---
title: "Customer Service Representative"
description: "Interact with customers to provide basic or scripted information in response to routine inquiries about products and services. May handle and resolve…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/customer-service-representative"
last-updated: "2026-08-23T15:56:39.581Z"
---

# Customer Service Representative

**Category:** Office and Administrative Support · **SOC code:** 43-4051 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 43-4051.00

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.

Also advertised as: Account Representative; Call Center Representative; Client Services Representative; Customer Care Representative (CCR); Customer Service Agent; Customer Service Representative (CSR); Customer Service Specialist; Customer Support Representative (Customer Support Rep).

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $44,770 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $21.53/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $31,750 to $63,590, with the middle half between $36,870 and $51,780
- **Total US employment:** 2,595,750
- **Typical entry education:** High school
- **Preparation required:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** -5.5% over 2024–2034 (BLS EP, 2024–2034)
- **Annual job openings:** 341,700 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 30/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 2,595,750 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $31,750 |
| 25th | $36,870 |
| 50th (median) | $44,770 |
| 75th | $51,780 |
| 90th | $63,590 |
| Mean (average) | $46,590 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $50,330 | $47,032 | 39,760 |
| CA | $49,560 | $44,762 | 176,850 |
| MA | $49,120 | $46,446 | 49,990 |
| MN | $48,800 | $49,482 | 53,340 |
| DC | $48,250 | $43,903 | 7,550 |
| DE | $48,190 | $48,283 | 7,470 |
| CT | $48,090 | $46,414 | 24,490 |
| NY | $48,000 | $44,477 | 141,090 |
| NJ | $47,740 | $43,877 | 59,690 |
| RI | $47,550 | $46,490 | 7,890 |
| CO | $47,540 | $46,132 | 38,770 |
| VT | $47,500 | $48,490 | 2,870 |
| OR | $47,450 | $45,907 | 19,440 |
| NH | $47,300 | $45,409 | 12,750 |
| ME | $47,160 | $48,594 | 7,560 |

39 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 54 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/customer-service-representative/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/customer-service-representative.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 2,814,000 in the 2024–2034 base year to 2,660,300 by the end of the cycle — a loss of 153,700 jobs, or -5.5%. Declining: -5.5% against 3.1% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 341,700 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2024–2034.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** High school diploma or equivalent (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Little or no preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone 1-2: Very Little to Some Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Short-term on-the-job training.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| High School Diploma | 54.8% |
| Some College Courses | 17.4% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 14.2% |
| Associate's Degree (or other 2-year degree) | 13.7% |

## What the work involves

- 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.
- Refer unresolved customer grievances to designated departments for further investigation.
- 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.
- Keep records of customer interactions or transactions, recording details of inquiries, complaints, or comments, as well as actions taken.
- Complete contract forms, prepare change of address records, or issue service discontinuance orders, using computers.
- Determine charges for services requested, collect deposits or payments, or arrange for billing.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administrative — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Recognition — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speech Clarity — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Conventional (C), Enterprising (E), Social (S).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| C — Conventional | 6.32 |
| E — Enterprising | 5.08 |
| S — Social | 3.77 |
| R — Realistic | 1.97 |
| I — Investigative | 1.63 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 84.5 |
| ESTJ | 80.3 |
| ISFJ | 72.7 |
| ISTJ | 62.2 |
| ENFJ | 61.3 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ, ESTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Sales Representative of Services, Except Advertising, Insurance, Financial Services, and Travel](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sales-representative-of-services) — median $69,990
- [Telemarketer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/telemarketer) — median $35,450
- [Insurance Claim and Policy Processing Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/insurance-claim-and-policy-processing-clerk) — median $49,230
- [Credit Authorizer, Checker, and Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/credit-authorizer-checker-and-clerk) — median $50,080
- [New Accounts Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/new-accounts-clerk) — median $47,670
- [Receptionist and Information Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/receptionist-and-information-clerk) — median $38,010
- [Billing and Posting Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/billing-and-posting-clerk) — median $48,500
- [Brokerage Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/brokerage-clerk) — median $65,750
- [Bill and Account Collector](https://nuecareer.com/careers/bill-and-account-collector) — median $47,030
- [Order Clerk](https://nuecareer.com/careers/order-clerk) — median $46,170

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 30.3 Database, May 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2024–2034. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2024–2034 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 30.3 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/customer-service-representative