The Salary of a Customer Service Specialist in Video Games
Customer service specialists based in the United States are rarer than they once were due to outsourcing to Asia. Those still based in the U.S., especially in the video game industry, can make near mid-five figure salaries while helping customers troubleshoot game and console problems.
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Job Description
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Customer service specialists in any industry address customer concerns either over the phone or online. In the video game industries, they help gamers troubleshoot both video game software and hardware. Customer service specialists report game glitches, handle warranty claims and issue replacement software or hardware as necessary. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, customer service specialists were employed in two aspects of the video game industry, either by software publishers -- the companies that make the games -- or computer systems design and related services -- game console manufacturers.
Average Salary
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Customer service specialists in the video game industry made the same average salary whether they were employed by the software publisher or the game console manufacturer. In 2010, the average salary was $38,740 per year, or $18.62 an hour, $10 less than 75th percentile of national customer service wages. The median, or 50th percentile, wage was $17.80 per hour in the software industry, a 4.6 percent difference according to the BLS reports. In the game console design industry, the median wage was $16.85 per hour, 10.5 percent less than the mean, suggesting a few highly paid specialists raised the mean away from the typical salary.
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Industry Comparisons
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Customer service specialists offering support in the video game industry fared very well when compared to their peers in other industries. The most common industry in 2010 for customer service specialists was business support services with a mean income of $26,820 per year. The second most common employer was insurance carriers who paid an average salary of $35,450 per year. Wireless telecommunications carriers paid their customer service specialists $34,100 per year on average, but it was the pipeline transportation of natural gas that paid the highest mean income at $57,270 per year, says the BLS.
Location Matters
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As with nearly any profession or industry, location changes the average wage, sometimes drastically. For example, Texas had the highest employment of all types of customer service specialists with an average income of $30,300 per year. California came in second with a salary of $38,140 on average. In nearby Utah, the mean income was $28,400 per year. The District of Columbia paid the highest average salary to customer service specialists at $39,800 annually, according to the BLS.
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References
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: May 2010 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates NAICS 511200 - Software Publishers
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: May 2010 National Industry-Specific Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates NAICS 541500 - Computer Systems Design and Related Services
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2010 43-4051 Customer Service Representatives
Resources
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