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The differences between technical support agents and customer 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 technical support agent and a customer support technician. Additionally, a customer support technician has an average salary of $36,361, which is higher than the $30,389 average annual salary of a technical support agent.
The top three skills for a technical support agent include customer service, email clients and technical support issues. The most important skills for a customer support technician are customer service, customer support, and SQL.
| Technical Support Agent | Customer Support Technician | |
| Yearly salary | $30,389 | $36,361 |
| Hourly rate | $14.61 | $17.48 |
| Growth rate | 10% | 10% |
| Number of jobs | 177,918 | 117,102 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 2 |
A technical support agent specializes in providing computer and system support through calls and correspondence, ensuring optimal customer satisfaction. They are primarily responsible for assisting customers in troubleshooting and evaluating systems to figure out the cause of technical issues and talk them through its corresponding solution. Moreover, an agent must make follow-up calls to ensure that the problem no longer persists or forward them to higher authority personnel when necessary.
A customer support technician is responsible for resolving customer complaints with their network issues through remote communication, providing the customers with a step-by-step procedure to fix their systems. Customer support technicians assist the customers in setting up their programs and applications, guiding them with the instructional manuals, and responding to the inquiries and concerns they have. They also escalate high-level complaints to the immediate supervisor as needed while monitoring system solutions and creating technical tickets.
Technical support agents and customer support technicians have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Support Agent | Customer Support Technician | |
| Average salary | $30,389 | $36,361 |
| Salary range | Between $23,000 And $40,000 | Between $23,000 And $56,000 |
| Highest paying City | El Cajon, CA | New York, NY |
| Highest paying state | New York | New Jersey |
| Best paying company | HP | Adobe |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Technology |
There are a few differences between a technical support agent and a customer support technician in terms of educational background:
| Technical Support Agent | Customer Support Technician | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 33% | Bachelor's Degree, 46% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | Stanford University |
Here are the differences between technical support agents' and customer support technicians' demographics:
| Technical Support Agent | Customer Support Technician | |
| Average age | 42 | 42 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 57.7% Female, 42.3% | Male, 66.1% Female, 33.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.3% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 10.7% Unknown, 5.4% Hispanic or Latino, 16.2% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 11% |