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The differences between customer specialists and customer sales 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 specialist and a customer sales representative. Additionally, a customer sales representative has an average salary of $38,744, which is higher than the $38,371 average annual salary of a customer specialist.
The top three skills for a customer specialist include customer transactions, client facing and phone calls. The most important skills for a customer sales representative are customer service, product knowledge, and customer sales.
| Customer Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $38,371 | $38,744 |
| Hourly rate | $18.45 | $18.63 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 202,965 | 303,801 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 54% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
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.
The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications. They also store records of customer transactions and interactions and provide feedback on customer service efficacy. Customer service representatives must also ensure that they can give customer satisfaction and offer the best professional support.
Customer specialists and customer sales representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average salary | $38,371 | $38,744 |
| Salary range | Between $22,000 And $66,000 | Between $27,000 And $54,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | Santa Rosa, CA |
| Highest paying state | New York | Hawaii |
| Best paying company | AbbVie | Merck |
| Best paying industry | - | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer specialist and a customer sales representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 54% | Bachelor's Degree, 37% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer specialists' and customer sales representatives' demographics:
| Customer Specialist | Customer Sales Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 42.5% Female, 57.5% | Male, 44.9% Female, 55.1% |
| 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, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 24.4% Asian, 6.8% White, 52.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |