When it comes to customer service, there are many important factors an associate should take into account, ranging from having compassion for the disgruntled customers to having the knowledge on how to help them, even if they are being rude to you.
We all know working in customer service isn’t easy, especially when you get a furious customer that barely sees you as another human being, but there are many positives to working in this field, especially when working in some of the highest paying customer service jobs.
When working in customer service, you become a representative of your company whilst also being a worker who is there to support customers pre- and post-purchase. The reason this field is important to the functioning of a company is that they are the closest pillar to the customers, thus their satisfaction as well.
Good customer service also boosts competition between firms, since the better your service is, the more customers are drawn to your company and the more loyal to your brand as well since good experiences lead to brand loyalty.
A recent sector in the customer service industry is remote customer service, which happens to be in high demand currently. This means these employees are working remotely and online, which equals convenience for both parties, employer and employee.
Let’s look at the positions and companies that pay their representatives the best, and how the future job market might change regarding this field.
Being an Associate
There is a difference between being a customer service representative and being a customer service associate, and that difference would be the wage you would be receiving.
Both titles do the same work, receiving calls, aiding customers, and so on, except the title of being an associate has been shown to lead to you also getting paid more by the hour by an average of $2, which adds up in the long run. An associate would earn $19 hourly, rather than $17 or less.
Membership services
Customer service jobs do not have many variations, but the customer you are helping out has a bigger impact on how much you can get paid.
Being a member service representative means you are directly in contact with the members of a membership program at the company you are working at. You are placed at the business to personally greet the customers and assist them with any questions or issues they may have.
You are also there to persuade them to upgrade or to spend more at the business you are stationed at. Oftentimes these businesses include fitness companies, insurance companies, and vacation companies such as resorts or amusement parks.
The hourly wage of a member service representative would be average, ranging between $14 or $15 US, which may seem like not enough, but the amount of bonuses and tips you get doing this line of work compensates enough for it to count as high paying.
Technology services
Most people struggle with fixing technological issues unless they are interested in similar topics. This is where tech support comes in. The joy of being a tech support agent is you get to work remotely most often, and sometimes in call centers.
As a tech support agent, you need to help customers who have found issues with software and hardware bought from the company you are working for. Obviously, you need some skills such as a good amount of knowledge on technology and also customer service skills, but other than that if you are qualified, this is a good path.
The average hourly wage for tech support agents is from $15 to $20 US, without commissions.
Car dealerships
Car dealerships have a sector within them that is less heard of, which is being a service advisor. The job of a service advisor is they are the person that connects customers with dealership mechanics, which also requires the advisor to know a lot about automobiles to easily help out customers whilst maintaining their professionalism.
Essentially, service advisors are the stairs for the customers to find the service they need for their cars.
The yearly wage of a service advisor is around $45,000 US per year since they do need some form of specialization to execute their jobs correctly.
Bank services
A bank is one of the places with the most customers since everyone needs a bank account to survive in today’s world. Being a bank teller is what puts you into the customer service sector within a bank’s workings.
A bank teller’s job is to greet customers and aid them in completing simple things related to banking, such as cash withdrawals, money transfers, or operating the ATM.
The hourly wage of a bank teller is $18 to $20 US an hour, and it is a service that can easily be learned as well.
Amazon
Jeff Bezos has had and still has some controversies regarding his physical workers, but his remote workers get quite the opposite. Anyone who has ordered anything online knows customer service is the only thing left where you can talk to a company representative since you aren’t interacting with someone during your purchase.
As a remote customer service representative for Amazon, you are entrusted with providing amazing service to customers when they have any issues with their orders.
The company is very customer-oriented and focuses on providing the best possible service for them, so they give you software to be able to easily aid any unsatisfied customer, be that through email or phone call. The hourly wage you would be receiving is averaged at $12 to $15 US.
The future of customer service will remain the same in most places because outsourcing humans in customer service would lead to customers not talking to actual humans, but most likely AI, which might easily disconnect individuals from the workings of the company, since they aren’t being aided by a human.