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The differences between hardware support technicians and customer support technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a hardware support technician and a customer support technician. Additionally, a hardware support technician has an average salary of $41,832, which is higher than the $36,361 average annual salary of a customer support technician.
The top three skills for a hardware support technician include hardware support, technical support and customer service. The most important skills for a customer support technician are customer service, customer support, and SQL.
| Hardware Support Technician | Customer Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $41,832 | $36,361 |
| Hourly rate | $20.11 | $17.48 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 111,104 | 117,102 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A hardware support technician is an individual who deals with hardware problems and tries to provide solutions to clients' problems. As a professional, you are tasked with providing IT support to organizations and may have to work with computer hardware, servers, and computer clusters. As someone who is a hardware support technician, your job description may require you to help with the installation and maintenance of computer systems. You may also be required to provide troubleshooting solutions and repair computer hardware.
A customer support technician is responsible for resolving customer complaints with their network issues through remote communication, providing the customers with a step-by-step procedure to fix their systems. Customer support technicians assist the customers in setting up their programs and applications, guiding them with the instructional manuals, and responding to the inquiries and concerns they have. They also escalate high-level complaints to the immediate supervisor as needed while monitoring system solutions and creating technical tickets.
Hardware support technicians and customer support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Hardware Support Technician | Customer Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $41,832 | $36,361 |
| Salary range | Between $31,000 And $54,000 | Between $23,000 And $56,000 |
| Highest paying City | - | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | - | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | - | Adobe |
| Best paying industry | - | Technology |
There are a few differences between a hardware support technician and a customer support technician in terms of educational background:
| Hardware Support Technician | Customer Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 46% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Most common major | Computer Science | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between hardware support technicians' and customer support technicians' demographics:
| Hardware Support Technician | Customer Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 88.6% Female, 11.4% | Male, 66.1% Female, 33.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 12.1% White, 54.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 10.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |