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The differences between supports and technical support technicians can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 1-2 years to become both a support and a technical support technician. Additionally, a technical support technician has an average salary of $40,210, which is higher than the $36,227 average annual salary of a support.
The top three skills for a support include customer service, cash management and customer satisfaction. The most important skills for a technical support technician are customer service, technical support, and patients.
| Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $36,227 | $40,210 |
| Hourly rate | $17.42 | $19.33 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 136,788 | 165,677 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A support employee is responsible for assisting the business operations and responding to customers' inquiries and concerns regarding its goods and services. Support logs all customers' interaction and escalates potential complaints to the appropriate department. They also help with implementing strategic procedures to improve operations and reach maximum productivity. A support employee must have excellent communication and customer service skills, ensuring clients' satisfaction with the services and maintain good feedback to boost the company's brand, attract more clients, and increase revenues.
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.
Supports and technical support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $36,227 | $40,210 |
| Salary range | Between $24,000 And $54,000 | Between $24,000 And $64,000 |
| Highest paying City | Urban Honolulu, HI | Philadelphia, PA |
| Highest paying state | Hawaii | Pennsylvania |
| Best paying company | Microsoft | Ropes & Gray |
| Best paying industry | Professional | Finance |
There are a few differences between a support and a technical support technician in terms of educational background:
| Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 44% | Bachelor's Degree, 40% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between supports' and technical support technicians' demographics:
| Support | Technical Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 51.4% Female, 48.6% | Male, 66.7% Female, 33.3% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.0% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 10.6% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.9% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |