Torchora
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customer service advisor

title: Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Customer Service Advisor
salary: $28,000 - $45,000 per year
categories: ["Customer Service", "Support", "Call Center", "Client Relations"]
description: A comprehensive overview of the key responsibilities, required technical skills and professional background for the role of a Customer Service Advisor.
Recruiter-style, SEO-optimized role brief for a Customer Service Advisor.
Ideal for candidate search, job boards, and applicant-tracking systems: emphasizes multi-channel customer support, CRM proficiency, KPIs (CSAT, FCR, AHT), escalation management, and strong communication skills. Suitable for retail, e-commerce, SaaS, and contact center environments.

🎯 Role Definition

The Customer Service Advisor is the front-line ambassador for the company, responsible for delivering excellent, timely and accurate support across phone, email, live chat and social channels. This role resolves customer inquiries and complaints, processes orders and returns, documents interactions in the CRM, drives first contact resolution (FCR) and contributes to continuous improvement initiatives. The ideal candidate balances empathy with efficiency, works to quality and performance targets (CSAT, AHT, SLA), and collaborates with product, operations and logistics teams to improve the overall customer experience.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Customer Service Assistant / Call Center Agent
  • Retail Sales Associate or Store Representative
  • Receptionist or Front-of-House Customer Support

Advancement To:

  • Senior Customer Service Advisor / Specialist
  • Team Leader / Supervisor (Customer Support)
  • Customer Service Manager or Operations Manager
  • Quality Assurance Analyst or Workforce Planner

Lateral Moves:

  • Sales Representative / Account Executive
  • Technical Support Specialist
  • Client Success or Onboarding Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Answer high volumes of inbound customer enquiries across phone, email, live chat and social media with a professional, friendly tone while meeting established service level agreements (SLAs) and average handling time (AHT) targets.
  • Diagnose and resolve product, billing, shipping, and technical issues by asking pertinent questions, walking customers through troubleshooting steps, and escalating complex cases appropriately to engineering or specialist teams.
  • Record detailed, accurate and timely case notes in the CRM (e.g., Salesforce, Zendesk, Freshdesk), ensuring proper tagging, categorization and follow-up reminders so colleagues can pick up open issues efficiently.
  • Own customer complaints from receipt to resolution: acknowledge issues, investigate root causes, propose and execute fair remedies (refunds, replacements, credits), and close the loop to restore customer satisfaction.
  • Achieve and maintain KPI targets including First Contact Resolution (FCR), Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT), Net Promoter Score (NPS), Average Handling Time (AHT), and adherence to schedule.
  • Process orders, returns, exchanges and refunds in the company systems quickly and accurately while verifying customer identity and adherence to returns policy and compliance requirements.
  • Proactively identify trends in customer feedback and ticket queues, report recurring issues to product and operations teams, and contribute to cross-functional problem-solving initiatives.
  • Provide accurate product, pricing and policy information and advise customers on selecting the right solutions, including upsell or cross-sell opportunities when appropriate and aligned with customer needs.
  • Handle confidential customer information securely and in compliance with data protection regulations (e.g., GDPR), company privacy policies and internal security protocols.
  • Escalate urgent or high-risk cases (safety issues, legal concerns, major outages) to supervisors and maintain appropriate communication with stakeholders until resolution.
  • Collaborate closely with logistics and fulfilment teams to track shipments, manage exceptions, and proactively notify customers of delays, stock issues or order modifications.
  • Participate in regular quality assurance reviews and apply QA feedback to continuously improve communication style, accuracy and compliance with scripts and templates.
  • Contribute to and update the knowledge base and FAQ content with clear step-by-step solutions, troubleshooting guides and process notes to reduce repeat contacts and speed up agent onboarding.
  • Manage multiple cases concurrently while prioritizing urgent issues, ensuring SLA compliance and minimizing customer wait time during peak periods or product launches.
  • Support onboarding of new hires and shadowing programs to share best practices, model call handling and assist with role-specific coaching and feedback.
  • Deliver empathetic, patient and culturally sensitive service to diverse customer groups, adapting communication style for different ages, regions and technical literacy levels.
  • Participate in scheduled training on new products, promotions and policy changes to maintain up-to-date expertise and consistent messaging.
  • Conduct outbound follow-ups to confirm resolution, seek additional information, collect feedback and close cases where proactive outreach improves customer outcomes and retention.
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of promotions, warranties, carrier policies and partner SLAs to provide accurate guidance and avoid miscommunication.
  • Support shift handovers by summarizing outstanding issues, pending escalations and special instructions to maintain continuity of service across 24/7 or multi-shift operations.
  • Execute payment adjustments, fraud checks and account changes in accordance with finance controls, fraud prevention guidelines and audit requirements.
  • Monitor social media and online review channels for urgent customer mentions, coordinate with the digital team for public responses and escalate reputational risks immediately to management.
  • Use scripting and call guides as required while also personalizing interactions to build rapport and trust with customers, striking the right balance between consistency and connection.

Secondary Functions

  • Assist with ad-hoc reporting requests and provide frontline insight for customer experience metrics and trend analysis to inform product and marketing decisions.
  • Play an active role in root-cause analysis projects and cross-functional kaizen events to reduce repeat contacts and improve end-to-end processes.
  • Provide feedback and suggestions to product, UX and logistics teams based on frequent customer pain points and feature requests.
  • Help maintain and refine internal process documentation, SOPs and escalation matrices to increase team accuracy and reduce handling time.
  • Support targeted outreach campaigns (surveys, re-engagement, recall notices) and log responses accurately for CRM segmentation and follow-up.
  • Participate in intermittent quality audits, compliance checks and training exercises to uphold regulatory standards and internal controls.
  • Cover for team leads or senior advisors when required, including taking on simple schedule adjustments, coaching moments and daily operational tasks.
  • Collaborate with marketing on FAQ updates, content clarifications and inbound campaign readiness to ensure consistent public messaging.
  • Assist with basic data entry, verification and reconciliation tasks for orders, credits and customer records.
  • Contribute to pilot programs for new support channels (chatbots, SMS, WhatsApp) by testing workflows, providing user feedback and suggesting improvements.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • CRM systems: proven experience using Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk, Freshdesk, Microsoft Dynamics or similar for ticket management, case routing, and customer record updates.
  • Multi-channel support: demonstrated ability to handle phone, email, live chat and social media enquiries with consistent quality and SLA adherence.
  • Troubleshooting fundamentals: technical diagnostic skills for product and service issues, including knowledge transfer of common fixes and escalation criteria.
  • Call center telephony and workforce management tools: familiarity with VoIP systems, ACD queues, call recording platforms and schedule adherence tools.
  • Data entry & documentation: accurate case note writing, tagging, categorization, and use of templates or macros to speed resolution.
  • Billing and order management: processing payments, refunds, order modifications and issuing credits while complying with fraud prevention controls.
  • Performance metrics: practical understanding of CSAT, NPS, FCR, AHT and how daily behaviors impact these KPIs.
  • Microsoft Office / Google Workspace: solid skills in Outlook/Gmail, Excel/Sheets for basic reporting, tracking and ad-hoc analysis.
  • Knowledge base and content editing: editing FAQs, troubleshooting articles and internal KB content for clarity and searchability.
  • Compliance & data protection: working knowledge of GDPR, PCI-DSS basics or industry-specific regulatory requirements as applicable.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional verbal and written communication with the ability to explain complex information simply.
  • Empathy and active listening: demonstrates patience, emotional intelligence and the ability to de-escalate upset customers.
  • Problem solving and critical thinking: quickly identifies root cause, weighs options and implements effective solutions.
  • Time management and prioritization: juggle multiple tickets and channels while meeting SLAs and handling urgent issues.
  • Resilience and stress tolerance: performs reliably during high-volume periods and unforeseen incidents.
  • Teamwork and collaboration: shares knowledge, supports colleagues and contributes positively to team morale.
  • Adaptability and learning agility: quickly adopt new tools, scripts, product updates and shifting priorities.
  • Attention to detail: accurate documentation and compliance with financial and privacy controls.
  • Customer-centric mindset: consistently advocates for the customer while balancing business constraints.
  • Coaching and mentoring: ability to support new hires and provide constructive feedback during shadowing or training sessions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:
High school diploma or equivalent; strong communication skills and customer service aptitude required.

Preferred Education:
Associate degree or Bachelor’s degree in Business, Communications, Hospitality, IT or related fields; customer service certifications (e.g., HDI, COPC, CX certifications) are advantageous.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Communications / Public Relations
  • Hospitality Management
  • Information Technology (for technical support roles)
  • Psychology or Sociology (useful for customer behavior understanding)

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 1–5 years in customer-facing roles; 0–2 years for entry-level Advisor roles, 2+ years preferred for mid-level positions.

Preferred: 2+ years experience in a contact center, e-commerce support, retail customer service or SaaS helpdesk with demonstrable experience using CRM platforms, meeting KPIs (CSAT, FCR), and handling escalations. Bilingual applicants and those with prior experience in regulated industries (finance, healthcare) are highly desirable.

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