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The differences between customer service representatives 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 service representative and an associate customer service representative. Additionally, an associate customer service representative has an average salary of $35,215, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.
The top three skills for a customer service representative include cleanliness, POS and data entry. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Customer Service Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $32,260 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $15.51 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 209,515 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | 4 | - |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 33% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
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.
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 service representatives and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Service Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $32,260 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $25,000 And $41,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | Des Moines, WA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Oracle | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer service representative and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Service Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 33% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer service representatives' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Customer Service Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | 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% | 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% |