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The differences between contact agents 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 contact agent and a customer service representative. Additionally, a customer service representative has an average salary of $32,260, which is higher than the $28,301 average annual salary of a contact agent.
The top three skills for a contact agent include customer service, phone calls and patients. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.
| Contact Agent | Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $28,301 | $32,260 |
| Hourly rate | $13.61 | $15.51 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 209,089 | 209,515 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
Contact agents are customer service professionals who handle emails, phone calls, and live chat messages. The agents assist customers with order inquiries, bills and payments, and support questions and complaints. These agents deal with technical support, inbound and outbound sales, and appointment bookings. They must ensure to handle an appropriate number of calls per day, resolve calls on the primary contact or refer them to the correct department, and log the call accurately against the customer's account.
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.
Contact agents and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Contact Agent | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $28,301 | $32,260 |
| Salary range | Between $21,000 And $36,000 | Between $25,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | Milwaukee, WI | Des Moines, WA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | Washington |
| Best paying company | Idaho Central Credit Union | Oracle |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a contact agent and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Contact Agent | Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between contact agents' and customer service representatives' demographics:
| Contact Agent | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 33.4% Female, 66.6% | Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.8% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 20.8% Asian, 6.6% White, 54.7% 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% |