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What does a Customer Specialist do?

Updated January 8, 2025
7 min read
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.

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Customer specialist responsibilities

Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer specialist resumes:

  • 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.
  • Create and present PowerPoint presentations and statistical charts for business leaders.
  • Negotiate pricing and routinely upsell products and services to existing customers.
  • Conduct follow-up calls for patients whom screenings uncover the possibility of significant disease.
  • Analyze and troubleshoot software relate issues while identifying priority concerns that require escalation.
  • Utilize powerful time-saving tools within CRM application to provide effective, fast, and mass-capable marketing and communication
  • Exercise excellent listening, negotiation and problem solving skills which result in performance base awards and upper management recognition.
  • Cut all aluminum for all windows using a standard table see.
  • Create and install one-of-a-kind hand-cut custom tint on vehicle and business windows.
  • Verify insurance eligibility and benefits of patients that are being provide oxygen home and travel units and durable medical equipment.

Customer specialist skills and personality traits

We calculated that 11% of Customer Specialists are proficient in Customer Transactions, Client Facing, and Phone Calls. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.

We break down the percentage of Customer Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:

  • Customer Transactions, 11%

    Provide customer service transactions, basic tier 1 troubleshooting on devices, billing and service inquiries and all other customer transactions.

  • Client Facing, 8%

    Train Customer Success Specialists and other client facing employees to maintain a consistent outward message and improve relations between departments.

  • Phone Calls, 7%

    Manage customer communication via incoming telephone calls and emails in a timely and professional manner.

  • Customer Loyalty, 6%

    Deliver world class customer service by building rapport to develop customer satisfaction and also customer loyalty.

  • Related Training, 6%

    Created and developed course content for photography-related training sessions.

  • Customer Service, 5%

    Managed multiple time sensitive projects effectively through shifting priorities and critical decision making while still providing quality customer service.

"customer transactions," "client facing," and "phone calls" are among the most common skills that customer specialists use at work. You can find even more customer specialist responsibilities below, including:

Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a customer specialist to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Customer specialists often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "manage and maintain customer projects-project management, inter-departmental communication, customer support and communication, meeting all customer project deadlines. "

Customer-service skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of customer specialists is customer-service skills. This skill is critical to many everyday customer specialist duties, as "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "executed technical/knowledge base for customer support pages, while implementing support eligibility based on contract. "

Interpersonal skills. customer specialist responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." This resume example shows what customer specialists do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "defused escalated and difficult customer interaction by utilizing effective verbal, written, and interpersonal skills. "

Listening skills. A commonly-found skill in customer specialist job descriptions, "listening skills" is essential to what customer specialists do. Customer specialist responsibilities rely on this skill because "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." You can also see how customer specialist duties rely on listening skills in this resume example: "seek to improve customer experience by greeting customers promptly, active listening and problem-solving and extensive product knowledge. "

Patience. While "patience" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to customer specialist responsibilities. Much of what a customer specialist does relies on this skill, seeing as "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of customer specialists: "resolved even the most difficult customer problems with professionalism, patience and efficiency. "

Most common customer specialist skills

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Compare different customer specialists

Customer specialist vs. Customer relations coordinator

A customer relations coordinator oversees a company's customer service programs, ensuring clients receive optimal support and service. They conduct market research and analysis, study client feedback, organize customer loyalty incentives, coordinate customer service teams, establish programs, supervise staff performance, and solve issues and concerns when any arise. They may also communicate directly with clients to assist them by answering inquiries, solving problems and concerns, issuing refunds or product replacements, offering discounts, and promoting products or services.

We looked at the average customer specialist salary and compared it with the wages of a customer relations coordinator. Generally speaking, customer relations coordinators are paid $418 lower than customer specialists per year.Even though customer specialists and customer relations coordinators are distinct careers, a few of the skills required for both jobs are similar. For example, both careers require customer transactions, customer loyalty, and customer service in the day-to-day roles and responsibilities.

There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, customer specialist responsibilities require skills like "client facing," "phone calls," "related training," and "patients." Meanwhile a typical customer relations coordinator has skills in areas such as "credit card payments," "inbound calls," "collection procedures," and "front desk." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.

On average, customer relations coordinators reach similar levels of education than customer specialists. Customer relations coordinators are 0.1% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Customer specialist vs. Customer sales representative

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 sales representative positions earn higher pay than customer specialist roles. They earn a $373 higher salary than customer specialists per year.While the salary may differ for these jobs, they share a few skills needed to perform their duties. Based on resume data, both customer specialists and customer sales representatives have skills such as "customer service," "product knowledge," and "customer support. "

While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that customer specialist responsibilities requires skills like "customer transactions," "client facing," "phone calls," and "customer loyalty." But a customer sales representative might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "customer sales," "cleanliness," "golf courses," and "social media marketing."

In general, customer sales representatives achieve similar levels of education than customer specialists. They're 1.6% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Customer specialist vs. Client relations specialist

A client relations specialist is primarily in charge of building positive relationships with clients by providing optimal services. Although the extent of their responsibilities depends on their company of employment, it typically includes handling customer calls and correspondence, offering products or services, discussing promotions or product specifications, answering inquiries, arranging appointments, resolving issues and concerns, and processing payments or refunds. Moreover, a client relations specialist conducts market research and analysis to identify the current trends and practices, aiming for client satisfaction.

An average client relations specialist eans a higher salary compared to the average salary of customer specialists. The difference in salaries amounts to client relations specialists earning a $1,531 higher average salary than customer specialists.By looking over several customer specialists and client relations specialists resumes, we found that both roles require similar skills in their day-to-day duties, such as "client facing," "customer service," and "data entry." But beyond that, the careers look very different.

The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, customer specialists are more likely to have skills like "customer transactions," "phone calls," "customer loyalty," and "related training." But a client relations specialist is more likely to have skills like "client relations," "inbound calls," "client support," and "client inquiries."

Most client relations specialists achieve a similar degree level compared to customer specialists. For example, they're 1.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.

Customer specialist vs. Customer representative

A customer service representative is an individual person who establishes communication between customers and the organization by answering questions, resolve complaints, and address emergency issues about the products and services he/she sells. He/She must possess an approachable personality, a passion for customer service, and work with his/her fellow workmates. The minimum educational requirement for a customer service representative is a high school diploma; however, a candidate must complete on-the-job training. A Customer Service Representative should also possess excellent communication and problem-solving skills.

Customer representatives average a lower salary than the annual salary of customer specialists. The difference is about $1,020 per year.According to resumes from customer specialists and customer representatives, some of the skills necessary to complete the responsibilities of each role are similar. These skills include "phone calls," "customer loyalty," and "customer service. "Each job also requires different skills to carry out their responsibilities. A customer specialist uses "customer transactions," "client facing," "related training," and "work ethic." Customer representatives are more likely to have duties that require skills in "bank secrecy act," "branch management," "inbound calls," and "service calls. "In general, customer representatives hold similar degree levels compared to customer specialists. Customer representatives are 1.0% less likely to earn their Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.

Types of customer specialist

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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