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The differences between customer service team leads 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 team lead and an associate customer service representative. Additionally, a customer service team lead has an average salary of $36,623, which is higher than the $35,215 average annual salary of an associate customer service representative.
The top three skills for a customer service team lead include HR, inbound calls and product knowledge. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Customer Service Team Lead | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $36,623 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $17.61 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 249,105 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
A customer service team lead is responsible for managing a group of customer service agents. They monitor their tasks and productivity and report the team's performance to senior management. A customer service team lead provides coaching opportunities for the agents, identifies their challenges, and creates strategic procedures for them. Customer service team leads also respond to customers' inquiries, resolve high-level complaints immediately, and maintain the highest customer satisfaction to build the company's good reputation, generate revenues, and increase profitability.
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 team leads and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Service Team Lead | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $36,623 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $47,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | Baltimore, MD | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Santander Bank | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer service team lead and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Service Team Lead | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer service team leads' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Customer Service Team Lead | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 35.2% Female, 64.8% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 12.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 6.9% 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% |