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The differences between customer support specialists and customer service 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 support specialist and a customer service representative. Additionally, a customer support specialist has an average salary of $39,470, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.
The top three skills for a customer support specialist include customer support, phone calls and compassion. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.
| Customer Support Specialist | Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $39,470 | $32,260 |
| Hourly rate | $18.98 | $15.51 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 259,592 | 209,515 |
| Job satisfaction | 1 | 4 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
A customer support specialist is responsible for assisting a customer's inquiries and concerns regarding the goods and services the organization offers. Customer support specialists handle customer issues and resolve them promptly, escalating high-level complaints to the immediate supervisors. A support specialist will also replace products or process payment refunds as needed. Their goal is to maintain the highest customer satisfaction and keep a good reputation for the company while driving revenues and increasing profitability. A customer support specialist must have outstanding communication skills, as well as the ability to multi-task to record customer complaint cases while providing resolution.
Customer service representatives are the first point of contact of the customers, acting as the frontiers of the company and help in driving customer loyalty and retention by leaving a great impression and resolving all of their concerns. They accommodate customer queries by providing useful and comprehensive information about any products or services. Some would use that as an opportunity to market and promote more sales. The most challenging issues they use to handle are customer complaints and processing of refunds and returns. They also assist in basic troubleshooting or accounts and payment setup with the use of specific guidelines or step by step procedures. At most, they help and solve customer issues on their own, but sometimes they would need support from supervisors or other departments.
Customer support specialists and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Support Specialist | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $39,470 | $32,260 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $55,000 | Between $25,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | Des Moines, WA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | Washington |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | Oracle |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a customer support specialist and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Customer Support Specialist | Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between customer support specialists' and customer service representatives' demographics:
| Customer Support Specialist | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 37.4% Female, 62.6% | Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.5% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 19.9% Asian, 7.2% White, 55.4% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |