what is a customer advisor?
As a customer advisor, you speak directly with customers. If there is any question, complaint, or comment, you work with the customer to resolve the issues. Some customer advisors work with physical contact, that is, face-to-face with customers in a shop or restaurant. Others communicate with customers online or over the phone. Since customers rely on customer support to get answers to various questions, you need to be available, open, knowledgeable, and willing to listen and help. Those who work as customer advisors tend to take their work seriously and do their best to offer good service to customers.
Remember that customer advisors do not just represent themselves. They represent the entire company in every interaction with customers. As a customer advisor, you therefore need to show great patience, understanding, and a willingness to listen to customers who come in with complaints or feedback about the company, products, or service. Some customer advisors work exclusively with handling complaints by phone.
As a customer advisor, you can work in a variety of fields, including sales, retail, the automotive industry, healthcare, the restaurant sector, and education. Since many companies interact with customers in one way or another, the role of customer advisor is often needed.
Would a job as a customer advisor suit your ability to be an active listener and your interest in providing excellent service? Then read on to find out what skills and qualifications are required to succeed in a customer advisor role.
customer advisor jobsaverage salary as a customer advisor.
In many companies, customer advisor is a job that does not require extensive education or work experience. The most important thing is that the personal qualities match and that you are good at your job. To be able to answer questions about the company, products, and services, you usually need to complete some form of internal training.
This means that customer advisor is a good entry-level job, but the salary is somewhat lower in a junior role. Some customer advisors take on more responsibility and may even have other customer service employees working under them. In such cases, there are better opportunities to negotiate a higher salary. The salary range for a customer advisor is between 25,000kr and 32,000kr per month.
what factors influence the salary for a customer advisor?
In many companies, a customer advisor plays an important role, since it is common for businesses to need to stay in contact with their customers after deals are completed. This requires someone who can handle complaints, questions, and feedback from customers. A customer advisor with greater responsibility may have better chances of earning a higher salary. It is also an advantage to have a more complex role. Some customer advisors also work to try to win back dissatisfied customers who call in to cancel their service, subscription, or membership. In these cases, as a customer advisor, you can work to make the customer satisfied and happy, and encourage them to keep their subscription.
In some roles, a customer advisor may have a commission-based salary model, which generates a higher salary. Otherwise, it always matters which industry you work in, as the general salary level is higher in some industries than others. The same applies to the geographical location, where metropolitan regions often have a higher salary level.
different roles of customer advisor.
In practice, the term "customer advisor" can refer to a range of different roles and jobs. But generally speaking, the most common roles are the following:
- Customer advisor with in-person meetings: Some companies have customer advisors who work either with outreach activities or with in-person meetings at the office. In this role, you welcome customers and answer questions, hoping to resolve their problems or frustrations. You also refer customers to the right people for their specific matters.
- Customer advisor over the phone: It is by far most common for customer advisors to work over the phone when they are in contact with customers. Call centers with customer advisors help answer the customer's questions, concerns, and problems. Mainly, the job involves answering incoming calls, but as a customer advisor you may also need to call customers to follow up on service cases.
- Customer advisor in social media: If you are responsible for being a customer advisor in the company's social media, you keep an eye on all social channels and the comments and feedback that come in there. You create posts on the company's pages and respond to questions or thoughts that come in via the comment fields or message chat.
working as a customer advisor.
Working as a customer advisor means interacting with customers on different platforms. To succeed in the role of customer advisor, you need to be committed and a good listener.
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work tasks and areas of responsibility
Some common tasks in the role of customer advisor:
- Handle customer cases: Your main task as a customer advisor is to answer customers' questions and concerns. You manage different cases on a variety of platforms, such as live chats, social media, and email. It is also common for you to answer calls from different customers over the phone.
- Give support and detailed product and service information: In the role of customer advisor you need to provide thorough and clear support to customers. Therefore you need to be informed and knowledgeable about the company's various products and services. If a product in the company's portfolio changes you need to stay updated and then inform customers, as well as explain different services.
- Building relationships with customers: It is important to build relationships as a customer advisor, because it makes it easier to communicate with customers and ensures higher customer satisfaction. Having a dialogue with customers and solving their problems will build greater loyalty from customers.
- Assist customers in various purchasing decisions: Part of the job as a customer advisor is to help customers with certain purchasing decisions. That’s why it’s good if you have a sales instinct when you work as a customer advisor. You give advice to customers about products by explaining how they work, which should make the decision process faster and easier for the customer.
- Administrative tasks: In the job as a customer advisor, there are quite a few administrative tasks, such as writing reports. For example, you need to assist with payments from or to customers who have been in contact with the company's customer service. You also update customer information in the database.
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work environment
Some customer advisors work directly at a call center or in a shop. Most of your day is spent sitting at your desk in the office. Some customer advisors can work from home, and remote work is becoming increasingly common. At the same time, there are customer advisors who work with in-person meetings and need to be present in a shop, a showroom, or at the office to meet customers.
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your colleagues
There are customer advisors in many different industries and since many employers hire customer advisors, your colleagues will vary depending on what your position looks like. It is not uncommon for customer advisors to work closely with the sales and marketing department. Sales assistants, salesperson and other sales managers are colleagues you will interact with daily, including to share feedback received from customers.
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work schedule
If you work as a customer advisor with many in-person customer meetings, you usually work the same hours as the company is open. However, if you work as a customer advisor in an office, where you use phone, email, and live chat to answer questions from customers, you may need to work evenings and weekends as well.
Some companies want high availability to be able to answer customer questions at any time. Therefore, it is not uncommon for customer advisors to work in shifts and with a rotating schedule, which means you work certain hours one week and different hours the next week.
In many cases, customer advisor is a full-time job, but there are also many customer advisors who work part-time or have a temporary position. The reason is that the need for customer advisors is sometimes around the clock, and several days a week, including weekends. This means that the demand for staff is high and that customer advisor is a good job to combine with, for example, studies. It also means that there may be good opportunities to work overtime for those who want to work extra.
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future prospects
There are companies that rely entirely on FAQ sections (question/answer) on their websites, letting customers search for the most common questions and their answers themselves. It is also becoming common to use various AI-powered chatbots that answer questions from customers. But most customers still appreciate being able to talk to someone in person. That’s why there is still a great need for customer advisors at many companies. Companies that choose not to have human customer advisors risk losing customers who prefer personal service elsewhere.
In the role of customer advisor, you need to get used to handling irritated or upset customers who call and present various complaints. This makes your role important for the company, to ensure increased customer satisfaction and to avoid losing customers. Those who are skilled as customer advisors can advance further within the company. At the same time, customer advisor is a good job both for those who want to work full-time and those looking for a part-time position. It is also possible to work as consultant at some consulting firm to get the opportunity to work at different companies.
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benefits of finding an open job as a customer advisor through randstad
There are many advantages to finding an open job as a customer advisor through Randstad.
- various development and career opportunities
- an experienced contact person who can help you when needed
- many open jobs within your area
- full-time or part-time work depending on the job/assignment
Do you want a permanent position as a customer advisor? A temporary position or substitute job as a customer advisor is often a good first step towards a permanent job. Every year, several people get a permanent position with employers thanks to a temporary job that has come through us at Randstad. In addition, many companies recruit their permanent employees directly through Randstad.
education and qualifications.
There are rarely any specific educational requirements to get a job as a customer advisor, but there are some alternative paths you can take to increase your chances of getting a job as a customer advisor.
- College or university: Studying an academic program is a qualification for many jobs, especially if you have studied an academic program related to the industry you work in. If you have ambitions to advance in your career and take on more responsibility, an academic background is important.
- Upper secondary education: At many companies, upper secondary education is enough to get a job as a customer advisor. There you learn the basics needed to do the job.
- Internal training: At most workplaces, you receive internal training before you start working as a customer advisor. Since a good knowledge of the company's operations, products, and services is required before you can help the company's customers in the best way.
- Work experience: If you have experience from working life, either from an internship or in the form of employment, it is also an advantage when you want to work as a customer advisor.
knowledge and skills.
Some important skills needed to succeed in a customer advisor role:
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be an active listener
Being a good listener is essential for working as a customer advisor. You need to be attentive and responsive, so you can address problems and suggest solutions. It becomes difficult if you haven't managed to get an accurate picture of the problem.
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empathy
Many customers want to hear how the customer advisor understands how they feel. That’s why it’s important to show empathy and understand people’s emotions. Your empathy will also give customers a good impression of you and the company. It will make it much easier to find a workable solution for everyone involved in a case.
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problem-solving skills
In the role of customer advisor, it is important to be solution-oriented and open to trying new approaches. At work, you will hear many different problems from customers and you need to listen carefully, then offer concrete suggestions for solutions. You will then guide the customer through the entire process and refer customers to the relevant parties.
frequently asked questions about working as a customer advisor.
Here are the most frequently asked questions about working as a customer advisor.
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what makes a good customer advisor?
A good customer advisor arrives at work on time, answers customers' questions correctly, and provides service that is both efficient and friendly. These are positive employees who manage to keep a cool head even in stressful situations.
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what qualifications are required to become a customer advisor?
No specific qualifications or educational credentials are required to become a customer advisor, but work experience and at least upper secondary education are considered an advantage. Additionally, you need to be proficient in Swedish, or the language you will use for work. In some cases, you are required to master the language both in writing and speaking. As a newly hired customer advisor, you often receive internal training to learn more about the workplace and the company's various products or services.
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what is a customer advisor?
A customer advisor works in customer support at a company and helps customers, either during in-person meetings or over the phone. Some customer advisors also work with digital channels such as live chat, email, and social media to assist customers. The job tasks include handling complaints, suggesting improvements, providing information about products or services, and referring customers further. It is the customer advisor's job to make customers more satisfied and help with whatever is needed.
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how do i apply for an open position as customer advisor?
It's easy to apply for a job as a customer advisor. Search among our open jobs in your area. then submit your CV and your personal letter or apply via LinkedIn.
If you need help with your job application, you can read all our guides job tips here!
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