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Career Description

Interact with customers to provide basic or scripted information in response to routine inquiries about products and services. May handle and resolve general complaints. Excludes individuals whose duties are primarily installation, sales, repair, and technical support.

What Job Titles Customer Service Representatives Might Have

• Account Representative
• Client Services Representative
• Guest Service Agent
• Member Services Representative

What Customer Service Representatives Do

• Confer with customers by telephone or in person to provide information about products or services, take or enter orders, cancel accounts, or obtain details of complaints.
• Keep records of customer interactions or transactions, recording details of inquiries, complaints, or comments, as well as actions taken.
• Check to ensure that appropriate changes were made to resolve customers' problems.
• Contact customers to respond to inquiries or to notify them of claim investigation results or any planned adjustments.
• Determine charges for services requested, collect deposits or payments, or arrange for billing.
• Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.
• Refer unresolved customer grievances to designated departments for further investigation.
• Resolve customers' service or billing complaints by performing activities such as exchanging merchandise, refunding money, or adjusting bills.
• Review insurance policy terms to determine whether a particular loss is covered by insurance.
• Review claims adjustments with dealers, examining parts claimed to be defective, and approving or disapproving dealers' claims.
• Solicit sales of new or additional services or products.
• Compare disputed merchandise with original requisitions and information from invoices and prepare invoices for returned goods.
• Obtain and examine all relevant information to assess validity of complaints and to determine possible causes, such as extreme weather conditions that could increase utility bills.
• Order tests that could determine the causes of product malfunctions.
• Related occupations Recommend improvements in products, packaging, shipping, service, or billing methods and procedures to prevent future problems.

What Customer Service Representatives Should Be Good At

• Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
• Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
• Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
• Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
• Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
• Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
• Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).

What Customer Service Representatives Should Be Interested In

• Enterprising - Enterprising occupations frequently involve starting up and carrying out projects. These occupations can involve leading people and making many decisions. Sometimes they require risk taking and often deal with business.
• Social - Social occupations frequently involve working with, communicating with, and teaching people. These occupations often involve helping or providing service to others.
• Conventional - Conventional occupations frequently involve following set procedures and routines. These occupations can include working with data and details more than with ideas. Usually there is a clear line of authority to follow.

What Customer Service Representatives Need to Learn

• Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
• English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
• Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
• Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
• Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
• Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.