming a customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, an administrative staff has an average salary of $77,101, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.

The top three skills for an administrative staff include telephone calls, word processing and travel arrangements. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.

Administrative staff vs customer service representative overview

	Administrative Staff	Customer Service Representative
Yearly salary	$77,101	$32,260
Hourly rate	$37.07	$15.51
Growth rate	-8%	-4%
Number of jobs	119,030	209,515
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	High School Diploma, 33%
Average age	50	40
Years of experience	2	12

What does an administrative staff do?

As the administrative staff, they primarily provide administrative and secretarial support for the department. Typically, they do report-writing, filing and scheduling, and payroll. They plan department weekly meetings, schedule conference calls, and work on solving administrative related concerns and issues. They do a complex task that involves multi-tasking from the preparation of department reports, analyzing data, and finding solutions. It is a requirement to be an experienced, collaborator, and trained cross-functional communicator. Moreover, other duties will include scheduling company-initiated activities, meetings, and events.

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 staff vs customer service representative salary

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

	Administrative Staff	Customer Service Representative
Average salary	$77,101	$32,260
Salary range	Between $58,000 And $101,000	Between $25,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Des Moines, WA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	NVIDIA	Oracle
Best paying industry	Professional	Insurance

Differences between administrative staff and customer service representative education

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

	Administrative Staff	Customer Service Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 63%	High School Diploma, 33%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	-

Administrative staff vs customer service representative demographics

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

	Administrative Staff	Customer Service Representative
Average age	50	40
Gender ratio	Male, 31.9% Female, 68.1%	Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.2% 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 staff and customer service representative duties and responsibilities

Administrative staff example responsibilities.

Support medical doctors, manage sensitive and confidential records pertaining to high risk patients with emphasis on accuracy.
Prepare PowerPoint presentations for management distribution.
Maintain payroll information by collect, calculate and enter data.
Prepare briefing slides and presentation material using PowerPoint and Visio.
Maintain accounting statements, databases, and other financial information such as payroll coding and budget preparation
Provide cloud base customer relationship management with Salesforce for optimization in coordination of the workforce development program and other community orient events

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 staff vs customer service representative skills

Common administrative staff skills

Telephone Calls, 19%
Word Processing, 16%
Travel Arrangements, 7%
Payroll, 6%
Personnel Actions, 6%
Financial Reports, 5%

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 Staff
Administrative Staff vs Customer Service Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

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