Customer care specialist vs customer care advocate

The differences between customer care specialists 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 care specialist and a customer care advocate. Additionally, a customer care advocate has an average salary of $33,219, which is higher than the $32,427 average annual salary of a customer care specialist.

The top three skills for a customer care specialist include customer care, customer service and outbound calls. The most important skills for a customer care advocate are patients, scheduling appointments, and data entry.

Customer care specialist vs customer care advocate overview

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Advocate
Yearly salary	$32,427	$33,219
Hourly rate	$15.59	$15.97
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	260,027	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 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.

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 care specialist vs customer care advocate salary

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

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Advocate
Average salary	$32,427	$33,219
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $39,000	Between $24,000 And $44,000
Highest paying City	Grand Forks, ND	Santa Barbara, CA
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Hawaii
Best paying company	Axogen	University of California, Berkeley
Best paying industry	Insurance	Insurance

Differences between customer care specialist and customer care advocate education

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

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

Customer care specialist vs customer care advocate demographics

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

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Advocate
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 30.2% Female, 69.8%	Male, 36.2% Female, 63.8%
Race ratio	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%	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 care specialist and customer care advocate duties and responsibilities

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 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 care specialist vs customer care advocate skills

Common customer care specialist skills

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

Updated January 8, 2025

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