Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between customer support specialists and technical support specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 6-12 months to become a customer support specialist, becoming a technical support specialist takes usually requires 1-2 years. Additionally, a technical support specialist has an average salary of $48,667, which is higher than the $39,470 average annual salary of a customer support specialist.
The top three skills for a customer support specialist include customer support, phone calls and compassion. The most important skills for a technical support specialist are customer service, technical support, and troubleshoot.
| Customer Support Specialist | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Yearly salary | $39,470 | $48,667 |
| Hourly rate | $18.98 | $23.40 |
| Growth rate | -4% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 259,592 | 157,425 |
| Job satisfaction | 1 | 4.6 |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Average age | 40 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 2 |
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.
A technical support specialist is responsible for assisting customer's and businesses' concerns and system issues by performing troubleshooting and remote solutions. These specialists must have extensive knowledge of system applications, including software and hardware database to handle complex processes that might affect the end user's experience or the business' daily operations. Technical support specialists should maintain excellent communication skills to guide the client and business on solving network problems. They must also document concerns and progress promptly for reference and quality checks.
Customer support specialists and technical support specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Customer Support Specialist | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Average salary | $39,470 | $48,667 |
| Salary range | Between $28,000 And $55,000 | Between $30,000 And $76,000 |
| Highest paying City | Washington, DC | San Francisco, CA |
| Highest paying state | Rhode Island | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | Micron Technology | Meta |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a customer support specialist and a technical support specialist in terms of educational background:
| Customer Support Specialist | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 49% | Bachelor's Degree, 50% |
| Most common major | Business | Computer Science |
| Most common college | - | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between customer support specialists' and technical support specialists' demographics:
| Customer Support Specialist | Technical Support Specialist | |
| Average age | 40 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 37.4% Female, 62.6% | Male, 75.4% Female, 24.6% |
| 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, 11.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 11.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 11% |