Customer Service Career Training and Opportunities

If you have a talent for interacting with a range of different people, training for a career working as a customer service representative could showcase your skills as you earn a healthy paycheck. Learn more about customer service jobs, including the true range of potential careers involved.

Customer Service Representative Employment Opportunities

Customer service goes beyond face-to-face interaction, including communication over telephone, email, instant messenger, and other technologies. Any position in which a representative of the company interfaces with a customer base is related to the field of customer service. Customer service representatives are known by a range of alternate titles, including:

• Client Services Representative
• Customer Service Specialist
• Member Services Representative
• Account Manager
• Hub Associate
• Account Service Representative

Beyond their varying titles, customer service representatives have a very broad work description. Any company with a large customer base benefits from a customer service department, and those departments should be staffed with a trained, knowledgeable group of account managers, hub associates, and more.

Top Businesses for Customer Service Representatives

The following are the industries with the highest amount of customer service representatives, with mean annual salaries from 2008 as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

• Business Support Services: $25,570
• Insurance Carriers: $34,360
• Depository Credit Intermediation: $31,350
• Agencies, Brokerages, and Other Insurance Related Activities: $33,740
• Employment Services: $27,490

Alternative Customer Service Careers

With additional technical training, customer service representatives can specialize in one specific type of customer service. Insurance carriers typically employ a large customer service department to help process claims and questions. Here are a few more types of customer service careers:

• Call Center Representative: One of the more popular types of customer service, call center representatives are customer service representatives who work primarily in an office known as a call center. These workers are equipped with a computer, telephone, and a basic knowledge of company policy and procedures.
• Claims Adjuster: These skilled professionals, also known as claims service representatives, are experts of the insurance companies they represent, processing a claim after an auto accident or storm damage. A high level of customer interaction is expected, making this a high-communication career. Claims adjusters earned mean annual wages of $57,550 in 2008, the BLS reports.

The World's Biggest Customer Service Representative Companies

Businesses often choose to outsource their customer service duties to third-party customer service companies. Here are just a few of the largest customer service companies in the world:

• Teleperformance: Business includes 249 call centers and a presence in 47 countries
• Sitel: Manages 60,000 customer service representatives in 155 facilities throughout North America, South America, and Asia
• ICT Group: Over 18,000 sales and service representatives worldwide in over 40 operations centers

Customer service is a big business. Training for the business with an online degree in customer service gives you the opportunity to enter the industry with confidence. Whether you wish to remain close to home or travel abroad, it's likely a customer service center will exist nearby to fill your career needs.

Online Customer Service Degrees

Earning your degree or certificate in customer service means completing targeted training for a career with a broad range of applications. Coursework might include technical aspects of call center customer service, basic psychology of customer complaint resolution, proper documentation procedures, and more.

Complete an online degree to become an account services representative and enjoy the confidence to enter the field with the technical and communication skills you can use to advance. With an online degree program, you should have the targeted training you need.