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The differences between customer service team leads 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 service team lead and a customer service specialist. Additionally, a customer service team lead has an average salary of $36,623, which is higher than the $33,238 average annual salary of a customer service specialist.
The top three skills for a customer service team lead include HR, inbound calls and product knowledge. The most important skills for a customer service specialist are customer service, strong customer service, and cleanliness.
| Customer Service Team Lead | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $36,623 | $33,238 |
| Hourly rate | $17.61 | $15.98 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 249,105 | 223,323 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 43% |
| 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.
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 service team leads and customer service specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Service Team Lead | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Average salary | $36,623 | $33,238 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $47,000 | Between $26,000 And $42,000 |
| Highest paying City | Baltimore, MD | Boston, MA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | Santander Bank | Dell |
| Best paying industry | Insurance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer service team lead and a customer service specialist in terms of educational background:
| Customer Service Team Lead | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 42% | Bachelor's Degree, 43% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer service team leads' and customer service specialists' demographics:
| Customer Service Team Lead | Customer Service Specialist | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 35.2% Female, 64.8% | Male, 32.0% Female, 68.0% |
| 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, 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% |