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

What is a customer contact specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Sally Hiott B.S. MBA, DBA

A customer contact specialist interacts with customers, answers their questions regarding products, and responds to their concerns and queries. It is the customer contact specialist's job to ensure that the customer is well attended to and pleased with the service. You can interact with customers through email, phone, or physically. Some of the tasks you have to perform include training staff on proper telephone etiquette, handling customers' complaints, and proper customer service procedures. As a customer contact specialist, you must be skilled in the ability to maintain a high customer retention rate. This is why almost every industry uses customer contact specialists.

You must possess good leadership skills, great communication skills, good interpersonal relationship skills, and excellent customer service skills. You would typically earn about $30,000 annually. Becoming a customer contact specialist requires a few years of experience. However, a minimum qualification of a bachelor's degree is required.

What general advice would you give to a customer contact 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 Contact SpecialistUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $35,056

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.80%

Asian 6.50%

Black or African American 10.32%

Hispanic or Latino 21.49%

Unknown 5.67%

White 55.23%

Gender

female 65.01%

male 34.99%

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

Key steps to become a customer contact specialist

Explore customer contact specialist education requirements

Most common customer contact specialist degrees

Bachelor's

44.6 %

Associate

20.7 %

High School Diploma

19.8 %

Start to develop specific customer contact specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Outbound Calls	17.93%
Inbound Calls	12.16%
PowerPoint	11.10%
Strong Customer Service	6.25%
Customer Inquiries	5.73%

Complete relevant customer contact specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New customer contact 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 contact specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real customer contact specialist resumes.

Research customer contact specialist duties and responsibilities

Collaborate with clinical pharmacists and administrative benefits specialists to research, review and process clinical and administrative appeals respectively.
Interact extensively with residential customers to support account needs, while upselling on additional service offerings by identifying personal needs.

Prepare your customer contact specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your customer contact 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 contact 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 contact specialist resume templates

Build a professional customer contact 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 contact specialist resume.