Customer retention representative vs customer service representative

The differences between customer retention representatives and customer service 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 retention representative and a customer service representative. Additionally, a customer retention representative has an average salary of $41,084, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.

The top three skills for a customer retention representative include customer service, outbound calls and bundling. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.

Customer retention representative vs customer service representative overview

	Customer Retention Representative	Customer Service Representative
Yearly salary	$41,084	$32,260
Hourly rate	$19.75	$15.51
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	188,600	209,515
Job satisfaction	-	4
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 41%	High School Diploma, 33%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	12	12

What does a customer retention representative do?

A customer retention specialist helps an organization build relationships with existing clients. Their primarily job is to develop programs and strategies to strengthen customer loyalty and communicate directly with clients to assist them with their needs, which may involve answering inquiries, discussing product or service specifications, providing price quotes, troubleshooting issues, or giving instructions. They may also negotiate contracts, give discounts, and offer customers incentives.

What does a customer service representative do?

Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.

Customer retention representative vs customer service representative salary

Customer retention representatives and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Customer Retention Representative	Customer Service Representative
Average salary	$41,084	$32,260
Salary range	Between $20,000 And $83,000	Between $25,000 And $41,000
Highest paying City	Phoenix, AZ	Des Moines, WA
Highest paying state	California	Washington
Best paying company	Torchmark	Oracle
Best paying industry	-	Insurance

Differences between customer retention representative and customer service representative education

There are a few differences between a customer retention representative and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:

	Customer Retention Representative	Customer Service Representative
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 41%	High School Diploma, 33%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Customer retention representative vs customer service representative demographics

Here are the differences between customer retention representatives' and customer service representatives' demographics:

	Customer Retention Representative	Customer Service Representative
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 45.7% Female, 54.3%	Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 10.9% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 18.4% Asian, 6.0% White, 58.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8%	Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between customer retention representative and customer service representative duties and responsibilities

Customer retention representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Interact via phone to retain existing customers and prevent disconnection while upselling core products including video, data, and phone.
Assist patients by responding to billing questions and concerns, and solicit necessary demographic insurance/coding information to insure correct claim submission.
Retain Comcast customers via a variety of means available.
Retain Comcast subscriptions by surveying consumer need and concerns thru lengthy interactions.
Provide hands-on management and administrative support services essential to day-to-day operations of the MVA.

Customer service representative example responsibilities.

Manage and plan escalations; assure HIPPA guidelines are followed for confidentially and privacy.
Maintain cleanliness and safety and assist patients as necessary.
Operate POS system and maintain exceptional and consistent customer service.
Exercise proofreading and basic math skills to maintain quality control over documents process
Work in customer service department entering information into customer relationship management (CRM).
Develop highly empathetic client relationships and earn reputation for exceeding good customer service rep goals.

Customer retention representative vs customer service representative skills

Common customer retention representative skills

Customer Service, 13%
Outbound Calls, 8%
Bundling, 7%
Troubleshoot, 7%
Update Customer Accounts, 6%
Marketing Campaigns, 6%

Common customer service representative skills

Cleanliness, 10%
POS, 7%
Data Entry, 6%
Sales Floor, 6%
Customer Service, 5%
Home Health, 5%

Customer Retention Representative vs. similar jobs

Customer Retention Representative related careers

Customer Retention Representative related jobs

What similar roles do

Zippia Careers
Office and Administrative Industry
Customer Retention Representative
Customer Retention Representative vs Customer Service Representative

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse office and administrative jobs