Press Releases

Customer Service Newsletter Releases 2005 Salary and Benchmarking Report

(Boonton, NJ, October 27, 2005) — The rate of growth in compensation for frontline and management service positions has stalled somewhat — especially for those at the lower end of the wage scale according to the Customer Service Newsletter’s just-released report, “Salary, Incentives and Benchmarking Survey Results: 2005.”

That’s not to say that pay rates have declined, just that the rate of increase from one year to the next for most customer service positions has declined.

The survey, conducted online from August 2004 to July 2005, looks at customer service salaries, bonuses and incentives, and at key performance indicators such as wait time, first-call resolution, call abandonment and occupation rates.

On the high end of the customer service pay scale, a vice president of customer service made an average of $112,900 in base pay, representing a 5.9 percent increase over that position’s prior year salary, according to the survey participants. On the low end, entry-level customer service reps earned an average of $24,600 in base salary, representing an increase of only 1.8 percent over the prior year.

The survey, conducted online from August 2004 to July 2005, looks at customer service salaries, bonuses and incentives, and at key performance indicators such as wait time, first-call resolution, call abandonment and occupation rates.

In addition to an increase in base salaries at all levels, important compensation highlights include:

Other important highlights of the survey include the following:

• The average base salary for a customer service rep was $29,300, representing a 3.6 percent annual increase. Last year’s survey reported a 4.6 percent annual increase.
  
• Senior customer service reps earned an average base salary of $34,100, representing an increase of 5.3 percent over their prior year’s earnings. That’s a bright spot — last year senior CSRs saw only a 4.8 percent gain.
  
• Technical service reps are still the gold standard, however, with an average base salary of $38,200, representing a 4 percent increase.
  
• Management and supervisory positions were all reported to have increases in excess of 5.2 percent. Average base salary for a customer service manager was $54,900 and average base salary for a customer service supervisor amounted to $40,700 per year.

The complete report is available for $39.95 from the publisher, the Customer Service Group, at its website http://www.customerservicegroup.com/
csdsr2005.php or by phoning 1-800-232-4317.

About the Customer Service Group

For more than 20 years, the Customer Service Group has helped customer service, call center and help desk managers increase productivity, improve service quality, and boost customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The Customer Service Group publishes Customer Service Newsletter and The Customer Communicator.

Website: http://www.CustomerServiceGroup.com