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

What is a consumer service representative and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a consumer service representative. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.84 an hour? That's $32,944 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -4% and produce -105,300 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreConsumer Service RepresentativeUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $32,944

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.71%

Asian 7.20%

Black or African American 10.34%

Hispanic or Latino 18.47%

Unknown 5.33%

White 57.94%

Gender

female 64.45%

male 35.55%

Age - 39

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 - 39

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a consumer service representative

Explore consumer service representative education requirements

Most common consumer service representative degrees

Bachelor's

46.5 %

Associate

22.6 %

High School Diploma

15.8 %

Start to develop specific consumer service representative skills

Skills	Percentages
Consumer Service	16.24%
Customer Service	11.95%
Phone Calls	7.05%
Customer Satisfaction	6.27%
Data Entry	6.18%

Complete relevant consumer service representative training and internships

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

Research consumer service representative duties and responsibilities

Educate veterans and the college community on veteran's benefits and academic requirements need to accomplish academic goals.
Hire on as a seasonal CSR for the holiday season.
Work independently as a telecommuter and serve as a CSR supervisor.
Enter online orders for consumers and store representative and troubleshoot all problems relating to them.

Get consumer service representative experience

Generally, it takes 6-12 months to become a consumer service representative. The most common roles before becoming a consumer service representative include customer service representative, cashier team lead and sales associate.

Prepare your consumer service representative resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your consumer service representative 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 consumer service representative resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable consumer service representative resume templates

Build a professional consumer service representative 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 consumer service representative resume.

Apply for consumer service representative jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a consumer service representative job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do consumer service representatives rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Consumer service representative reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2024

Cons

very low salary, no career growth, very stressful and not rewarding

A zippia user wrote a review on Feb 2022

Cons

I don't like when a rep or a consumer are not interested in a solution, but are only interested in venting. Although, venting maybe just what the consumer needed.

Pros

I resolved consumer and retailer questions. That is gratifying.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020