Customer care agent vs customer care specialist

The differences between customer care agents and customer care specialists 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 care agent and a customer care specialist. Additionally, a customer care specialist has an average salary of $32,427, which is higher than the $31,774 average annual salary of a customer care agent.

The top three skills for a customer care agent include customer care, customer service and work ethic. The most important skills for a customer care specialist are customer care, customer service, and outbound calls.

Customer care agent vs customer care specialist overview

	Customer Care Agent	Customer Care Specialist
Yearly salary	$31,774	$32,427
Hourly rate	$15.28	$15.59
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	268,932	260,027
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 35%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	12	12

What does a customer care agent do?

A customer care agent is responsible for assisting the customers' inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services of the company, as well as resolving and escalating complaints, ensuring that the needs of customers are addressed timely and accurately. Customer care agents also take customers' orders, process their payments, and set delivery or shipment schedules. They assist with the development of strategic procedures, as well as operational techniques, to increase productivity and generate more revenues and profits for the business.

What does a customer care specialist do?

A customer care specialist is responsible for assisting the customers with their inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services offered by the organization. A customer care specialist must be detail-oriented, as well as have excellent communication and time-management skills in responding to the customers' needs while documenting the processes on a specific computer program. Customer care specialists are responsible for processing payments, replacing defective items, and initiating refunds as needed. They must resolve complaints accurately and efficiently to ensure customer satisfaction to keep a good reputation for the organization.

Customer care agent vs customer care specialist salary

Customer care agents and customer care specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Customer Care Agent	Customer Care Specialist
Average salary	$31,774	$32,427
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $38,000	Between $26,000 And $39,000
Highest paying City	Santa Clara, CA	Grand Forks, ND
Highest paying state	Washington	Hawaii
Best paying company	Bassett Furniture Industries	Axogen
Best paying industry	Retail	Insurance

Differences between customer care agent and customer care specialist education

There are a few differences between a customer care agent and a customer care specialist in terms of educational background:

	Customer Care Agent	Customer Care Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 35%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Customer care agent vs customer care specialist demographics

Here are the differences between customer care agents' and customer care specialists' demographics:

	Customer Care Agent	Customer Care Specialist
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 34.7% Female, 65.3%	Male, 30.2% Female, 69.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 12.8% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 19.5% Asian, 6.4% White, 55.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 19.1% Asian, 6.5% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between customer care agent and customer care specialist duties and responsibilities

Customer care agent example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Apply excellent upselling techniques to increase company profits.
Answer all inquiries and concerns relate to a participant's account with the upselling of products and services.
Demonstrate superb organizational and multitasking abilities
Provide superior customer service to inbound calls from DirecTV customers regarding their schedule service/install appointment.

Customer care specialist example responsibilities.

Continue to manage a high volume of customer calls relate to HMO, PPO and POS concerns.
Provide unbias assistance to Medicaid providers with questions regarding Medicaid patient eligibility, medical claims statuses and other program questions.
Present PowerPoint presentations in a webinar format that introduce new features and enhancements to self- service, e-commerce portal.
Authenticate callers before providing personal health information to avoid breaking HIPAA guidelines.
Verify then analyze and troubleshoot customer's questions regarding student loan disbursement procedures and banking accounts.
Maintain working knowledge of numerous product lines as well as policies to effectively troubleshoot and/or replace defective products

Customer care agent vs customer care specialist skills

Common customer care agent skills

Customer Care, 22%
Customer Service, 12%
Work Ethic, 9%
Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
Customer Interaction, 5%
Excellent Organizational, 5%

Common customer care specialist skills

Customer Care, 25%
Customer Service, 13%
Outbound Calls, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
Troubleshoot, 3%
Inbound Phone Calls, 3%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Customer Care Agent
Customer Care Agent vs Customer Care Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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