What does a Customer Service Associate do?
Customer service associates are representatives of the company who are responsible for solving customer concerns. They provide exceptional service to clients to ensure that their problems are solved and that the relationship between the client and the company remains strong. Customer service associates are in-charge of processing transactions, maintaining a good working relationship between the client and the company, ensuring that the client remains loyal to the company, and working on the requests of the client. Through all of this, customer service associates must keep any information they may encounter confidential. They should also have time management skills, problem-solving skills, and customer service skills.
Customer service associate responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer service associate resumes:
- Manage and calculate daily cash deposits and prepare daily payroll ledgers.
- Manage cash balances and inventory stock accurately; ensure cleanliness of all work stations and guarantee excellent customer service.
- Use excellent phone and customer service etiquette while navigating through multiple windows simultaneously.
- Provide excellent customer service to hundreds of satisfy customers, bag groceries with speed and efficiency
- Perform upselling on every call.
- Train in flight emergencies, hazardous materials and CPR.
- Diagnose and troubleshoot technical issues, provide downloads, dispatch technicians.
- Investigate, identify, troubleshoot and resolve product functionality questions and issues.
- Utilize AS400 to run bills, manifests and scan sheets for delivery of products.
- Research and resolve account discrepancies by investigating documentation; issuing stop payments, payments or adjustments using AS400 database.
- Set up, arrange and remove decorations, tables, chairs, and ladders to prepare for large events.
- Process POS transactions efficiently and accurately.
- Organize and monitor the pet department inventory.
- Maximize sales of departmental plumbing merchandise and relate products.
- Process information/merchandise through computer system and POS register system.
Customer service associate skills and personality traits
We calculated that 41% of Customer Service Associates are proficient in Patients, Sales Floor, and Plumbing. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Customer Service Associates that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Patients, 41%
Handled incoming calls from patients to processed payment arrangements; update insurance information answer general questions pertaining to billing and insurance.
- Sales Floor, 12%
Maintained and accurately inventoried sales floor keeping records of merchandise.
- Plumbing, 10%
Cashier Electrical Customer Service Associate Plumbing Customer Service Associate Home Decor Customer Service Associate Paint Customer Service Associate Lumber Customer Service Associate
- Quality Customer Service, 6%
Provided quality customer service through inbound and outbound calls to members and providers regarding claims, benefit and eligibility information.
- Front End, 3%
Head of front end, organizing the day for employees, scheduling breaks and lunches for twenty-thirty associates at a time.
- CSA, 3%
Escalated questions to Sr. CSA or supervisory staff for additional analysis and information when necessary.
Common skills that a customer service associate uses to do their job include "patients," "sales floor," and "plumbing." You can find details on the most important customer service associate responsibilities below.
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a customer service associate to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Customer service associates often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "managed quality communication and customer support assisted customers with store and product complaints opening and closing duties"
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for customer service associates to perform their duties. For an example of how customer service associate responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a customer service associate: "identified and informed customer service and loss prevention supervisors of register variances and errors. ".
Interpersonal skills. customer service associate responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." This resume example shows what customer service associates do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "exhibited strong customer service and interpersonal skills, to work effectively with a diverse group of team members and populations. "
Listening skills. Another common skill required for customer service associate responsibilities is "listening skills." This skill comes up in the duties of customer service associates all the time, as "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." An excerpt from a real customer service associate resume shows how this skill is central to what a customer service associate does: "communicated with loss prevention in the event of suspected theft. "
Patience. Lastly, "patience" is an important element of what a customer service associate does. Customer service associate responsibilities require this skill because "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." This resume example highlights how customer service associate duties rely on this skill: "provide customer support on incoming calls, communicating with insurance carriers, physicians, employers and patience. "
The three companies that hire the most customer service associates are:
Choose from 10+ customizable customer service associate resume templates
Build a professional customer service associate resume in minutes. Our AI resume writing assistant will guide you through every step of the process, and you can choose from 10+ resume templates to create your customer service associate resume.
Compare different customer service associates
Customer service associate vs. Sales associate and customer service
Sales and customer service associates are employees who are responsible for closing out sales deals and attending to customer needs. They are in charge of selling company goods and services to potential clients, often citing the common needs of prospective clients to ensure sales. They also handle customer inquiries and complaints and try their best to mitigate any problems that would arise. They are expected to be experts on company products to ensure that they can provide the best service to customers. Sales and customer service associates should have strong interpersonal skills, customer service skills, and communication skills.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between customer service associates and sales associate and customer service. For instance, customer service associate responsibilities require skills such as "patients," "front end," "csa," and "strong customer service." Whereas a sales associate and customer service is skilled in "sales associates," "phone calls," "booking," and "math." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Sales associate and customer services earn the highest salaries when working in the manufacturing industry, with an average yearly salary of $30,394. On the other hand, customer service associates are paid more in the finance industry with an average salary of $34,020.On average, sales associate and customer services reach similar levels of education than customer service associates. Sales associate and customer services are 0.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Customer service associate vs. Associate customer service representative
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.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that customer service associate responsibilities requires skills like "plumbing," "csa," "strong customer service," and "cleanliness." But an associate customer service representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "medicare," "process payments," "customer relationships," and "front desk."
Associate customer service representatives may earn a higher salary than customer service associates, but associate customer service representatives earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $37,473. On the other hand, customer service associates receive higher pay in the finance industry, where they earn an average salary of $34,020.In general, associate customer service representatives achieve similar levels of education than customer service associates. They're 0.3% more likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Customer Service Associates in the next 3-5 years?
Travis Kurowski Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Creative Writing, Writing Program Lead, York College of Pennsylvania
Customer service associate vs. Service desk associate
A service desk associate will answer and respond to the inquiries and requests from both employees and customers, either through telephone calls, emails, or in person. Your duties as a service desk associate will vary depending on the sector you work in. These duties may include capturing and validating queries and issues for processing, communicating with users via different channels, and advising users on the appropriate action to address their concerns. You will also be responsible for escalating unresolved issues to a much higher support level and providing security support and advice.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, customer service associates are more likely to have skills like "patients," "plumbing," "quality customer service," and "csa." But a service desk associate is more likely to have skills like "wire transfers," "tax exemptions," "front door," and "windows."
When it comes to education, service desk associates tend to earn similar degree levels compared to customer service associates. In fact, they're 0.3% less likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Customer service associate vs. Customer service, warehouse
A customer service warehouse is primarily in charge of providing customer support, mainly through calls and correspondence. Their responsibilities typically revolve around answering inquiries, addressing and troubleshooting problems, processing refunds, maintaining records of all transactions, and referring them to other services when necessary. There are also instances when they must perform follow-up calls, offer products and services, discuss product specifications and promotions, develop sales strategies, and generate leads through research and analysis. Moreover, they must maintain an active communication line with staff for a smooth and efficient workflow.
Types of customer service associate
Updated January 8, 2025
