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The differences between technical support representatives and associate customer service representatives can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. While it typically takes 1-2 years to become a technical support representative, becoming an associate customer service representative takes usually requires 6-12 months. Additionally, an associate customer service representative has an average salary of $35,215, which is higher than the $34,758 average annual salary of a technical support representative.
The top three skills for a technical support representative include customer calls, smartphones and technical support calls. The most important skills for an associate customer service representative are patients, outbound calls, and customer inquiries.
| Technical Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Yearly salary | $34,758 | $35,215 |
| Hourly rate | $16.71 | $16.93 |
| Growth rate | 10% | -4% |
| Number of jobs | 212,082 | 199,751 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 40% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Average age | 42 | 40 |
| Years of experience | 2 | 12 |
Technical Support Representatives specialize in customer support through calls or correspondence. Among the primary responsibilities of a Technical Support Representative involves receiving and making calls, address and troubleshoot issues raised by the client, assist when navigating through complicated applications, provide suggestions or recommendations, or elevate the problem to personnel with higher expertise when necessary. Furthermore, a Technical Support Representative must coordinate with supervisors at all times, remain patient and proactive, and as well as maintain and organize records of each handled calls.
An associate customer service representative is responsible for providing high customer service by assisting customers on their inquiries and concerns, as well as resolving and escalating high-level complaints to the supervisor or tenured customer service representative. Associate customer service representatives also process orders and payments from the customers, replacing defective items, and issuing refunds as needed. They must have excellent communication and organizational skills, especially on handling data processing procedures to the database for reference to customer concerns.
Technical support representatives and associate customer service representatives have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Technical Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average salary | $34,758 | $35,215 |
| Salary range | Between $27,000 And $44,000 | Between $26,000 And $46,000 |
| Highest paying City | Boston, MA | Washington, DC |
| Highest paying state | Maryland | Massachusetts |
| Best paying company | HP | Deutsche Bank |
| Best paying industry | Technology | Finance |
There are a few differences between a technical support representative and an associate customer service representative in terms of educational background:
| Technical Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 40% | Bachelor's Degree, 35% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | Stanford University | - |
Here are the differences between technical support representatives' and associate customer service representatives' demographics:
| Technical Support Representative | Associate Customer Service Representative | |
| Average age | 42 | 40 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 61.5% Female, 38.5% | Male, 35.1% Female, 64.9% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 11.4% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 15.8% Asian, 10.6% White, 56.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 12.2% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 21.0% Asian, 6.4% White, 54.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.8% |
| LGBT Percentage | 11% | 7% |