What Do Consumer Services Jobs Pay?

“Instead of focusing on the competition, focus on the customer”

customer services representatives salary and peoples services wages

Scott Cook-the director of eBay

That’s why you can find these jobs in almost every industry. Be it tech, healthcare, hospitality, or ecommerce, client assistance is a must.

Relate: How Many Jobs are Available in Finance Consumer Services?

In turn, customer service officers pay also varies according to the industry, expertise and responsibilities. Besides that, factors like location, organization and your position also affect the income.

According to salary surveys, customer satisfaction jobs pay from $20,000 to $60,000 depending upon the job type and worker’s skills and experience.

In this guide, we have enlisted the median pay for different CSR positions. Also, you will find which skills and job positions pay the highest in the customer support industry.

Consumer Services Jobs (Salary, Skills, Education, and Job description)

What is consumer services industry?

Customer assistance is a multifaceted business sector essential to all B2C companies. By definition, it covers all jobs that involve a direct interaction with customers. The primary job of CS employees is to assist customers with their needs.

In general, following services come under the umbrella of consumer support jobs:

Provide basic guidelines about products

Handle complaints and satisfy customers

Find out appropriate solutions for customer problems

Consumer services income

Generally speaking CS workers make around $37-38k per year and $16-18 per hour.

Usually customer service representatives are paid two ways. Either they have a fixed salary or are paid per hour. And here we are providing an estimate on how much you can make in either of these two ways.

Stats from Glassdoor show that customer service people earn $38, 452 per year on average. And if you are an experienced agent, you can make up to 56k per year. On the other side, average pay per hour for a customer service provider ranges from $15 to $22 depending upon your location and company.

ZipRecruiter catalog infer that national average for US is about $39,098 per year and $19 per hour.

what do consumer services jobs pay

These stats are close to the report of US Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS. According to the BLS, average salary of consumer service representative in USA in 2022 is about $37,780 per year or $18.16 per hour.

What Skills Do You Need For Customer Services?

Education requirements for customer satisfaction jobs are not high. Oftentimes, you can even get a job with a high school certificate.

But you must have certain skills so that you could offer excellent customer experiences and resolve their issues.

Following ten skills will help you make a lucrative career in consumer services industry:

1. Empathy and Friendliness

People services jobs are best for those who find a pleasure in:

Interacting with random people,

Building relationships,

And helping them solve problems.

As these jobs need a lot of communication and direct interaction with people, extroverts have a huge plus.

That does not mean introverts can’t work in consumer services. They can BECAUSE the actual requirement is empathy and not being outgoing.

With an innate desire to help others, consumer services would not be that hard for you. If you deal your clients with empathy, patience and a positive attitude, you can surely have a successful career in this field.

2. Active Listening

The goal of customer support services is to build a good customer relationship. And trust is what gives strength and longevity to any relationship. But you customers will never trust you if you give them attention.

Solution of the problem: Active Listening!

It is a habit that you can build with practice.

Focus your attention to the customer.

Let the customer complete. Don’t interrupt in-between.

As they speak, try to understand their point-of-view.

Give acknowledging comments afterwards and then move on to explaining the possible solutions.

peoples services salaries

3. Problem Solving

People come to support team when they face an issue. Your success in CS sector depends upon your problem solving ability.

Can you understand the customer’s situation?

Can you find out what’s causing them trouble?

How quick you can figure out a solution for the issue?

How effective are your solutions?

All these factors affect your performance scores in client support roles. This makes following attributes essential for this job:

Technical knowledge about company’s products or services

Creative thinking

A willingness to go the extra mile

Good news is you can gain all three with some effort and training.

4. Clear Communication

You must be able to express yourself effectively and ensure the customer understands your message.

That’s because you can only help a person when you understand what they say (by active listening). And also when you can make them understand what you say.

No CSR can be successful if they cannot deliver their points eloquently to the customers. You listened to their problems, paid attention to understand the reason and figured out the best solution. But, these efforts are useless if you cannot describe the solution to that person.

Tips:

Effective communication needs emotional intelligence as well as the technical knowledge about the services or products of the company.

A few tips for better communication are clear voice, friendly tone and using simpler language with less jargon.

5. High Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence is a must-have for a CSR person. Handling complaints and solving problems is mentally demanding.

Good CSR agents know how to stay calm under pressure. The customers can be upset or angry. But you must answer them in a polite, professional, and respectful way.

Read more : Originally Published on CareerBands