Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between service advisors and service writers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 6-12 months to become both a service advisor and a service writer. Additionally, a service advisor has an average salary of $46,308, which is higher than the $39,016 average annual salary of a service writer.
The top three skills for a service advisor include customer service, product knowledge and basic math. The most important skills for a service writer are customer service, repair orders, and warranty claims.
| Service Advisor | Service Writer | |
| Yearly salary | $46,308 | $39,016 |
| Hourly rate | $22.26 | $18.76 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 222,424 | 163,441 |
| Job satisfaction | 4 | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
Service Advisors specialize in customer service in a car dealership or automotive shop. Acting as a front-desk representative, it is the Service Advisor's responsibility to greet clients and offer assistance, provide necessary and accurate information to customers regarding the automotive issues and needed repairs, respond to inquiries, and introduce the clients to the available mechanics. Moreover, Service Advisors must inform clients regarding the costs and warranties, keep the clients updated with the status of the repairs, coordinate with suppliers, and as well as manage the schedule of the mechanics.
A service writer is an employee who acts as an informative middleman between a business owner and its customers in the automotive sector. To develop this relationship, service writers must provide successful management of product or service delivery to their customers. Service writers must correctly manage their scheduled appointments to avoid overwhelming their mechanics with incoming vehicular repairs while monitoring the service progress to avoid delivery delays. They must also know how to encode customer profile information into the computer system.
Service advisors and service writers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Service Advisor | Service Writer | |
| Average salary | $46,308 | $39,016 |
| Salary range | Between $26,000 And $79,000 | Between $24,000 And $61,000 |
| Highest paying City | New York, NY | College Park, MD |
| Highest paying state | New Jersey | Maryland |
| Best paying company | BP America Inc | American Institute of Physics |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Manufacturing |
There are a few differences between a service advisor and a service writer in terms of educational background:
| Service Advisor | Service Writer | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between service advisors' and service writers' demographics:
| Service Advisor | Service Writer | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 69.4% Female, 30.6% | Male, 62.7% Female, 37.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 10.8% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 21.1% Asian, 6.1% White, 56.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 18.4% Asian, 5.8% White, 59.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |