What does a phone representative do?
A Phone Representative answers customer calls, complaints, and inquiries professionally. They handle and resolve customer complaints related to its services/products and product/service sales. Besides processing applications, orders, and forms requested by customers, Phone Representatives also update customers about the products/services information. These professionals record customer complaints, inquiries, feedback, and actions taken. They develop and maintain mutually beneficial and professional relationships with each customer. Moreover, they create and maintain cordial relationships with all new customers.
Phone representative responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real phone representative resumes:
- Conduct telephone sales and interviews, compile and enter information into database, manage documents and insure customer satisfaction.
- Provide status of medical claims and explain EOB's.
- Research and resolve incorrect payments, EOB rejections and other issues with accounts.
- Answer inbound provider calls to help with billing Medicaid claims and benefits and eligibility issues.
- Update alumni on current happenings in university life and act as a liaison between past and current students.
- Contact hundreds of alumni and their families by telephone and raise thousands of dollars to improve school facilities and maintain school grounds
- Provide problem-solving skills to customers to troubleshoot equipment.
- Verify demographic via electronic medical records utilizing HIPAA standards.
- Validate request and authorizations for release of medical information according to establish procedures and HIPAA guidelines.
- Demonstrate superb organizational and multitasking abilities
- Conduct telephone sales and interviews, compile and enter information into database, manage documents and insure customer satisfaction.
Phone representative skills and personality traits
We calculated that 27% of Phone Representatives are proficient in Customer Service, Outbound Calls, and Telephone Calls. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Computer skills, and Listening skills.
We break down the percentage of Phone Representatives that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Customer Service, 27%
Resolve customer service inquiries including benefit and eligibility information, billing and payment issues and customer material requests.
- Outbound Calls, 13%
Conducted a high volume of outbound calls of surveys nationally concerning consumer product satisfaction.
- Telephone Calls, 7%
Received and placed telephone calls regarding customer banking.
- Inbound Phone Calls, 7%
Answer inbound phone calls and email correspondence from complex account vendors, internal and external customers.
- Troubleshoot, 6%
Provided problem-solving skills to customers to troubleshoot equipment.
- Computer System, 3%
Worked as a phone center representative using numerous computer systems directing calls and receiving payments.
Most phone representatives use their skills in "customer service," "outbound calls," and "telephone calls" to do their jobs. You can find more detail on essential phone representative responsibilities here:
Communication skills. One of the key soft skills for a phone representative to have is communication skills. You can see how this relates to what phone representatives do because "customer service representatives must be able to provide clear information in writing, by phone, or in person." Additionally, a phone representative resume shows how phone representatives use communication skills: "conducted and coordinated both verbal and written communication with customers and internal departments to resolve billing issues. "
Listening skills. phone representatives are also known for listening skills, which are critical to their duties. You can see how this skill relates to phone representative responsibilities, because "representatives must listen carefully to ensure that they understand customers in order to assist them." A phone representative resume example shows how listening skills is used in the workplace: "managed multiple client protocols troubleshot customer issues by listening and understanding the issue. "
Patience. For certain phone representative responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "patience." The day-to-day duties of a phone representative rely on this skill, as "representatives should be patient and polite, especially when interacting with dissatisfied customers." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what phone representatives do: "handled multiple outbound calls to patience verified patients appointment status made sure customer information was accurate in database. "
Problem-solving skills. A commonly-found skill in phone representative job descriptions, "problem-solving skills" is essential to what phone representatives do. Phone representative responsibilities rely on this skill because "representatives must determine solutions to customers’ problems." You can also see how phone representative duties rely on problem-solving skills in this resume example: "provided claim status information and resolved complex billing and payment issues by having claims reconsidered. "
Customer-service skills. Lastly, "customer-service skills" is an important element of what a phone representative does. Phone representative responsibilities require this skill because "representatives help companies retain customers by professionally answering questions and helping to resolve complaints." This resume example highlights how phone representative duties rely on this skill: "job duties included, collecting payments, setting up payment arrangements and technical support to sprint customers. "
The three companies that hire the most phone representatives are:
- Voya Financial4 phone representatives jobs
- Wells Fargo4 phone representatives jobs
- Regions Bank2 phone representatives jobs
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Compare different phone representatives
Phone representative vs. Associate customer service representative
An associate customer service representative is responsible for providing high customer service by assisting customers on their inquiries and concerns, as well as resolving and escalating high-level complaints to the supervisor or tenured customer service representative. Associate customer service representatives also process orders and payments from the customers, replacing defective items, and issuing refunds as needed. They must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on handling data processing procedures to the database for reference to customer concerns.
While similarities exist, there are also some differences between phone representatives and associate customer service representative. For instance, phone representative responsibilities require skills such as "inbound phone calls," "financial transactions," "alumni," and "phone rep." Whereas a associate customer service representative is skilled in "patients," "inbound calls," "customer satisfaction," and "sales floor." This is part of what separates the two careers.
Associate customer service representatives earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $37,473. On the other hand, phone representatives are paid more in the health care industry with an average salary of $49,071.On average, associate customer service representatives reach similar levels of education than phone representatives. Associate customer service representatives are 0.8% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Phone representative vs. Customer relations representative
A customer relations representative is responsible for providing the highest customer service by interacting with customers to respond to their inquiries and concerns, process their requests, and resolve their complaints. Customer relations representatives assist the customers with their needs by offering products and services according to their requirements and budget limitations. They may also sell newly launched products to the customers, discuss features and usability, and generate payments and delivery details. A customer relations representative must have excellent communication and organizational skills to maintain healthy business relationships with the customers to achieve the company's long-term goals and objectives.
Each career also uses different skills, according to real phone representative resumes. While phone representative responsibilities can utilize skills like "inbound phone calls," "troubleshoot," "financial transactions," and "alumni," customer relations representatives use skills like "customer relations," "team-oriented environment," "propane," and "customer retention."
Customer relations representatives may earn a lower salary than phone representatives, but customer relations representatives earn the most pay in the finance industry with an average salary of $42,057. On the other hand, phone representatives receive higher pay in the health care industry, where they earn an average salary of $49,071.customer relations representatives earn similar levels of education than phone representatives in general. They're 1.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Phone representative vs. Member service representative
A member service representative is responsible for providing customer service support to an organization. Member service representatives' duties include responding to customer's inquiries and complaints, developing effective sales pitches, processing customer's requests and orders, creating reports, developing recommendations to improve the operation's performance, and escalating high-level concerns. A member service representative should maintain excellent customer service, as well as excellent time-management skills and the ability to multi-task, to work under pressure, and assist customers under minimal supervision.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from phone representative resumes include skills like "inbound phone calls," "troubleshoot," "alumni," and "phone rep," whereas a member service representative is more likely to list skills in "front desk," "cleanliness," "punctuality," and "loan payments. "
Member service representatives earn the best pay in the insurance industry, where they command an average salary of $33,566. Phone representatives earn the highest pay from the health care industry, with an average salary of $49,071.When it comes to education, member service representatives tend to earn similar degree levels compared to phone representatives. In fact, they're 1.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Phone representative vs. Customer service representative
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.
Types of phone representative
Updated January 8, 2025
