Work Environment

Customer service representatives held about 2.9 million jobs in 2020. The largest employers of customer service representatives were as follows:

Retail trade - 14%
Insurance carriers and related activities - 13%
Business support services - 10%
Wholesale trade - 7%
Professional, scientific, and technical services 6%

Customer service representatives are employed in nearly every industry. Representatives in offices may work in a large room alongside other employees, so the area can be noisy. Working from home is also possible in some companies. Representatives may be under pressure to answer a designated number of calls while supervisors monitor them for quality assurance. In addition, the work may be stressful when representatives must interact with dissatisfied customers

In retail stores, representatives may spend hours on their feet assisting customers in person.

Work Schedules

Although most customer service representatives work full time, some work part time. Customer service representatives often need to work during busy times, which may include evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Jobs in call centers may require representatives to work shifts early in the morning or late at night because some call centers are open 24 hours a day.

Job Outlook

Employment of customer service representatives is projected to show little or no change from 2020 to 2030.

Despite limited employment growth, about 361,700 openings for customer service representatives are projected each year, on average, over the decade. Most of those openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to different occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

Employment

There is expected to be less demand for customer service representatives, especially in retail trade, as their tasks continue to be automated. Self-service systems, social media, and mobile applications enable customers to do simple tasks without interacting with a representative. Advancements in technology will gradually allow these automated systems to do even more tasks. Some companies will continue to use in-house service centers to differentiate themselves from competitors, particularly for complex inquiries such as refunding accounts or confirming insurance coverage.

However, jobs for customer service representatives are projected to be added in business support services, which includes telephone call centers. Some businesses will contract out their customer service operations to telephone call centers that provide consolidated sales and customer service functions.

Earnings

The median hourly wage for customer service representatives was $17.75 in May 2021. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $12.67, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $28.19.

In May 2021, the median hourly wages for customer service representatives in the top industries in which they worked were as follows:

Wholesale trade - $19.76
Insurance carriers and related activities - $18.29
Professional, scientific, and technical services - $18.13
Business support services - $14.44
Retail trade - $14.34

Jobs in call centers may require representatives to work shifts early in the morning or late at night because some call centers are open 24 hours a day.