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What does a customer care associate do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read
What does a customer care associate do

A customer care associate's role focuses on providing customer support and service, ensuring optimal services and client satisfaction. Their responsibilities typically revolve around assisting walk-in customers by answering inquiries, offering recommendations or alternatives, and informing them of any promos or discounts. It is essential to devise strategies to identify customer needs, providing them as needed. Furthermore, a customer care associate may answer inquiries made through calls or correspondence, make reservations, handle complaints or concerns, and resolve them according to the company's policies and regulations.

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Customer care associate responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer care associate resumes:

  • Continue to manage a high volume of customer calls relate to HMO, PPO and POS concerns.
  • Verify HIPAA member information, update members account, expedite payments, explain health and dental plan benefits options.
  • Answer inbound calls assisting customers with billing questions, troubleshoot for customers, and assist customers with service plans and upgrading packages
  • Receive inbound provider calls at a call center regarding patients medical insurance benefits and eligibility, edit and process Medicare claims.
  • Provide superior customer service to inbound calls from DirecTV customers regarding their schedule service/install appointment.

Customer care associate skills and personality traits

We calculated that 21% of Customer Care Associates are proficient in Customer Care, Patients, and Customer Service. 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 Associates that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Care, 21%

    Selected Accomplishments: Analyzed customer care situations Make and confirmed catalog/online sales Documented pertinent information pertaining to client.

  • Patients, 16%

    Received inbound provider calls at a call center regarding patients medical insurance benefits and eligibility, edited and processed Medicare claims.

  • Customer Service, 7%

    Delivered and support of high quality customer service, maintained excellent individual goals while working independently, and maintaining confidentiality.

  • Telephone Inquiries, 6%

    Answer telephone inquiries from customers regarding account related issues and attempt to effectively cross-sell beneficial products and services pertinent to issues.

  • Customer Support, 5%

    Answer inbound calls and offer customer support *Research product and order information for customers *Troubleshoot customer issues

  • Home Health, 3%

    Processed authorizations for members to receive home health care and durable medical equipment.

Most customer care associates use their skills in "customer care," "patients," and "customer service" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential customer care associate responsibilities here:

Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a customer care associate 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 associate resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "provided quality communication skills, customer support and product representation for clients. "

Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for customer care associates to perform their duties. For an example of how customer care associate 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 associate: "developed advanced customer service and relationship management skills in a fully mature, industry-leading customer support environment. ".

Interpersonal skills. customer care associate responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." This resume example shows what customer care associates do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "maintained excellent interpersonal and communication skills that complement proven creative problem solving skills. "

Listening skills. A commonly-found skill in customer care associate job descriptions, "listening skills" is essential to what customer care associates do. Customer care associate responsibilities rely on this skill because "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." You can also see how customer care associate duties rely on listening skills in this resume example: "utilized communication skills, listening skills, problem resolution and politeness to ensure member satisfaction. "

Patience. Another skill commonly found on customer care associate job descriptions is "patience." It can come up quite often in customer care associate 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 associate responsibilities: "combined patience, determination, and presistence to trouble shoot customer issues. "

All customer care associate skills

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Compare different customer care associates

Customer care associate vs. Associate customer service representative

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.

We looked at the average customer care associate salary and compared it with the wages of an associate customer service representative. Generally speaking, associate customer service representatives are paid $2,100 higher than customer care associates per year.Even though customer care associates and associate customer service representatives are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require customer care, patients, and customer service in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

While similarities exist, there are also some differences between customer care associates and associate customer service representative. For instance, customer care associate responsibilities require skills such as "home health," "data entry," "quality standards," and "excellent interpersonal." Whereas a associate customer service representative is skilled in "inbound calls," "customer calls," "medicare," and "credit card transactions." This is part of what separates the two careers.

Associate customer service representatives really shine in the finance industry with an average salary of $37,473. Comparatively, customer care associates tend to make the most money in the insurance industry with an average salary of $35,295.associate customer service representatives tend to reach similar levels of education than customer care associates. In fact, associate customer service representatives are 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care associate vs. Customer relations specialist

A customer relations specialist is responsible for providing high-quality services for customers by responding to their inquiries and concerns and resolving complaints about the company's goods and services. Customer relations specialists update customer accounts on the database, recording their transactions accurately, and posting their payments timely. They may also sell new products and services to the clients, demonstrating features and usability, processing orders, and confirming delivery details. A customer relations specialist must have excellent communication and organizational skills to ensure customer satisfaction and maintain healthy business relationships with the customers.

A career as a customer relations specialist brings a higher average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a customer care associate. In fact, customer relations specialists salary is $4,712 higher than the salary of customer care associates per year.Only some things about these jobs are the same. Take their skills, for example. Customer care associates and customer relations specialists both require similar skills like "customer care," "customer service," and "customer support" to carry out their responsibilities.

Each career also uses different skills, according to real customer care associate resumes. While customer care associate responsibilities can utilize skills like "patients," "telephone inquiries," "home health," and "excellent interpersonal," customer relations specialists use skills like "work ethic," "strong work ethic," "customer retention," and "schedule appointments."

On average, customer relations specialists earn a higher salary than customer care associates. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, customer relations specialists earn the most pay in the automotive industry with an average salary of $41,252. Whereas customer care associates have higher pay in the insurance industry, with an average salary of $35,295.In general, customer relations specialists achieve similar levels of education than customer care associates. They're 1.3% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care associate vs. Customer service desk

The responsibilities of working in a customer service desk primarily revolves around ensuring customer satisfaction by responding to their inquiries and concerns. There are instances when it is required to provide directions, locate products, make reservations, and resolve various issues. There may also be administrative tasks such as handling and making calls, assisting customers in filling out forms, preparing paperwork and reports, arranging records, and coordinating with various staff members to ensure that a customer receives quality service.

On average scale, customer service desks bring in higher salaries than customer care associates. In fact, they earn a $1,484 higher salary per year.Using the responsibilities included on customer care associates and customer service desks resumes, we found that both professions have similar skill requirements, such as "customer service," "customer support," and "customer orders.rdquo;

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, customer care associates are more likely to have skills like "customer care," "patients," "telephone inquiries," and "home health." But a customer service desk is more likely to have skills like "service desk," "front desk," "windows," and "front end."

Customer service desks earn the best pay in the manufacturing industry, where they command an average salary of $36,683. Customer care associates earn the highest pay from the insurance industry, with an average salary of $35,295.When it comes to education, customer service desks tend to earn similar degree levels compared to customer care associates. In fact, they're 2.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care associate vs. Customer agent

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.

Customer agents tend to earn a lower pay than customer care associates by an average of $1,281 per year.While both customer care associates and customer agents complete day-to-day tasks using similar skills like customer service, customer support, and data entry, the two careers vary in some skills.

Even though a few skill sets overlap between customer care associates and customer agents, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a customer care associate might have more use for skills like "customer care," "patients," "telephone inquiries," and "home health." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of customer agents require skills like "customer calls," "us customs," "golf courses," and "customer feedback. "

In general, customer agents earn the most working in the technology industry, with an average salary of $32,547. The highest-paying industry for a customer care associate is the insurance industry.customer agents reach similar levels of education compared to customer care associates, in general. The difference is that they're 0.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of customer care associate

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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