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The differences between sales support representatives and associate customer service representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 2-4 years to become a sales support representative, becoming an associate customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, a sales support representative has an average salary of $38,310, which is higher than the $35,215 average annual salary of an associate customer service representative.
The top three skills for a sales support representative include sales support, phone calls and POS. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Sales Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $38,310 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $18.42 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | 4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 319,292 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 4 | 12 |
A sales support representative is responsible for assisting the complex operations of sales departments, performing administrative duties under the supervision of a direct manager. Sales support representatives' tasks include acknowledging and encoding customers' orders in the system, processing payments, responding to the customers' inquiries and concerns about the products, writing sales reports, and updating the customer of the shipment details. They also support the sales representatives on selling goods and services to potential customers by creating marketing materials and communicating with customers over the phone and e-mail to generate revenues and increase profits.
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.
Sales support representatives and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Sales Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $38,310 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $30,000 And $48,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | Seattle, WA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Washington | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | NetApp | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Finance |
There are a few differences between a sales support representative and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Sales Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 55% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | SUNY College of Technology at Alfred | - |
Here are the differences between sales support representatives' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Sales Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 47 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 39.9% Female, 60.1% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 3.8% Unknown, 3.7% Hispanic or Latino, 14.0% Asian, 5.1% White, 73.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% | Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 6% | 7% |