Customer specialist vs customer care specialist

The differences between customer specialists and customer care 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 specialist and a customer care specialist. Additionally, a customer specialist has an average salary of $38,371, which is higher than the $32,427 average annual salary of a customer care specialist.

The top three skills for a customer specialist include customer transactions, client facing and phone calls. The most important skills for a customer care specialist are customer care, customer service, and outbound calls.

Customer specialist vs customer care specialist overview

	Customer Specialist	Customer Care Specialist
Yearly salary	$38,371	$32,427
Hourly rate	$18.45	$15.59
Growth rate	-4%	-4%
Number of jobs	202,965	260,027
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 54%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Average age	40	40
Years of experience	12	12

What does a customer specialist do?

A customer specialist is responsible for assisting customers with their needs and concerns about the products and services offered by the company, addressing their inquiries timely and accurately. Customer specialists evaluate the customers' issues and provide immediate solutions through remote communication. In some cases, a customer specialist may send technical staff to the customer's location for problems that cannot be resolved over the phone or e-mail. They also take orders from the customers, process their payments, and explain the features and functions of the product.

What does a customer care specialist do?

A customer care specialist is responsible for assisting the customers with their inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services offered by the organization. A customer care specialist must be detail-oriented, as well as have excellent communication and time-management skills in responding to the customers' needs while documenting the processes on a specific computer program. Customer care specialists are responsible for processing payments, replacing defective items, and initiating refunds as needed. They must resolve complaints accurately and efficiently to ensure customer satisfaction to keep a good reputation for the organization.

Customer specialist vs customer care specialist salary

Customer specialists and customer care specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Customer Specialist	Customer Care Specialist
Average salary	$38,371	$32,427
Salary range	Between $22,000 And $66,000	Between $26,000 And $39,000
Highest paying City	New York, NY	Grand Forks, ND
Highest paying state	New York	Hawaii
Best paying company	AbbVie	Axogen
Best paying industry	-	Insurance

Differences between customer specialist and customer care specialist education

There are a few differences between a customer specialist and a customer care specialist in terms of educational background:

	Customer Specialist	Customer Care Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 54%	Bachelor's Degree, 43%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	-	-

Customer specialist vs customer care specialist demographics

Here are the differences between customer specialists' and customer care specialists' demographics:

	Customer Specialist	Customer Care Specialist
Average age	40	40
Gender ratio	Male, 42.5% Female, 57.5%	Male, 30.2% Female, 69.8%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 11.1% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 7.5% White, 55.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%	Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 19.1% Asian, 6.5% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7%
LGBT Percentage	7%	7%

Differences between customer specialist and customer care specialist duties and responsibilities

Customer specialist example responsibilities.

Create powerpoint presentations as well as presented.
Used a CRM tool effectively to track all customer interactions and setup follow up.
Identify or create customer wants and needs and offer solutions/benefits to upsell new or additional services.
Install, remove, rearrange, program, test, troubleshoot and maintain fiber and copper network services.
Process all new patient referrals as assigned and verifying that all the necessary requirements are meet according to Medicare s guidelines.
Prepare and process documents and correspondence for Medicare audit.

Customer care specialist example responsibilities.

Continue to manage a high volume of customer calls relate to HMO, PPO and POS concerns.
Provide unbias assistance to Medicaid providers with questions regarding Medicaid patient eligibility, medical claims statuses and other program questions.
Present PowerPoint presentations in a webinar format that introduce new features and enhancements to self- service, e-commerce portal.
Authenticate callers before providing personal health information to avoid breaking HIPAA guidelines.
Verify then analyze and troubleshoot customer's questions regarding student loan disbursement procedures and banking accounts.
Maintain working knowledge of numerous product lines as well as policies to effectively troubleshoot and/or replace defective products

Customer specialist vs customer care specialist skills

Common customer specialist skills

Customer Transactions, 11%
Client Facing, 8%
Phone Calls, 7%
Customer Loyalty, 6%
Related Training, 6%
Customer Service, 5%

Common customer care specialist skills

Customer Care, 25%
Customer Service, 13%
Outbound Calls, 6%
Data Entry, 5%
Troubleshoot, 3%
Inbound Phone Calls, 3%

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Office and Administrative Industry
Customer Specialist
Customer Specialist vs Customer Care Specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

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