A Helpful Career in Customer Service

Posted by in Customer Service


Are you interested in a career that puts you on the front lines with customers? If you like helping people and have an outgoing personality, a career as a customer service representative may be right for you. Many companies rely on top-notch customer representatives to offer services and help answer questions for their customers. The need for these employees is great as more and more companies rely on their support staff to ensure that customers receive help. What They Do: Customer service representatives provide information to customers who have questions about products or services. This job generally involves answering routine questions and processing requests for account information. They also can work in the capacity of answering specific product questions and guide customers to which products to purchase. Customer Service representatives are in contact with the public via telephone systems and computers, and often research account information while on the phone with a customer. Service representatives work extensively with complex telephone systems and often route calls to appropriate representatives with an organization. Training: Most customer service representatives need only a high school diploma for employment. However, many of today?s top companies are looking for employees to have and associates or bachelors degree. Computer skills are necessary to work in customer service. You will need to have not only intermediate computer skills, but also fast and accurate typing abilities. Customer service representatives are required to have good communication skills along with patience, in case of difficult customers. Having a degree is almost necessary if you plan on working as a customer service manager. Facts: About 1 in 8 customer service representatives were employed in administrative and support services. Four States, California, Texas, Florida, and New York, employ 30 percent of customer service representatives. Another 1 in 8 customer service representatives were employed in retail trade establishments such as general merchandise stores, food and beverage stores, or non-store retailers. Median annual earnings for wage and salary customer service representatives is $27,020 Mary Hart is an in-house writer for Online-Degrees-Today.com and has been writing about online business degree programs since 2004. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_Hart
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  • Milly
    Milly
    Thanks for sharing.
  • Denise Jenkins
    Denise Jenkins
    I agree with Maria with the CSR job being sent to another country. I purchased a item on TV and didn't realize the CSR rep. was in another country. The service is terrible all they are interested in is selling more things to you.I hadn't received the first purchase and I was being asked about buying something else. I worked for a well known museum and I would have lost my job if I responded to the customer the way I was spoken to by the CSR'S I spoke too.
  • Maria
    Maria
    Dear Editor and Commenting Fellow CSR's,I agree with you all about the importance of the front line person, us, the Customer Service Representatives. In particular with the comment describing how to retain a customer and retaining loyalty by giving him the difference between two items and keeping him happy.  After all, future purchases are what keep companies in business, extremely important.I am very glad that there are still companies that empower their CSR's to reach resolution in that manner; unfortunately there are not many of those around. I would like to know in which states are those companies mentioned are located; perhaps being a multi-lingual CSR with over 12 years of experience, yet, not able to find a job, may be due to where I live.  The companies described in the comments do not sound like those found living in the real world as I do; I hope I am wrong. The numbers of companies that export their customer service to the Orient keep increasing by the day.  I keep seeing articles similar to yours on the websites of job boards and other sources for job seekers. When the staffing agencies are mentioned it is always in an unrealistic and ideal way portraying them as helping people find jobs. Few are the companies, also called the employers, that still keep their customer service in the USA and even fewer are those that do not play along with the staffing agencies to recycle their CSR crews every couple of months. From my experience searching for a job in the field all sounds very Utopian.
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