What does a support agent do?
As the name entails, the job of a customer support agent is to provide excellent support and assistance to both new and existing customers. You will provide customers with information on products or services, oversee and resolve customer complaints, cancellations, errors, and other issues, assist in maintaining customer satisfaction and retention. Additionally, a customer support agent is responsible for encouraging customers to purchase a product or service and educating them about the product. You are also expected to accurately process emails and fax communications with customers.
Support agent responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real support agent resumes:
- Manage mental health portion of health insurance policies including Medicaid and Medicare and other commercial insurance plans nationwide.
- Manage mental health portion of health insurance policies including Medicaid and Medicare and other commercial insurance plans nationwide.
- Check all documents for proper signatures from loan officers and send to borrowers via FedEx in accordance with mortgaging guidelines.
- Operate FedEx shipping system efficiently and accurately.
Support agent skills and personality traits
We calculated that 8% of Support Agents are proficient in Reservations, Customer Service, and Data Entry. They’re also known for soft skills such as Speaking skills, Writing skills, and Customer-service skills.
We break down the percentage of Support Agents that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Reservations, 8%
Generated nationwide reservations provided customer service and negotiating customer dispute(inbound and outbound calls).
- Customer Service, 8%
Provided technical assistance and customer service for all different levels of management within these companies along with potential candidates for employment.
- Data Entry, 8%
Performed constant data entry while communicating with customers.
- Technical Support, 7%
Provide administrative and technical support to field technicians installing security equipment in homes and businesses.
- Troubleshoot, 7%
Provide quality customer service while demonstrating the ability to effectively troubleshoot and resolve advanced technical inquires.
- CRM, 7%
Developed, tested, and maintained CRM application using Visual Basic, Access, and HTML/CSS with user base of approx.
"reservations," "customer service," and "data entry" are among the most common skills that support agents use at work. You can find even more support agent responsibilities below, including:
Speaking skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a support agent to have is speaking skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "support workers must describe the solutions to computer problems in a way that a nontechnical person can understand." Support agents often use speaking skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "represented dhr in court against non-custodial parents for enforcement or prosecution. "
Writing skills. Another essential skill to perform support agent duties is writing skills. Support agents responsibilities require that "strong writing skills are useful for preparing instructions and email responses for employees and customers, as well as for real-time web chat interactions." Support agents also use writing skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "assisted dss attorney in legal matters, writing court orders, and negotiating with non-custodial parent's attorneys. "
Customer-service skills. This is an important skill for support agents to perform their duties. For an example of how support agent responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "computer support specialists must be patient and sympathetic." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a support agent: "performed all aspects of customer support, including answering telephones and handled complex situations involving customer disputes. ".
Listening skills. For certain support agent responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "listening skills." The day-to-day duties of a support agent rely on this skill, as "support workers must be able to understand the problems that their customers are describing and know when to ask questions to clarify the situation." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what support agents do: "use customer service skills to include active listening and negotiation ability, strong communication technique. "
Problem-solving skills. Another common skill required for support agent responsibilities is "problem-solving skills." This skill comes up in the duties of support agents all the time, as "support workers must identify both simple and complex computer problems, analyze them, and solve them." An excerpt from a real support agent resume shows how this skill is central to what a support agent does: "provided customer support and resolution. "
The three companies that hire the most support agents are:
- General Communication38 support agents jobs
- Formlabs8 support agents jobs
- Sonder8 support agents jobs
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Compare different support agents
Support agent vs. Information technology/support technician
An information technology (IT) support technician is an individual who is responsible for providing support and troubleshoots software and hardware problems faced by customers. As for larger organizations that have their own IT department, technicians must work together internally with their IT staff members. IT support technicians are involved in inspecting and resolving minor local area network and wireless network issues, which include TCP/IP, DHCP, and VPN. They are also required to obtain an associate's degree in computer science or related field.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a support agent are more likely to require skills like "reservations," "data entry," "technical support," and "crm." On the other hand, a job as an information technology/support technician requires skills like "desk support," "phone calls," "remote desktop," and "os." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Information technology/support technicians tend to make the most money working in the technology industry, where they earn an average salary of $53,210. In contrast, support agents make the biggest average salary, $41,689, in the technology industry.The education levels that information technology/support technicians earn slightly differ from support agents. In particular, information technology/support technicians are 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree than a support agent. Additionally, they're 0.0% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Support agent vs. Technical support advisor
A technical support advisor specializes in assisting customers, mainly through diagnosing and solving issues using their product and service expertise. In most companies, they communicate with clients through calls or correspondence. Through this, they get to identify their needs, answer inquiries, give technical advice, troubleshoot problems, and solve issues and concerns, ensuring efficiency and client satisfaction. Moreover, a technical support advisor works together with the company's internal departments to optimize customer support operations and resolve any issues or vulnerabilities in the current procedures.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, support agent responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "reservations," "data entry," "technical support," and "crm." Meanwhile, a technical support advisor has duties that require skills in areas such as "technical support calls," "issue resolution," "ios devices," and "mac os x." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
On average, technical support advisors earn a higher salary than support agents. Some industries support higher salaries in each profession. Interestingly enough, technical support advisors earn the most pay in the technology industry with an average salary of $111,392. Whereas support agents have higher pay in the technology industry, with an average salary of $41,689.technical support advisors earn similar levels of education than support agents in general. They're 0.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.0% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Support agent vs. Customer support coordinator
A customer service coordinator is an individual who motivates and supervises customer service teams for business performance maximization. Customer service coordinators make sure that customer loyalty and satisfaction are met. They analyze complaints, design and implement campaigns for customer retention, and develop new procedures. The skills needed for this job include procurement management, accounting, and finance skills, documentation management, and organizational skills. They should also have strong communication and interpersonal skills.
There are many key differences between these two careers, including some of the skills required to perform responsibilities within each role. For example, a support agent is likely to be skilled in "reservations," "troubleshoot," "excellent time management," and "basic math," while a typical customer support coordinator is skilled in "front end," "logistics," "phone calls," and "windows."
Customer support coordinators earn the highest salary when working in the technology industry, where they receive an average salary of $37,939. Comparatively, support agents have the highest earning potential in the technology industry, with an average salary of $41,689.Most customer support coordinators achieve a similar degree level compared to support agents. For example, they're 1.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.1% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Support agent vs. Technical support technician
Technical support technicians are skilled professionals who resolve computer or information technology-related concerns. They may do installations, repairs, or maintenance activities of various applications or computer hardware. They are sometimes assigned specific issues or concerns to resolve so that they will not be bombarded with various issues. This means that they can now specialize in a specific family of concerns. Technical support technicians may provide on-site support, going directly to the person who needs help and doing what needs to be done or troubleshoot the problem in person. They may also be offsite and would usually be manning helpdesk hotlines. Offsite technical support technicians walk the caller through the steps they should do to fix the issues. As such, when a technical support technician is offsite, they are expected to be good communicators and will be able to provide clear instructions.
Types of support agent
Updated January 8, 2025
