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What does a customer care specialist do?

Updated January 8, 2025
8 min read
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.

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Customer care specialist responsibilities

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

  • 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
  • Maintain patient privacy and confidentiality under requirements of federal and state law, including HIPAA and company policies
  • Create PowerPoint presentations used for business development.organize files, develop spreadsheets, fax reports and scan documents.
  • Demonstrate superb organizational and multitasking abilities
  • Assist doctors and pharmacists in getting prescription claims paid through Medicaid/Medicare and third party insurance; data-entry; documentation
  • Demonstrate superb organizational and multitasking abilities

Customer care specialist skills and personality traits

We calculated that 25% of Customer Care Specialists are proficient in Customer Care, Customer Service, and Outbound Calls. 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 Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Care, 25%

    Worked with Customer Care Specialists, General Managers, and Customer Service Representatives towards a highly satisfactory resolution for the customer.

  • Customer Service, 13%

    Obtained and examined all relevant information in order to assess validity of customer service or billing complaints and execute solutions.

  • Outbound Calls, 6%

    Work in high call volume setting*Handle inbound/outbound calls*Schedule appointments*Notate confidential accounts*Resolve general/technical issues*Educate customer on current offers*Program/Troubleshoot cellular devices*Meet sales quota daily

  • Data Entry, 5%

    Obtained information and maintained records of accidents and/or property losses for policyholders and claimants through data entry.

  • Troubleshoot, 3%

    Worked simultaneously with multiple software applications to isolate, diagnose and troubleshoot technical issues.

  • Inbound Phone Calls, 3%

    Receive customer inbound phone calls for false alarm call backs, placing alarm on test, responding person call back.

"customer care," "customer service," and "outbound calls" are among the most common skills that customer care specialists use at work. You can find even more customer care specialist responsibilities below, including:

Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a customer care specialist to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what customer care specialists do because "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Additionally, a customer care specialist resume shows how customer care specialists use communication skills: "developed highly empathetic client relationships through quality communication, customer support and product representation for each client. "

Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for customer care specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how customer care specialist 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 specialist: "provided customer support to identify service issues, developed solutions and tracked items to guarantee resolution, communicated changes across departments".

Interpersonal skills. customer care specialist 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 specialists do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "displayed courtesy and strong interpersonal provided thorough support and problem resolution for customers. "

Listening skills. Another common skill required for customer care specialist responsibilities is "listening skills." This skill comes up in the duties of customer care specialists 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 specialist resume shows how this skill is central to what a customer care specialist does: "attended training modules, observed and listened on customer care calls and took calls for third party administration. "

Patience. Lastly, "patience" is an important element of what a customer care specialist does. Customer care specialist responsibilities require this skill because "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." This resume example highlights how customer care specialist duties rely on this skill: "solved customer issues with patience and leadership. "

All customer care specialist skills

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Compare different customer care specialists

Customer care specialist vs. Customer support representative

A customer support representative is responsible for answering calls and correspondence, providing customer assistance in various technical issues, concerns, or difficulties. There are also instances when they must make calls to follow-up on the issues, or even sell products and services. Most of the time, a customer support representative has a certain quota to reach and works under a manager's supervision. Furthermore, it is essential to keep accurate records and report to managers or supervisors should there be any problems.

The annual salary of customer support representatives is $4,977 higher than the average salary of customer care specialists.Even though customer care specialists and customer support representatives are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require outbound calls, data entry, and inbound phone calls in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, customer care specialist responsibilities require skills like "customer care," "customer service," "troubleshoot," and "health insurance." Meanwhile a typical customer support representative has skills in areas such as "technical support," "windows," "work ethic," and "crm." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

Customer support representatives earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $38,928. On the other hand, customer care specialists are paid more in the insurance industry with an average salary of $34,400.customer support representatives tend to reach similar levels of education than customer care specialists. In fact, customer support representatives are 0.4% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care specialist vs. Customer representative

A customer service representative is an individual person who establishes communication between customers and the organization by answering questions, resolve complaints, and address emergency issues about the products and services he/she sells. He/She must possess an approachable personality, a passion for customer service, and work with his/her fellow workmates. The minimum educational requirement for a customer service representative is a high school diploma; however, a candidate must complete on-the-job training. A Customer Service Representative should also possess excellent communication and problem-solving skills.

A career as a customer representative brings a higher average salary when compared to the average annual salary of a customer care specialist. In fact, customer representatives salary is $4,924 higher than the salary of customer care specialists per year.A few skills overlap for customer care specialists and customer representatives. Resumes from both professions show that the duties of each career rely on skills like "customer care," "customer service," and "outbound calls. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that customer care specialist responsibilities requires skills like "inbound phone calls," "health insurance," "medical claims," and "provide customer support." But a customer representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "phone calls," "windows," "technical support," and "bank secrecy act."

On average, customer representatives earn a higher salary than customer care specialists. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, customer representatives earn the most pay in the transportation industry with an average salary of $35,783. Whereas customer care specialists have higher pay in the insurance industry, with an average salary of $34,400.customer representatives earn similar levels of education than customer care specialists in general. They're 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care specialist 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.

On average scale, customer agents bring in lower salaries than customer care specialists. In fact, they earn a $593 lower salary per year.By looking over several customer care specialists and customer agents resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "customer service," "outbound calls," and "data entry." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, customer care specialists are more likely to have skills like "customer care," "health insurance," "call handling," and "telephone inquiries." But a customer agent is more likely to have skills like "us customs," "golf courses," "customer relations," and "call monitoring."

Customer agents earn the best pay in the technology industry, where they command an average salary of $32,547. Customer care specialists earn the highest pay from the insurance industry, with an average salary of $34,400.When it comes to education, customer agents tend to earn similar degree levels compared to customer care specialists. In fact, they're 0.3% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Customer care specialist vs. Customer service agent

Customer service agents are employees assigned to answer incoming calls to their company's service hotline. They are equipped with proper training on company products and policies so that they can assist customers. Agents answer customer's inquiries, guide them through steps that they may need to take, and take note of customer complaints. For unsatisfied customers, agents try their best to resolve the concerns or transfer the complaints to related departments. They also try to mitigate any problems that may arise. Customer service agents should be patient, and should also have good communication and problem-solving skills.

Customer service agents average a lower salary than the annual salary of customer care specialists. The difference is about $2,829 per year.According to resumes from customer care specialists and customer service agents, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "customer care," "customer service," and "outbound calls. "

Even though a few skill sets overlap between customer care specialists and customer service agents, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a customer care specialist might have more use for skills like "data entry," "inbound phone calls," "credit card," and "health insurance." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of customer service agents require skills like "check-in," "reservations," "inbound calls," and "credit card payments. "

The technology industry tends to pay the highest salaries for customer service agents, with average annual pay of $28,862. Comparatively, the highest customer care specialist annual salary comes from the insurance industry.In general, customer service agents hold similar degree levels compared to customer care specialists. Customer service agents are 0.4% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of customer care specialist

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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