Customer care specialist vs customer care representative

The differences between customer care specialists and customer care representatives 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 representative. Additionally, a customer care representative has an average salary of $32,912, 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 representative are customer care, customer service, and work ethic.

Customer care specialist vs customer care representative overview

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Representative
Yearly salary	$32,427	$32,912
Hourly rate	$15.59	$15.82
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	260,027	214,835
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 representative do?

A customer care representative is responsible for providing resolution with the customer's concerns, following the business' procedures and strategic processes. Customer care representatives must have exceptional customer service skills to address their clients' concerns efficiently and accurately, as well as having extensive knowledge of the products and services their company offer. Duties of a customer care representative also include managing client's complaints, offering alternative products and refunds as needed, calculating fees for special requests, updating customer's account information, documenting actions taken, and escalating special case concerns to the supervisor.

Customer care specialist vs customer care representative salary

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

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Representative
Average salary	$32,427	$32,912
Salary range	Between $26,000 And $39,000	Between $26,000 And $40,000
Highest paying City	Grand Forks, ND	Urban Honolulu, HI
Highest paying state	Hawaii	Hawaii
Best paying company	Axogen	Philadelphia Corporation for Aging
Best paying industry	Insurance	Automotive

Differences between customer care specialist and customer care representative education

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

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Representative
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 representative demographics

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

	Customer Care Specialist	Customer Care Representative
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 30.2% Female, 69.8%	Male, 32.0% Female, 68.0%
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, 11.7% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 20.0% Asian, 6.5% White, 55.8% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between customer care specialist and customer care representative 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 representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Answer incoming calls from clients, ATP's, therapists, and medical offices.
Maintain schedules for multiples ATP's and technicians to assist clients with scheduling therapy evaluations, and delivery of equipment.
Design a web-base CRM tool integrate with many other systems to provide technicians one-page panel the most relevant information and actions.
Navigate windows environment and comprehend technical information.
Used multiple navigation windows while changing account information and processing orders.

Customer care specialist vs customer care representative 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 representative skills

Customer Care, 21%
Customer Service, 9%
Work Ethic, 7%
Strong Work Ethic, 7%
Data Entry, 4%
Excellent Organizational, 4%

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

Updated January 8, 2025

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