Hire a customer service virtual assistant
Email, live chat and help desk tickets answered kindly and on time, during your hours. Every rep here passed an English test, a typing test and a customer support quiz before you see them.
Browsing and the AI shortlist are free.
What customer support reps cost
- Freelance rate, worldwide
- $10–19/hr
Typical range for customer service reps on past Upwork contracts. Upwork (opens in a new tab), checked Oct 2026
- Full-time salary in the Philippines
- $400–900/month
Beginner $400–600 to expert $700–900, as workers report them. OnlineJobs.ph salary guide (opens in a new tab), updated April 2026
- US employee wage, median
- $21.53/hr
Customer service representatives, $44,770 a year. US Bureau of Labor Statistics (opens in a new tab), May 2025 data
What a customer support rep does
- Email and live chat replies
- Help desk tickets in tools like Zendesk, Gorgias or Freshdesk
- Refunds, returns and order tracking
- Saved replies and help articles for common questions
- Passing bugs and billing problems to your team
- Covering nights and weekends in your time zone
How we test customer support reps
- English
- Read a client's email, answer five questions about it and write a reply of 80 to 150 words. AI grades the reply for grammar, clarity, tone and whether it answers the email. The result is a CEFR band from A2 to C2 with a score out of 100.
- Typing
- A 60-second passage written like a reply to a customer about a late order. Scored on words per minute and accuracy, with 5 characters counted as a word. Only correct characters count.
- Customer support quiz
- Six situations from a support queue, like an angry customer with a late order, a refund outside the policy window and 40 open tickets, plus a short written reply to a customer who was charged twice. Scored out of 100.
- ID check
- A person on our team checks a government ID against a selfie. The images are deleted after review.
Joshua V.
Customer support, Philippines
- English C2
- 86
- Typing
- 78wpm
- Customer support quiz
- 88
Tested customer support reps on StaffPick
Live profiles. Each person passed the tests above, and we reviewed the profile before it went live.
A US Eastern 9-to-5 is 10 pm to 6 am in Manila, 3 pm to 11 pm in Lagos and 9 am to 5 pm in Bogotá (on EST). A Sydney 9-to-5 is 7 am to 3 pm in Manila (AEST). Every profile shows which business hours the person covers.
IANA time zone database (opens in a new tab), checked Oct 2026
Questions about hiring a customer support rep
Still unsure? Contact us. A person reads every message.
Keep reading
- Customer support outsourcing for small businessA dedicated remote support rep costs $10 to $19 an hour on Upwork, or $400 to $900 a month full-time in the Philippines. Options, hours and a 30-day plan.
- How much does a virtual assistant cost in 2026?A full-time virtual assistant costs about $480 to $2,000 a month hired direct in the Philippines, or $999 and up through an agency. Rates by country and role.
- Virtual assistant cost calculatorMonthly cost by role, country, hours and how you hire, from published rates.
- Upwork, Fiverr and OnlineJobs.ph comparedTheir published fees, and when each one is the better choice.
- All role guidesTen roles, each with cited rates and the tests every person passes.