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.
Customer care agent responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer care agent resumes:
- 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 agent skills and personality traits
We calculated that 22% of Customer Care Agents are proficient in Customer Care, Customer Service, and Work Ethic. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Customer Care Agents that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Care, 22%
Provided customer care and technical support for fitness trackers, app support and device/Bluetooth compatibility via email and inbound/outbound calls.
- Customer Service, 12%
Build relationships to provide repeat business and excellent customer service achievement and exceed weekly and monthly sales goals established by management.
- Work Ethic, 9%
Promoted to Inside Sales position during company restructuring after continued success in all assigned activity and showing highly dedicated work ethic.
- Excellent Interpersonal, 6%
Communicated with irate customers using excellent interpersonal-communication skills.
- Customer Interaction, 5%
Utilize my 'Save-Pro Certification' to overcome objections and manage through difficult customer interactions.
- Excellent Organizational, 5%
Profile Articulate Goal-oriented Ability to learn quickly and apply information Diligent Self-motivated Resourceful Poised Excellent organizational skills Persuasive.
Common skills that a customer care agent uses to do their job include "customer care," "customer service," and "work ethic." You can find details on the most important customer care agent responsibilities below.
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a customer care agent to carry out their responsibilities is communication skills. This skill is important for the role because "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Additionally, a customer care agent resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "worked in teams to build cooperation and communication, and to ultimately achieve department objectives, ensuring world-class customer care. "
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for customer care agents to perform their duties. For an example of how customer care agent responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a customer care agent: "managed high call volume with tact and professionalism addressed and resolved customer product complaints empathetically and professionally. ".
Interpersonal skills. A big part of what customer care agents do relies on "interpersonal skills." You can see how essential it is to customer care agent responsibilities because "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." Here's an example of how this skill is used from a resume that represents typical customer care agent tasks: "provided individualized customer service to all retail patrons; used excellent interpersonal and communication skills to provide assistance and customer service. "
Listening skills. Another common skill required for customer care agent responsibilities is "listening skills." This skill comes up in the duties of customer care agents all the time, as "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." An excerpt from a real customer care agent resume shows how this skill is central to what a customer care agent does: "provided excellent customer care when it came to listening and understanding the needs of the clients. "
Patience. Another skill commonly found on customer care agent job descriptions is "patience." It can come up quite often in customer care agent duties, since "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day customer care agent responsibilities: "service representative who maintains a high level of professionalism, patience and efficiency to minimize customer dissatisfaction and increase customer loyalty. "
The three companies that hire the most customer care agents are:
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Compare different customer care agents
Customer care agent vs. Customer retention specialist
A call center agent is responsible for answering calls and assisting clients by responding to inquiries. They also handle complaints and resolve issues, troubleshoot errors, and process applications. The tasks of a call center agent will vary on the directives of supervisors. There are instances when they must make calls to gather or give information, sell products, and discuss a particular subject. Furthermore, most of the duties take place in a team setting, which is why it is essential to coordinate with colleagues and adhere to the company's policies and regulations at all times.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a customer care agent are more likely to require skills like "work ethic," "excellent interpersonal," "excellent organizational," and "inbound phone calls." On the other hand, a job as a customer retention specialist requires skills like "inbound calls," "customer complaints," "upsell," and "strong negotiation." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that customer retention specialists earn slightly differ from customer care agents. In particular, customer retention specialists are 0.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a customer care agent. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer care agent vs. Call center agent
A client engagement specialist is in charge of devising strategies to build positive relationships with clients that will translate to sales. Their responsibilities revolve around performing research and analysis to identify client needs, finding new sales leads and opportunities, and coordinating with team members. They must also reach out to clients through calls, correspondence, or face-to-face interaction to offer products and services, discuss specifications, secure sales, process payments, and perform follow-up calls. Moreover, a client engagement specialist must answer inquiries and address issues and concerns, resolving them promptly and efficiently.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, customer care agent responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "work ethic," "excellent interpersonal," "excellent organizational," and "customer loyalty." Meanwhile, a call center agent has duties that require skills in areas such as "strong customer service," "data entry," "schedule appointments," and "troubleshoot." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Call center agents may earn a lower salary than customer care agents, but call center agents earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $30,867. On the other hand, customer care agents receive higher pay in the retail industry, where they earn an average salary of $32,034.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Call center agents tend to reach similar levels of education than customer care agents. In fact, they're 0.7% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer care agent vs. Customer engagement specialist
A customer specialist is responsible for assisting customers with their needs and concerns about the products and services offered by the company, addressing their inquiries timely and accurately. Customer specialists evaluate the customers' issues and provide immediate solutions through remote communication. In some cases, a customer specialist may send technical staff to the customer's location for problems that cannot be resolved over the phone or e-mail. They also take orders from the customers, process their payments, and explain the features and functions of the product.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, customer care agents are more likely to have skills like "work ethic," "excellent interpersonal," "excellent organizational," and "inbound phone calls." But a customer engagement specialist is more likely to have skills like "brand awareness," "appeals," "wine," and "patients."
Customer engagement specialists earn the best pay in the health care industry, where they command an average salary of $48,710. Customer care agents earn the highest pay from the retail industry, with an average salary of $32,034.When it comes to education, customer engagement specialists tend to earn similar degree levels compared to customer care agents. In fact, they're 2.6% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.6% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Customer care agent vs. Customer specialist
Types of customer care agent
Updated January 8, 2025
