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The differences between customer service professionals and customer service administrative assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a customer service professional, becoming a customer service administrative assistant takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a customer service professional has an average salary of $46,620, which is higher than the $33,741 average annual salary of a customer service administrative assistant.
The top three skills for a customer service professional include customer service, inbound calls and strong customer service. The most important skills for a customer service administrative assistant are data entry, purchase orders, and payroll.
| Customer Service Professional | Customer Service Administrative Assistant | |
| Yearly salary | $46,620 | $33,741 |
| Hourly rate | $22.41 | $16.22 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -8% |
| Number of jobs | 251,374 | 93,535 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 38% |
| Average age | 40 | 50 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 2 |
A customer service professional is responsible for providing the highest customer service by responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns, resolving complaints, and updating the customers of goods and services for generating revenues and profitability to the company. Customer service professionals process order transactions, administering payment plans and adjusting service features in meeting customers' needs. A customer service professional should be highly communicative, as well as have excellent time-management skills in documenting customers' information on various software tools to maximize productivity and efficiency.
A customer service administrative assistant is responsible for responding to customers' inquiries and concerns, alongside performing administrative tasks as required. Customer service administrative assistants must escalate high-level complaints to the appropriate department, organize client meetings, process business letters, assist with developing promotional offers and marketing materials, and research potential clients. They also manage inventories and request stock supplies, create expense reports, and update customer records in the database. A customer service administrative assistant must have excellent customer service skills, as well as the ability to multitask and work under pressure and strict deadlines.
Customer service professionals and customer service administrative assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Service Professional | Customer Service Administrative Assistant | |
| Average salary | $46,620 | $33,741 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $85,000 | Between $28,000 And $40,000 |
| Highest paying City | San Francisco, CA | Everett, WA |
| Highest paying state | California | Washington |
| Best paying company | Amazon | Uline |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer service professional and a customer service administrative assistant in terms of educational background:
| Customer Service Professional | Customer Service Administrative Assistant | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 41% | Bachelor's Degree, 38% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | Western Carolina University |
Here are the differences between customer service professionals' and customer service administrative assistants' demographics:
| Customer Service Professional | Customer Service Administrative Assistant | |
| Average age | 40 | 50 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 29.1% Female, 70.9% | Male, 10.7% Female, 89.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.3% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 18.5% Asian, 6.5% White, 56.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 9.2% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 16.0% Asian, 3.8% White, 66.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 6% |