What does a customer operations specialist do?
A customer operations specialist is responsible for providing the highest customer service by responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns and resolving their complaints regarding the services offered by the company. Customer operations specialists also reach out to customers to sell new goods and services and process orders timely and accurately. They handle payments and verify purchase details, ensuring the adequacy of the necessary information on the database. A customer operations specialist must have excellent communication and organizational skills to manage customer claims and clear disputes.
Customer operations specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer operations specialist resumes:
- Manage logistics of patient infusions to ensure facility receives correct dosing of medication in timely fashion.
- Manage project management and logistics needs for design and construction of cellular and PCS network including responsibility for all field operations.
- Audit customer accounts for loyalty program usage and sales reporting of retailers via internal CRM tool.
- Handle supervisor calls; troubleshoot customer equipment; offer promotions; handle billing issues for customers ;
- Review relevant customer account data to troubleshoot problems find on trouble tickets and run phone diagnostic tests.
- Oversee direct deposit enrollment and benefits enrollment organizing and faxing forms to corporate payroll and outsourcing company to ensure employee enrollment.
- Consolidate queries in the AS400 database to ensure accurate and efficient outlet information.
- Review GMP documentation to prepare for production of product
- Observe GMP and pharmaceutical industry best practices in importing/exporting/domestic shipping of biological material for clinical trials, manufacturing, and testing.
Customer operations specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 13% of Customer Operations Specialists are proficient in Logistics, Customer Service, and Customer Support. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Interpersonal skills.
We break down the percentage of Customer Operations Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Logistics, 13%
Managed project management and logistics needs for design and construction of cellular and PCS network including responsibility for all field operations.
- Customer Service, 12%
Provided professional and excellent customer service to build and maintain outstanding customer relationships.
- Customer Support, 12%
Gained effective multitasking skills by using different Motorola databases and web-based applications, providing professional customer support for North America.
- DOT, 8%
Support management with many specialized projects; including ADD Audits, TSCA forms, and DOT forms.
- Customer Operations, 8%
Improved effectiveness of Customer Operations by creating and implementing customer open order report comparison procedure.
- Customer Orders, 5%
Processed cancellation of customer orders.
"logistics," "customer service," and "customer support" are among the most common skills that customer operations specialists use at work. You can find even more customer operations specialist responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a customer operations specialist to carry out their responsibilities is communication skills. This skill is important for the role because "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Additionally, a customer operations specialist resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "provide written communication to clients as to the resolutions of issues presented in their correspondence to the customer service department. "
Interpersonal skills. This is an important skill for customer operations specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how customer operations specialist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a customer operations specialist: "developed interpersonal skills through providing customer service solutions. ".
Patience. For certain customer operations specialist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "patience." The day-to-day duties of a customer operations specialist rely on this skill, as "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what customer operations specialists do: "resolved even the most difficult customer problems with professionalism, patience and efficiency. "
Customer-service skills. A commonly-found skill in customer operations specialist job descriptions, "customer-service skills" is essential to what customer operations specialists do. Customer operations specialist responsibilities rely on this skill because "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints." You can also see how customer operations specialist duties rely on customer-service skills in this resume example: "requested by upper management to represent operations specialists on the telephony management team to create customer support maximization and accountability strategies. "
Listening skills. While "listening skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to customer operations specialist responsibilities. Much of what a customer operations specialist does relies on this skill, seeing as "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of customer operations specialists: "communicated directly with customers to meet quality standards. "
The three companies that hire the most customer operations specialists are:
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Compare different customer operations specialists
Customer operations specialist vs. Operations internship
Operations interns learn the management techniques on how to lead and supervise others. Interns usually gain experience by being an unpaid employee in the operational department. They should possess skills like attention to detail, excellent verbal and written communication skills, and strong phone presence. The operations internship objectives include career path exploration, work experience, skills development and refinement, and confidence buildup. The majority of the activities interns are absorbed by the company where they serve an internship.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a customer operations specialist are more likely to require skills like "logistics," "customer support," "dot," and "customer operations." On the other hand, a job as an operations internship requires skills like "operations intern," "work ethic," "patients," and "project management." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
The education levels that operations interns earn slightly differ from customer operations specialists. In particular, operations interns are 3.5% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a customer operations specialist. Additionally, they're 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer operations specialist vs. Customer services coordinator
A customer service coordinator ensures that the company will have a top-level customer service. Thus, they work to maintain the positive image, brand, and prestige of the company. The customer service coordinator supervises a team of customer service representatives and makes sure that the team follows the policies and procedures of the company. The coordinator is also responsible for offering excellent customer service, handling customer complaints, conducting quality assurance surveys, and reporting their findings. Candidates must have relevant experience to relate jobs, excellent communication skills, and exemplary management skills.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real customer operations specialist resumes. While customer operations specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "dot," "customer operations," "order management," and "crm," customer services coordinators use skills like "data entry," "team-oriented environment," "work ethic," and "purchase orders."
Customer services coordinators earn similar levels of education than customer operations specialists in general. They're 0.6% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.4% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer operations specialist vs. Specialist
Specialists are employees who are responsible for specific tasks or activities in the department they are assigned to. The actions or tasks they work on are related to their educational background or work experiences. They are usually highly skilled in specializations related to the work they are assigned to. Specialists are also highly trained on the competencies that are required of their specialty. As such, they are focused on the skills and competencies that are needed to enhance their experience in their specific field further.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a customer operations specialist is likely to be skilled in "logistics," "customer support," "dot," and "customer operations," while a typical specialist is skilled in "patients," "work ethic," "patient care," and "exceptional client."
Most specialists achieve a similar degree level compared to customer operations specialists. For example, they're 2.6% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.9% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer operations specialist vs. Operations representative
As the name entails, an operations representative is responsible for assisting the operations managers. You will typically perform various tasks, including creating a customer database regularly, handling inquiries and office correspondence, and helping the operations managers in managing financial inquiries from clients. As an operations representative, you are responsible for attending meetings, assisting in strategic planning and implementation, and coordinating with other departments such as HR, marketing, and sales. You are also expected to identify areas of improvement and implement corrective measures.
Types of customer operations specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
