Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between business representatives and customer service representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a business representative and a customer service representative. Additionally, a business representative has an average salary of $51,604, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.
The top three skills for a business representative include customer service, patients and powerpoint. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.
| Business Representative | Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $51,604 | $32,260 |
| Hourly rate | $24.81 | $15.51 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 197,264 | 209,515 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 58% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
Typically working as a member of a company's sales team, a business representative offers products and services to customers through appointments or calls and correspondence, securing sales and customer satisfaction. Among their responsibilities include answering inquiries, processing payments, assisting clients in filling out forms, negotiating contracts, developing sales strategies, researching new business and client opportunities, and producing sales reports. Furthermore, as a business representative, it is essential to have a great understanding of the company's vision and mission, including its policies and regulations.
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.
Business representatives and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Business Representative | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $51,604 | $32,260 |
| Salary range | Between $36,000 And $73,000 | Between $25,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Des Moines, WA |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Washington |
| Best paying company | Marathon Oil | Oracle |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a business representative and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Business Representative | Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 58% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between business representatives' and customer service representatives' demographics:
| Business Representative | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 45.5% Female, 54.5% | Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.8% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.8% White, 54.1% 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 | 7% | 7% |