Explore jobs
Find specific jobs
Explore careers
Explore professions
Best companies
Explore companies
The differences between service writers and customer service representatives 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 writer and a customer service representative. Additionally, a service writer has an average salary of $39,016, which is higher than the $32,260 average annual salary of a customer service representative.
The top three skills for a service writer include customer service, repair orders and warranty claims. The most important skills for a customer service representative are cleanliness, POS, and data entry.
| Service Writer | Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $39,016 | $32,260 |
| Hourly rate | $18.76 | $15.51 |
| Growth rate | -4% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 163,441 | 209,515 |
| Job satisfaction | - | 4 |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 33% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 12 | 12 |
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.
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.
Service writers and customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Service Writer | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $39,016 | $32,260 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $61,000 | Between $25,000 And $41,000 |
| Highest paying City | College Park, MD | Des Moines, WA |
| Highest paying state | Maryland | Washington |
| Best paying company | American Institute of Physics | Oracle |
| Best paying industry | Manufacturing | Insurance |
There are a few differences between a service writer and a customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Service Writer | Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | High School Diploma, 33% | High School Diploma, 33% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | - | - |
Here are the differences between service writers' and customer service representatives' demographics:
| Service Writer | Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 40 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 62.7% Female, 37.3% | Male, 30.5% Female, 69.5% |
| Race ratio | 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% | Black or African American, 11.6% Unknown, 5.2% Hispanic or Latino, 21.2% Asian, 6.3% White, 55.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.7% |
| LGBT Percentage | 7% | 7% |