How to hire a customer engagement specialist

How to hire a customer engagement specialist, step by step

Here's a step-by-step customer engagement specialist hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a customer engagement specialist job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new customer engagement specialist
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a customer engagement specialist do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   First, determine the employments status of the customer engagement specialist you need to hire. Certain customer engagement specialist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   Hiring the perfect customer engagement specialist also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

   Here's a comparison of customer engagement specialist salaries for various roles:

   Type of Customer Engagement Specialist	Description	Hourly rate
   Customer Engagement Specialist	Customer service representatives interact with customers to handle complaints, process orders, and provide information about an organization’s products and services.	$12-30
   Customer Care Professional	A customer care professional is in charge of assisting clients with their needs, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. They typically manage calls and correspondence where they respond to inquiries, provide technical support, address concerns, and resolve issues promptly and efficiently... Show more	$12-20
   Customer Advisor	A customer advisor is responsible for assisting customers with their inquiries and concerns regarding the company's goods and services. Customer advisors also coordinate with the sales and marketing team to sell services by reaching out to potential and existing clients to increase revenue resources and profits... Show more	$9-24

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Brand Awareness
   • Wine
   • Customer Service
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Customer Accounts
   • Patients
   • Phone Calls
   • Business Objectives
   • PowerPoint
   • Good Communication
   • Employee Engagement
   • Inbound Calls
   • Outbound Calls
   • Strong Customer Service

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Assist with Medicare and Medicaid members in regards to their medication and health care assessments.
   • Maintain strict patient and physician confidentiality through HIPAA.
   • Ensure consistent verification of all demographic, and HIPAA.
   • Provide accurate and appropriate information to answer questions, troubleshoot issues, and resolve complaints.
   • Maintain and create in-deth records for board reports and update them to be present in weekly PowerPoint presentations.
   • Maintain positive professional relationships with patients, and partnering agencies.

   More customer engagement specialist duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the customer engagement specialist job description is a good way to get more applicants. A customer engagement specialist salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a customer engagement specialist in Kansas may be lower than in Massachusetts, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level customer engagement specialist. Additionally, a customer engagement specialist with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average customer engagement specialist salary

   $41,014yearly

   $19.72 hourly rate

   ---

   Entry-level customer engagement specialist salary

   $25,000 yearly salary

   Updated December 18, 2025

   Average customer engagement specialist salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	District of Columbia	$63,805	$31
   2	Massachusetts	$60,629	$29
   3	California	$57,876	$28
   4	Washington	$55,883	$27
   5	New York	$51,274	$25
   6	Hawaii	$48,101	$23
   7	Maryland	$46,631	$22
   8	Oregon	$45,826	$22
   9	Illinois	$44,503	$21
   10	Wisconsin	$44,319	$21
   11	Michigan	$43,471	$21
   12	Virginia	$43,075	$21
   13	Florida	$42,568	$20
   14	Minnesota	$42,109	$20
   15	Iowa	$41,875	$20
   16	Texas	$40,993	$20
   17	Pennsylvania	$40,545	$19
   18	North Carolina	$39,851	$19
   19	Arizona	$39,822	$19
   20	Nevada	$39,344	$19

   Average customer engagement specialist salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	NVIDIA	$120,360	$57.87
   2	Microsoft	$114,781	$55.18	88
   3	Boehringer Ingelheim	$101,970	$49.02	4
   4	AstraZeneca	$95,709	$46.01
   5	Salesforce	$81,124	$39.00	5
   6	Cadence Design Systems	$77,551	$37.28	4
   7	Pegasystems	$76,767	$36.91	2
   8	SAP	$72,176	$34.70	25
   9	Red Hat	$68,468	$32.92	18
   10	BMC Software	$62,152	$29.88	1
   11	City of Austin	$56,797	$27.31	1
   12	GPAC	$56,318	$27.08
   13	Boston Public Schools	$55,485	$26.68	4
   14	Wonderful College Prep Academy	$55,327	$26.60
   15	Boston Medical Center	$54,904	$26.40	14
   16	Oracle	$54,596	$26.25	241
   17	Massachusetts General Hospital	$54,184	$26.05	1
   18	HealthTrust	$54,021	$25.97
   19	Texas Health Resources	$53,959	$25.94	5
   20	Harvard University	$52,111	$25.05

4. Writing a customer engagement specialist job description

   A good customer engagement specialist job description should include a few things:

   • Summary of the role
   • List of responsibilities
   • Required skills and experience

   Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a customer engagement specialist job description:

   Customer engagement specialist job description example

   • Web design skills

   In more than 100 countries, the people of Ashland LLC. (NYSE: ASH) provide the specialty chemicals, technologies and insights to help customers create new and improved products for today and sustainable solutions for tomorrow. Our chemistry is at work every day in a wide variety of markets and applications, including architectural coatings, automotive, construction, energy, personal care and pharmaceutical. Visit www.ashland.com to see the innovations we offer.
   
   At Ashland our vision is to be a leading, global specialty chemicals company whose inspired and engaged employees add value to all we touch. In fact our people, employees, customers and vendors define who we are. They are the driving force behind everything we do.
   
   Not only do we value our customers but we value our employees, and we work to offer them a dynamic and challenging environment. We hold ourselves to high standards at Ashland, and we value integrity and honesty.
   
   Ashland has a history of attracting the best people and keeping them. The reasons are simple: industry competitive salary and benefits, pay-for-performance incentive plans and a diverse work environment where employees feel challenged and valued. People come to Ashland and stay. As a growing Fortune 500 specialty chemicals company, we offer opportunities for development and advancement throughout our global organization. Our values define who we are and what we care about as a company. If you are looking for a relationship with a company instead of simply a job, this may be a great fit.

   Ashland is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer Minorities/Women/Veterans/Disabled/Gender Identity/Sexual Orientation.

   All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability. NOTE: We do not accept resumes from external staffing agencies or independent recruiters for any of our openings unless we have a signed recruiting agreement in place to fill a specific position.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find customer engagement specialists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any customer engagement specialists they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level customer engagement specialists with the right educational background.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your customer engagement specialist job on Zippia to find and recruit customer engagement specialist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Your first interview with customer engagement specialist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

   It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new customer engagement specialist

   Once you've found the customer engagement specialist candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

   Once that's done, you can draft an onboarding schedule for the new customer engagement specialist. Human Resources should complete Employee Action Forms and ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc. They should also ensure that new employee files are created for internal recordkeeping.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a customer engagement specialist?