How To Become A Customer Care Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a customer care specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted expert

Sally Hiott B.S. MBA, DBA

A customer care specialist works to provide assistance to customers and clients of a company. They address customer inquiries, complaints, and issues in an efficient and effective manner. Customer care specialists work in industries including retail, healthcare, and telecommunications. They must possess excellent communication skills, the ability to listen empathetically, and problem-solving abilities. Customer care specialists may work through phone, email, chat or social media channels. They aim to ensure customer satisfaction and maintain positive relationships between the company and its customers.

What general advice would you give to a customer care specialist?

Sally Hiott B.S. MBA, DBA

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Charleston Southern University

Show employers how you would not only fill an open position regarding the work at hand, but show them how you would be an asset to their team. We are in very team driven work environments currently, and hiring managers want to know what you can bring to the table. Filling a void is great for the workload, but enhancing a team culture makes them not want to work without you!

ScoreCustomer Care SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.5

Avg. Salary $32,427

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.73%

Asian 6.53%

Black or African American 12.18%

Hispanic or Latino 19.11%

Unknown 5.40%

White 56.06%

Gender

female 69.79%

male 30.21%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a customer care specialist?

Pros

Chance to work remotely
Possibility of flexible schedules
Possibility of performance-based bonuses
Opportunities for overtime pay
Possibility of paid training

Cons

Possibility of working long hours or weekends
Possibility of working in a noisy or distracting environment
Possibility of high call volumes
The job can be repetitive or monotonous
Challenging to balance work and personal life due to scheduling demands

Key steps to become a customer care specialist

Explore customer care specialist education requirements

Most common customer care specialist degrees

Bachelor's

42.6 %

Associate

22.4 %

High School Diploma

20.6 %

Start to develop specific customer care specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Care	24.76%
Customer Service	12.67%
Outbound Calls	6.17%
Data Entry	4.76%
Troubleshoot	3.25%

Complete relevant customer care specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New customer care specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a customer care specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real customer care specialist resumes.

Research customer care specialist duties and 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.

Prepare your customer care specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your customer care specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a customer care specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable customer care specialist resume templates

Build a professional customer care specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your customer care specialist resume.

Apply for customer care specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a customer care specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How did you land your first customer care specialist job

Marfo Kwaku

Customer Care Specialist, Coral Paints Ghana

I started work from scratch. After completing my Diploma in Communication Studies from the Ghana Institute of Journalism in 2008 I got a job as an Administrative Assistant at a construction firm. I worked for less than a year and I went back to school. I went to study Sociology and Geography at the University of Cape Coast. After graduation, I got a job with The Coca Bottling Company of Ghana as Route to Market Officer. It was there I got interested in customer service. I had a territory that was specifically assigned to me to manage. Each day, I had a specific number of customers to attend to. We used a device that generated the orders for each customer. Upon arrival in the customer's shop, I scan the QR code with the device to pick my current location and send it to the back office. I engage the customer to generate the orders. This is where I learnt how to practice the FIFO / FEFO practice of stock rotation. I was also to ensure that the customers do not have expired products so I also ensured I did not overstock each customer. We used motorbikes to visit the customers on the route. I developed strong customer service skills here and that gave me success on each route I visited. There were a lot of challenges though but we did not allow the challenges to overwhelm us. For instance, after Ihave visited the customers and generated the orders, the delivery team, ideally, must be on standby to deliver all ordered items but unfortunately they do otherwise. So sometimes, orders that I could supply with my motorbike, I do not hesitate to do it. This helped me gain a good image in the sight of the customers and even my managers.

It was at this point that a man approached me on the route one hot afternoon. He told me he loved the way I work and he wanted me to join his company. I did not hesitate. I joined Coral Paints Ghana on 1 February 2018 as Sales Associate. At the time I was employed, the company had a Showroom at GAME Discount World and I was asked to manage the shop. With my strong sales and customer service background I kept the place in shape in terms of revenue.

My work pleased our Managing Director so one night at a sales meeting, very funny but true, we met in the washroom and he told me he needs me in the office at the Customer Care department. Your guess is as good as mine, I received a promotion right there. I currently work as a Customer Care Specialist. In this department, we handle both in-bound and out-bound calls, we handle al

How do customer care specialists rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Customer care specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2024

Pros

remote job, more schedule flexibility

Cons

very low salary, no career growth, very stressful and not rewarding

A zippia user wrote a review on Oct 2022

Pros

I got to do a variety of tasks daily. Got treated with respect from management and other coworkers.

Cons

Sometimes I had to finish up job tasks that were assigned to others that were not completed.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2022

Pros

Getting to know the people and the you work.with

Cons

Being required to answer a minimum number of calls a day. This pushes the idea that the caller is a number and as such, it is more difficult to personalize the call the the person calling in

What is a customer care specialist and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a customer care specialist?

What are the pros and cons of being a customer care specialist?

Customer care specialist career paths

Key steps to become a customer care specialist

Explore customer care specialist education requirements

Most common customer care specialist degrees

Start to develop specific customer care specialist skills

Complete relevant customer care specialist training and internships

Research customer care specialist duties and responsibilities

Prepare your customer care specialist resume

Choose from 10+ customizable customer care specialist resume templates

Apply for customer care specialist jobs

How did you land your first customer care specialist job

Average customer care specialist salary

How do customer care specialists rate their job?

Customer care specialist reviews