2021 Support Career Research
Brought to you by Support Driven & Trek Advisory Group
Salary insights gathered from within our community
With a community of over 9,000+ customer support professionals, Support Driven is dedicated to Customer Support as a career. And we understand that our roles have a direct impact on customer experience, retention, and overall business success.
In order to help YOU succeed within your profession and advance your career in support, we’ve compiled some insights for you from within our community. This mini-report focuses on salary insights and is the first within its series.
This report looks at salary by role, industry, size of the support organization, and tenure. The survey was administered in August 2021 with 70% responses coming from North America, 24% Europe, and 6% across other regions. Of the 236 survey respondents, 58% identify as women, 39% identify as men, and 3% identify as non-binary or third gender.
Three industries lead support salaries.
The survey respondents indicated that 3 industries lead when it comes to salaries: Retail, Consumer Goods, & Travel; Health, Fitness, & Insurance; and Construction, Real Estate, & Manufacturing.
Next year we hope to have additional respondents so that we can validate these initial findings.
What to do with this information:
If you’re looking for a change, explore these various industries. Find a topic, a brand, a product that excites you and learn more about the support roles within the organization. Reach out to those in the community to ask about salary, benefits, and company culture. Use your network to find a fit that works for you.
Those with the higher salaries work for mid-size support teams.
According to our survey participants, those who work for a small organization and those who work for a very large organization make less than their peers. However, salary seems consistent in the middle of the pack.
What to do with this information:
If you’re exploring a company and their support organization, make sure to ask questions about the makeup and size of their support teams. Do they have various roles, and levels of support? Do they have specialized functions? Is there built in career pathing? Answers to these questions can help you determine whether the company would be a good fit.
There are multiple roles within the profession aside from front line support which can lead to higher salaries.
Of the 236 respondents, 96% are in full-time roles. Those working the front lines represent 24% of the response pool, while 47% are in specialized roles, and 29% are in management positions. The median salary of these groups are represented in the image below.
The survey results demonstrate that multiple roles and career paths exist within the support profession. If you love the front lines and helping people solve their problems, excellent! If you want to explore other roles and potentially expand your skill set, options exist. These various roles could help you increase your salary too.
Median Salary By Support Role
What to do with this information:
If you’re interested in exploring these other roles, reach out to those in the community. Learn about the roles and what day to day responsibilities include. There might be a great fit for you!
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