Customer associate vs customer care advocate

The differences between customer associates and customer care advocates 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 associate and a customer care advocate. Additionally, a customer care advocate has an average salary of $33,219, which is higher than the $32,989 average annual salary of a customer associate.

The top three skills for a customer associate include sales floor, product knowledge and customer service. The most important skills for a customer care advocate are patients, scheduling appointments, and data entry.

Customer associate vs customer care advocate overview

	Customer Associate	Customer Care Advocate
Yearly salary	$32,989	$33,219
Hourly rate	$15.86	$15.97
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	191,027	248,553
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	12	12

What does a customer associate do?

A customer associate is responsible for providing the best customer service by assisting the customers with their inquiries and concerns, as well as resolving their complaints, processing replacements, and issuing refunds as needed. Customer associates also sell products and services to the customers, demonstrating product features, and identifying business opportunities to drive more revenues and profits for the business. They must have excellent communication and organizational skills to process orders and payments timely and accurately.

What does a customer care advocate do?

A customer care advocate is responsible for monitoring customer transactions, ensuring the highest customer service satisfaction by timely responses and complaint resolution. Customer care advocates recommend strategic procedures and training programs necessary for handling customer support. They manage customer concerns and conduct interviews to identify customer preferences and build other business opportunities to build a good reputation for the organization. A customer care advocate must have excellent communication and organizational skills to promote customer advocacy and determine the best customer service practices.

Customer associate vs customer care advocate salary

Customer associates and customer care advocates have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Customer Associate	Customer Care Advocate
Average salary	$32,989	$33,219
Salary range	Between $21,000 And $51,000	Between $24,000 And $44,000
Highest paying City	Los Angeles, CA	Santa Barbara, CA
Highest paying state	California	Hawaii
Best paying company	Udemy	University of California, Berkeley
Best paying industry	Telecommunication	Insurance

Differences between customer associate and customer care advocate education

There are a few differences between a customer associate and a customer care advocate in terms of educational background:

	Customer Associate	Customer Care Advocate
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 43%	Bachelor's Degree, 37%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Customer associate vs customer care advocate demographics

Here are the differences between customer associates' and customer care advocates' demographics:

	Customer Associate	Customer Care Advocate
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 42.6% Female, 57.4%	Male, 36.2% Female, 63.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 12.1% Unknown, 5.6% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 6.9% White, 54.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 10.8% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 20.6% Asian, 7.0% White, 55.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between customer associate and customer care advocate duties and responsibilities

Customer associate example responsibilities.

Manage product queries, process orders and deliveries of medical devices to NHS and private hospitals in UK.
Collaborate with management to train new employees on company policies and procedures and manage customer concerns via LiveChat.
Provide troubleshooting steps to service apple products.
Answer phones, operate POS and collect payments of cash, credit/debit cards and checks.
Job duties include not only calls, but faxing, copying, outlook, multitasking.
Require to have above average language skills, phone, negotiating, collaboration, persuasion, innovation.

Customer care advocate example responsibilities.

Continue to manage a high volume of customer calls relate to HMO, PPO and POS concerns.
Develop regional sales tools including PowerPoint presentations, brochures and web content to support product sales.
Put together presentations using PowerPoint.
Process questionnaires for Medicaid recipients to establish comprehension of complex rules and regulations.
Verify Medicaid benefits and answer several calls from physicians or their assistants regarding their payments.
Utilize critical thinking to determine effective operational procedures to fulfill member's concerns while adhering to HIPAA regulations.

Customer associate vs customer care advocate skills

Common customer associate skills

Sales Floor, 24%
Product Knowledge, 22%
Customer Service, 13%
Phone Calls, 7%
Customer Calls, 3%
Outbound Calls, 3%

Common customer care advocate skills

Patients, 13%
Scheduling Appointments, 7%
Data Entry, 7%
Outbound Calls, 6%
HIPAA, 6%
Home Health, 6%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Customer Associate
Customer Associate vs Customer Care Advocate

Updated January 8, 2025

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