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The differences between customer sales associates and associate 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 sales associate and an associate customer service representative. Additionally, a customer sales associate has an average salary of $37,024, which is higher than the $35,215 average annual salary of an associate customer service representative.
The top three skills for a customer sales associate include sales floor, customer satisfaction and customer service. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Customer Sales Associate | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $37,024 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $17.80 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 415,981 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
A customer sales associate specializes in handling and communicating with customers to secure sales in a retail store. Their primary responsibilities revolve around greeting clients, responding to inquiries, providing assistance, and even offering suggestions when necessary. Aside from ensuring customer satisfaction, it is also their responsibility to maintain the cleanliness and order on the sales floor by re-stocking shelves and arranging them to look presentable. Furthermore, a customer sales associate must coordinate with other sales floor members and report to a manager or supervisor.
An associate customer service representative is responsible for providing high customer service by assisting customers on their inquiries and concerns, as well as resolving and escalating high-level complaints to the supervisor or tenured customer service representative. Associate customer service representatives also process orders and payments from the customers, replacing defective items, and issuing refunds as needed. They must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on handling data processing procedures to the database for reference to customer concerns.
Customer sales associates and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Sales Associate | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $37,024 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $49,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | Odenton, MD | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Maryland | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Johnson Controls | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Real Estate | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer sales associate and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Sales Associate | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer sales associates' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Customer Sales Associate | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 50.6% Female, 49.4% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 20.5% Asian, 7.0% White, 55.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% | Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |