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The differences between customer sales representatives and customer service specialists 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 representative and a customer service specialist. Additionally, a customer sales representative has an average salary of $38,744, which is higher than the $33,238 average annual salary of a customer service specialist.
The top three skills for a customer sales representative include customer service, product knowledge and customer sales. The most important skills for a customer service specialist are customer service, strong customer service, and cleanliness.
| Customer Sales Representative | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $38,744 | $33,238 |
| Hourly rate | $18.63 | $15.98 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 303,801 | 223,323 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 37% | Bachelor's Degree, 43% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications. They also store records of customer transactions and interactions and provide feedback on customer service efficacy. Customer service representatives must also ensure that they can give customer satisfaction and offer the best professional support.
Customer service specialists are employees who are responsible for providing the best customer experience to customers, usually for after-sales transactions. They attend to customers' inquiries and provide answers to their questions on products or services that the company offers. They also address customer complaints and help mitigate the concerns by offering solutions such as instructions on how to fix defects, or processing replacements or refunds. Customer service specialists also listen to customer feedback and ensure that these are logged properly so that proper departments will be able to receive them.
Customer sales representatives and customer service specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Sales Representative | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Average salary | $38,744 | $33,238 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $54,000 | Between $26,000 And $42,000 |
| Highest paying City | Santa Rosa, CA | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Merck | Dell |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer sales representative and a customer service specialist in terms of educational background:
| Customer Sales Representative | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 37% | Bachelor's Degree, 43% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer sales representatives' and customer service specialists' demographics:
| Customer Sales Representative | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1% | Male, 32.0% Female, 68.0% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 24.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 20.0% Asian, 6.8% White, 55.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |