How to hire a support representative

How to hire a support representative, step by step

Here's a step-by-step support representative hiring guide:

• Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
• Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
• Step 3: Make a budget
• Step 4: Write a support representative job description
• Step 5: Post your job
• Step 6: Interview candidates
• Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new support representative
• Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a support representative do?

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1. Identify your hiring needs

   Before you post your support representative job, you should take the time to determine what type of worker your business needs. While certain jobs definitely require a full-time employee, it's sometimes better to find a support representative for hire on a part-time basis or as a contractor.

   Determine employee vs contractor status

   Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

   Yes

   No

   A support representative's background is also an important factor in determining whether they'll be a good fit for the position. For example, support representatives from different industries or fields will have radically different experiences and will bring different viewpoints to the role. You also need to consider the candidate's previous level of experience to make sure they'll be comfortable with the job's level of seniority.

   Here's a comparison of support representative salaries for various roles:

   Type of Support Representative	Description	Hourly rate
   Support Representative	Customer service representatives interact with customers to handle complaints, process orders, and provide information about an organization’s products and services.	$12-20
   Customer Sales Representative	The primary role of customer service representatives is to help customers with questions and complaints. It is also their duties and responsibilities to provide customers with information about services and products, take and process orders, and process returns and modifications... Show more	$12-25
   Consumer Sales Representative	Customer sales representatives' primary role is to present their employer's offerings to potential buyers. They may work out of an office, travel to conferences where their offerings might be suitable to attendees... Show more	$10-32

   Show more

2. Create an ideal candidate profile

   Common skills:

   • Patients
   • Customer Service
   • Troubleshoot
   • Data Entry
   • Technical Support
   • Phone Calls
   • Customer Satisfaction
   • Inbound Calls
   • Outbound Calls
   • Customer Inquiries
   • Strong Customer Service
   • Customer Support
   • Computer System
   • Medicaid

   Check all skills

   Responsibilities:

   • Educate veterans and the college community on veteran's benefits and academic requirements need to accomplish academic goals.
   • Follow approved patient care algorithms to ensure patients receive quality care post surgically, while abiding by HIPAA regulations.
   • Maintain personal patient information while following HIPAA regulations.
   • Document department procedures; some convert into PowerPoint presentations.
   • Follow all current Medicare, Medicaid regulations and requirements to ensure continual compliance.
   • Provide hospital patients with assistance in obtaining proper medical coverage to cover medical expenses.

   More support representative duties

3. Make a budget

   Including a salary range in the support representative job description is a good way to get more applicants. A support representative salary can be affected by several factors, such as the location of the job, the level of experience, education, certifications, and the employer's prestige.

   For example, the average salary for a support representative in Michigan may be lower than in Alaska, and an entry-level engineer typically earns less than a senior-level support representative. Additionally, a support representative with lots of experience in the field may command a higher salary as a result.

   Average support representative salary

   $16.04hourly

   $33,372 yearly

   ---

   Entry-level support representative salary

   $26,000 yearly salary

   Updated January 20, 2026

   Average support representative salary by state

   Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
   1	California	$38,483	$19
   2	Massachusetts	$38,325	$18
   3	New York	$37,557	$18
   4	District of Columbia	$37,208	$18
   5	Vermont	$35,697	$17
   6	Washington	$35,320	$17
   7	Minnesota	$34,996	$17
   8	Wisconsin	$34,512	$17
   9	Arizona	$34,464	$17
   10	Illinois	$34,387	$17
   11	Oregon	$33,580	$16
   12	Colorado	$33,489	$16
   13	Texas	$33,289	$16
   14	Ohio	$32,841	$16
   15	Utah	$32,121	$15
   16	Missouri	$31,376	$15
   17	North Carolina	$30,894	$15
   18	Iowa	$30,456	$15
   19	Florida	$30,199	$15
   20	Tennessee	$29,489	$14

   Average support representative salary by company

   Company

   Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
   1	Accenture	$45,089	$21.68	372
   2	American Water	$42,470	$20.42	4
   3	Strategic Education	$41,318	$19.86
   4	Thermo Fisher Scientific	$39,472	$18.98	22
   5	Lockheed Martin	$39,460	$18.97	73
   6	Bell Flight	$39,090	$18.79
   7	W. R. Berkley	$38,478	$18.50	3
   8	GEICO	$38,455	$18.49	51
   9	Altec	$38,408	$18.47	2
   10	Danaher	$38,237	$18.38	7
   11	Bloomberg	$38,137	$18.34	12
   12	Jacobs Engineering Group	$37,828	$18.19
   13	University of Wisconsin System	$37,752	$18.15	3
   14	BlueGrace Logistics	$37,722	$18.14
   15	Harley-Davidson	$37,619	$18.09	3
   16	Varonis	$37,418	$17.99	1
   17	BNP Paribas	$37,344	$17.95
   18	Wyatt Technology	$37,169	$17.87
   19	Research Foundation of The City University of New York	$37,035	$17.81
   20	Textron	$36,770	$17.68	6

4. Writing a support representative job description

   A support representative job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of a support representative job description:

   Support representative job description example

   Every day, Global Payments makes it possible for millions of people to move money between buyers and sellers using our payments solutions for credit, debit, prepaid and merchant services. Our worldwide team helps over 3 million companies, more than 1,300 financial institutions and over 600 million cardholders grow with confidence and achieve amazing results. We are driven by our passion for success and we are proud to deliver best-in-class payment technology and software solutions. Join our dynamic team and make your mark on the payments technology landscape of tomorrow.
   Summary of This Role
   Responds to customer inquiries via telephone, email, SMS and Chat to provide problem resolution in accordance with the organization's service standards. Receives and/or places telephone calls which are predominantly routine, but may require deviation from standard screens, scripts, and procedures. Answer customer telephone inquiries, orders, service needs and complaints, respond where applicable or direct to technical/service areas. Maintain detailed and current knowledge of the company's/assigned client's products and services. Analyze customer service needs for communication to service and technical departments, when applicable. Requires ability to navigate a computerized data entry system or other relevant applications.
   
   What Part Will You Play?
   Resolves basic or tier 1 payment and account related requests to include but not limited to card activations, payments, name and address updates for card holders (customers) of 1-2 assigned company clients. Provides standardized or scripted responses by utilizing basic user friendly Graphic User Interface (GUI) screens for client systems and established documentation and processes. Enters required data into client provided systems and databases. Determines basic reasons for customer issues using a client provided decision tree and escalates or refers unresolved customer grievances and requests to more experienced Customer Service Representatives or designated departments for further investigation and resolution.Begins to build base knowledge and familiarization of products, policies, and procedures for a limited number of clients and an understanding of association guidelines and compliance by frequently referring to online manuals and specific client training required to resolve card holder inquiries.
   
   What Are We Looking For in This Role?
   Minimum Qualifications
   High School Diploma or EquivalentTypically No Relevant Experience Required
   
   What Are Our Desired Skills and Capabilities?
   Skills / Knowledge - Acquires and applies job skills and learns company policies and procedures to complete assigned routine tasks.Job Complexity - Works on assignments that are routine to semi-routine in nature, requiring limited decision outside of stated processes, but recognizes the need for occasional deviation from accepted practice. Has little or no role in the decision-making.Supervision - Normally receives detailed instructions and follows established procedures on all work, requires instructions on all assignments. Works under close supervision.
   Global Payments Inc. is an equal opportunity employer.
   Global Payments provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, disability, veteran status, genetic information or any other basis protected by law. Those applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application and/or interview process should notify a representative of the Human Resources Department.

   Copy this example

   

5. Post your job

   To find the right support representative for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

   • Consider internal talent. One of the most important sources of talent for any company is its existing workforce.
   • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and current employees and ask if they know or have worked with support representatives they would recommend.
   • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit support representatives who meet your education requirements.
   • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter now have more than 3.5 billion users, and you can use social media to reach potential job candidates.

   Post your job online:

   • Post your support representative job on Zippia to find and recruit support representative candidates who meet your exact specifications.
   • Use field-specific websites.
   • Post a job on free websites.

6. Interview candidates

   Recruiting support representatives requires you to bring your A-game to the interview process. The first interview should introduce the company and the role to the candidate as much as they present their background experience and reasons for applying for the job. During later interviews, you can go into more detail about the technical details of the job and ask behavioral questions to gauge how they'd fit into your current company culture.

   Remember to include a few questions that allow candidates to expand on their strengths in their own words. Asking about their unique skills might reveal things you'd miss otherwise. At this point, good candidates can move on to the technical interview.

   The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

7. Send a job offer and onboard your new support representative

   Once you've found the support representative candidate you'd like to hire, it's time to write an offer letter. This should include an explicit job offer that includes the salary and the details of any other perks. Qualified candidates might be looking at multiple positions, so your offer must be competitive if you like the candidate. Also, be prepared for a negotiation stage, as candidates may way want to tweak the details of your initial offer. Once you've settled on these details, you can draft a contract to formalize your agreement.

   It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.

   After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new support representative. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.

8. Go through the hiring process checklist

   • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
   • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
   • Define job responsibilities and requirements
   • Establish budget and timeline
   • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
   • Write job description
   • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
   • Promote the job internally
   • Process applications through applicant tracking system
   • Review resumes and cover letters
   • Shortlist candidates for screening
   • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
   • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
   • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
   • Conduct background checks on top candidates
   • Check references of top candidates
   • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
   • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
   • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
   • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
   • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
   • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)

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How much does it cost to hire a support representative?