What does a customer support specialist do?
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 support specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real customer support specialist resumes:
- Build emails in Luminate system using HTML for mass updates.
- Design online eBay templates using HTML; list items for sale.
- Assist in training new CSR's on computer and billing systems.
- Work for a pet supply business dealing mostly with business to business sales.
- Assist in research projects for the department & prepare PowerPoint presentations as necessary.
- Support using SQL to analyze data, write reports and correct errors in data.
- Answer questions from team members and serve as a knowledge resource for 12-16 CRS's.
- Re-Engineer and combine processes around manual coding for use by CRS across multiple Hartford organizations.
- Provide training on proper troubleshooting and CSR procedures through one on one guidance of new associates.
- Utilize Zendesk as a platform to create/solve out and escalate tickets concerning issues with customers' accounts.
- Collect, verify, and maintain customer, materials, and pricing master data in CRM and ERP systems.
- Clean all exterior and interior windows, mirrors and vacuum interior, floor, seats, ashtray and trunk.
- Assist customers with hardware and software relate issues over a broad base of machines and all windows base operating systems.
- Resolve customer concerns with diplomacy professionalism and compassion.
- Demonstrate respect and compassion regarding personal and confidential information.
Customer support specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 16% of Customer Support Specialists are proficient in Customer Support, Phone Calls, and Compassion. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Customer Support Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Support, 16%
Conduct daily phone audits for Customer Support and Deposit Operations to ensure customer confidentiality and security.
- Phone Calls, 11%
Analyze individual case information by using investigative telephone calls or documents to determine facts to report to customers.
- Compassion, 6%
Completed Fraud escalations with compassion and Federal compliance standards.
- Customer Service, 6%
Developed and maintained communication with all internal and external customers, providing high quality customer service according to Chase policy.
- Digital Marketing, 4%
Perfromed numerous web demonstrations for customers to facilitate digital marketing effort to drive client participation in web based supply chain sales.
- Data Entry, 4%
Performed vital data entry in case management system by accurately documenting conversations, actions and decisions.
Common skills that a customer support specialist uses to do their job include "customer support," "phone calls," and "compassion." You can find details on the most important customer support specialist responsibilities below.
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a customer support 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 support specialists often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "provided customer support for microsoft messaging and communications products including microsoft exchange server 2007. "
Customer-service skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of customer support specialists is customer-service skills. This skill is critical to many everyday customer support 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: "provided post-sales customer support, including scheduling and attending customer meetings and problem resolution in -person and by telephone. "
Interpersonal skills. For certain customer support specialist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "interpersonal skills." The day-to-day duties of a customer support specialist rely on this skill, as "representatives should be able to create positive interactions with customers." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what customer support specialists do: "showed excellent interpersonal skills to resolve issues for members, providers, group administrators, and brokers. "
Listening skills. Another common skill required for customer support specialist responsibilities is "listening skills." This skill comes up in the duties of customer support specialists all the time, as "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." An excerpt from a real customer support specialist resume shows how this skill is central to what a customer support specialist does: "ask appropriate questions and listen actively to identify any questions or issues while documenting required information in computer systems. "
Patience. While "patience" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to customer support specialist responsibilities. Much of what a customer support 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 support specialists: "maintained a high level of professionalism, patience, and efficiency to minimize customer dissatisfaction and increase customer loyalty. "
The three companies that hire the most customer support specialists are:
- The Home Store377 customer support specialists jobs
- GEICO244 customer support specialists jobs
- Safelite AutoGlass70 customer support specialists jobs
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Compare different customer support specialists
Customer support specialist vs. Customer agent
A customer agent provides friendly service to external and internal customers. Customer agents talk to customers on behalf of businesses and companies. They help customers with their queries and complaints. It is their job to give customers a better understanding of the products. They answer questions with regards to their reservations. Sometimes, they also have sales roles. Oftentimes, they answer questions, process sales, provide information, and resolve problems.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a customer support specialist are more likely to require skills like "phone calls," "compassion," "digital marketing," and "excellent customer support." On the other hand, a job as a customer agent requires skills like "inbound phone calls," "us customs," "golf courses," and "credit card." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Customer agents really shine in the technology industry with an average salary of $32,547. Comparatively, customer support specialists tend to make the most money in the technology industry with an average salary of $38,961.On average, customer agents reach similar levels of education than customer support specialists. Customer agents are 1.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Customer support specialist vs. Support agent
As the name entails, the job of a customer support agent is to provide excellent support and assistance to both new and existing customers. You will provide customers with information on products or services, oversee and resolve customer complaints, cancellations, errors, and other issues, assist in maintaining customer satisfaction and retention. Additionally, a customer support agent is responsible for encouraging customers to purchase a product or service and educating them about the product. You are also expected to accurately process emails and fax communications with customers.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real customer support specialist resumes. While customer support specialist responsibilities can utilize skills like "phone calls," "compassion," "digital marketing," and "excellent customer support," support agents use skills like "reservations," "excellent time management," "basic math," and "telemarketing."
Support agents earn a lower average salary than customer support specialists. But support agents earn the highest pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $41,689. Additionally, customer support specialists earn the highest salaries in the technology with average pay of $38,961 annually.Average education levels between the two professions vary. Support agents tend to reach similar levels of education than customer support specialists. In fact, they're 1.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer support specialist vs. Customer service professional
A customer service professional is responsible for providing the highest customer service by responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns, resolving complaints, and updating the customers of goods and services for generating revenues and profitability to the company. Customer service professionals process order transactions, administering payment plans and adjusting service features in meeting customers' needs. A customer service professional should be highly communicative, as well as have excellent time-management skills in documenting customers' information on various software tools to maximize productivity and efficiency.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a customer support specialist is likely to be skilled in "phone calls," "compassion," "digital marketing," and "data entry," while a typical customer service professional is skilled in "strong computer," "annuities," "schedule appointments," and "credit card payments."
Most customer service professionals achieve a similar degree level compared to customer support specialists. For example, they're 1.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Customer support specialist vs. Retention specialist
A retention specialist is responsible for devising strategies to maintain a healthy relationship with clients. They are primarily in charge of negotiating and securing contract renewals, handling issues and corrective measures for customer satisfaction, utilizing feedback to improve services, and maintaining a healthy rapport to strengthen the client base. Furthermore, as a retention specialist, it is essential to perform calls and correspondence, keep records of all transactions, and coordinate with work-staff.
Even though a few skill sets overlap between customer support specialists and retention specialists, there are some differences that are important to note. For one, a customer support specialist might have more use for skills like "phone calls," "compassion," "digital marketing," and "data entry." Meanwhile, some responsibilities of retention specialists require skills like "credit card," "customer relationships," "retention efforts," and "product line. "
In general, retention specialists earn the most working in the finance industry, with an average salary of $42,523. The highest-paying industry for a customer support specialist is the technology industry.retention specialists reach similar levels of education compared to customer support specialists, in general. The difference is that they're 0.7% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.0% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Types of customer support specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
