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The differences between customer agents and associate 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 customer agent and an associate customer service representative. Additionally, an associate customer service representative has an average salary of $35,215, which is higher than the $31,834 average annual salary of a customer agent.
The top three skills for a customer agent include data entry, customer service and outbound calls. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Customer Agent | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $31,834 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $15.30 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 211,832 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
A customer agent provides friendly service to external and internal customers. Customer agents talk to customers on behalf of businesses and companies. They help customers with their queries and complaints. It is their job to give customers a better understanding of the products. They answer questions with regards to their reservations. Sometimes, they also have sales roles. Oftentimes, they answer questions, process sales, provide information, and resolve problems.
An associate customer service representative is responsible for providing high customer service by assisting customers on their inquiries and concerns, as well as resolving and escalating high-level complaints to the supervisor or tenured customer service representative. Associate customer service representatives also process orders and payments from the customers, replacing defective items, and issuing refunds as needed. They must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on handling data processing procedures to the database for reference to customer concerns.
Customer agents and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Agent | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $31,834 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $39,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | New York | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Speedway Motors | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer agent and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Agent | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer agents' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Customer Agent | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 43.8% Female, 56.2% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.9% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 19.3% Asian, 7.0% White, 55.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |