What is a customer support agent and how to become one

Q: Do you need a college degree to be a customer service rep?

No, you do not need a college degree to become a customer service rep. For this position, you typically only need your high school diploma or its equivalent. However, increasingly more, some employers seek customer service representatives who have an associate's degree. This is because the position requires a high level of communication skills and an understanding of how the business works.

Q: How can I be a good customer service agent?

You can be a good customer service agent by possessing good communication and interpersonal skills. The primary way to succeed in this role is to listen and respond to customer concerns, which requires good interpersonal and communication abilities.

Q: How much do customer support agents make?

Customer support agents make around $35,000 a year. However, this amount can range from $27,000 to $44,000 per year. Customer support agent salaries can vary depending on a few factors. These include experience and education level, as well as industry and company size, or even location.

Q: What do support agents do?

Support agents do tasks that revolve around responding to the company's various types of customer service requests. The customer support agent does this by answering questions and resolving problems when a customer calls and has an issue that needs to be handled.

Q: What is the role of a customer care agent?

The role of a customer care agent is to help customers resolve problems with a product or service. Customer care agents interact with customers to handle complaints, process orders, and provide information about a company's products and services.

Q: What training do you need to be a customer service representative?

The training you need to be a customer service representative is a high school diploma or equivalent and good communication skills. A person seeking to become a customer service representative should ideally have a few years of prior experience in a customer service environment (such as retail).

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted expert

Sally Hiott B.S. MBA, DBA

A customer support agent assists customers who have inquiries or issues with a product or service. They serve as the primary point of contact between customers and the company, providing product information. Customer support agents must possess excellent communication skills, be empathetic, and have a thorough understanding of the companyâ€™s products. Their duties include handling customer inquiries via phone, email, or chat, and maintaining accurate records of customer interactions.

What general advice would you give to a customer support agent?

Sally Hiott B.S. MBA, DBA

Assistant Professor of Marketing, Charleston Southern University

Show employers how you would not only fill an open position regarding the work at hand, but show them how you would be an asset to their team. We are in very team driven work environments currently, and hiring managers want to know what you can bring to the table. Filling a void is great for the workload, but enhancing a team culture makes them not want to work without you!

ScoreCustomer Support AgentUS Average

Salary

2.6

Avg. Salary $33,489

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

5.9

Growth rate -4%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

9.3

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.65%

Asian 6.51%

Black or African American 11.74%

Hispanic or Latino 20.48%

Unknown 5.48%

White 55.14%

Gender

female 50.21%

male 49.79%

Age - 39

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 39

Stress level

5.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

What are the pros and cons of being a customer support agent?

Pros

Chance to develop communication and problem-solving skills
Provides a steady income with benefits
Can be a good entry-level job for those new to the workforce
Often offers training and development opportunities
Can lead to building positive relationships with customers

Cons

Can involve dealing with difficult or unreasonable customers
Pressure to meet performance targets and quotas
Can be mentally exhausting having to constantly deal with customer complaints
May require dealing with language barriers or cultural differences
May require dealing with unethical or dishonest customers

Key steps to become a customer support agent

Explore customer support agent education requirements

Most common customer support agent degrees

Bachelor's

43.9 %

Associate

24.5 %

High School Diploma

20.0 %

Start to develop specific customer support agent skills

Skills	Percentages
Customer Support	28.39%
Customer Care	9.00%
Chat Support	6.30%
Customer Interaction	5.81%
Customer Service	4.71%

Complete relevant customer support agent training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New customer support agents learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a customer support agent based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real customer support agent resumes.

Research customer support agent duties and responsibilities

Set and manage end user expectations in accord with SLA schedule associate with the determined incident severity.
Answer eligibility and coverage questions from insurance agents pertaining to Medicare advantage plans and prescription drug plans.
Recruit, develop and mentore a large proportion of the CRM consulting professionals within the practice.
Assist in payment inquiries, confirmation of invoice receipts, troubleshoot invoice issues and dispatch cases as appropriate.

Prepare your customer support agent resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your customer support agent resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a customer support agent resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable customer support agent resume templates

Build a professional customer support agent resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your customer support agent resume.

Apply for customer support agent jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a customer support agent job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do customer support agents rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Customer support agent reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2024

Pros

remote job, more schedule flexibility

Cons

very low salary, no career growth, very stressful and not rewarding

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Pros

Caring to the customer issues is what I do like first and the other thing it is a job that show determination level on the duty.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2020

Pros

I enjoy helping to be the glue to hold people together as friends. I enjoy talking on the phone . I enjoy learning new things about people.

What is a customer support agent and how to become one

What general advice would you give to a customer support agent?

What are the pros and cons of being a customer support agent?

Customer support agent career paths

Key steps to become a customer support agent

Explore customer support agent education requirements

Most common customer support agent degrees

Start to develop specific customer support agent skills

Complete relevant customer support agent training and internships

Research customer support agent duties and responsibilities

Prepare your customer support agent resume

Choose from 10+ customizable customer support agent resume templates

Apply for customer support agent jobs

How did you land your first customer support agent job

Average customer support agent salary

How do customer support agents rate their job?

Customer support agent reviews

Customer support agent FAQs

Do you need a college degree to be a customer service rep?

How can I be a good customer service agent?

How much do customer support agents make?

What do support agents do?

What is the role of a customer care agent?

What training do you need to be a customer service representative?

Search for customer support agent jobs