cover letter for cv customer service

Customer Service Cover Letter Samples and Writing Tips

 Julie Bang / The Balance

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Customer Service Cover Letter Sample

• Customer Service Email Cover Letter

How to Send an Email Cover Letter

Review more cover letter samples.

If you're hoping to land an interview for a customer service job, you need a cover letter that demonstrates the  customer service skills  and experience required for the role. To find out which qualifications are most important, analyze the job listing, paying close attention to the keywords in the description.

What you read may surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, not every  customer-facing role  requires extreme extroversion. Empathy, tact, and communication skills may be more important for success. Knowledge of specific products and software packages may also be useful.

A good cover letter will hook the hiring manager's attention and demonstrate the value you'd bring to the role.

Here's information on what to include in a cover letter for a customer service role, how to format the letter, a template to download, and examples of cover letters to review.

What to Include in a Customer Service Cover Letter

• Demonstrate your specific customer service-related skills and experience. You're trying not only to get the hiring manager's attention but to indicate that you understand what is required for the role.
• Highlight  soft skills  like listening, conflict resolution, empathy, and depersonalization (i.e., the ability to provide caring customer service while not telling the customer your life story).
• Include hard skills like software programs specific to the job.

How to Format a Cover Letter

A cover letter for a customer service job should also have all the usual elements of a good cover letter, including:

• Contact information: your name, address, phone number, email address, and so on.
• A  salutation : Ideally, follow your greeting with the name of a contact at the company – either the hiring manager or a representative from human resources. If you do not have a contact, you can leave off the salutation, or include a general one, such as "To Whom It May Concern."
• The cover letter body, including a grabby first paragraph that draws the reader in and hooks them with your skills and experience, and supporting paragraphs that show that you know what the company is looking for and that you can provide it.
• A closing paragraph , summarizing your skills and how you'd use them to solve the company's problems and contribute to its success.
• A closer, e.g., "sincerely" or "best regards." Here's more information on how to close a cover letter, with examples.

This is a customer service cover letter example. Download the customer service cover letter template (compatible with Google Docs and Word Online) or see below for more examples.

Customer Service Cover Letter Sample (Text Version)

The following is an example of a cover letter for a customer service position. Also see below for more cover letter samples, and tips for emailing a cover letter and resume.

Tammy Applicant 123 Main Street Anytown, CA 12345 555-555-5555 tammy.applicant@email.com

February 16, 2022

Ophelia Lee Human Resources Acme Windows 123 Business Rd. Business City, NY 54321

Dear Ms. Lee,

In today's customer service oriented society, timely, friendly, proactive service is sought to enhance future business growth. Customer loyalty is always impacted when you employ the right service professional to represent you when assisting your valued customers.

My long-term experience in the service industry has taught me how to meet and exceed each customer's expectations with service that sells. I have assisted all types of customers in all types of settings. I realize that acquiring and maintaining loyal repeat business as well as spreading the word of your business through these loyal patrons is of the utmost importance in every company.

Positioning a company for better exposure and greater marketability is a task that I have performed with success many times. I am an excellent trainer who achieves ongoing success with her teams by building morale, maintaining teams' self-confidence, and training them to build the sale by improving their people skills.

It would be a pleasure to interview with you, and I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Very sincerely,

Signature (hard copy letter)

Your Typed Name

Customer Service Email Cover Letter Sample

Subject Line: Anna Smith – Sales Associate

Dear Ms. Parker,

I was excited to see your LinkedIn advertisement for a sales associate at Parker Gifts, Inc. I consider it a privilege to help customers select the perfect gift. In my current job at The Little Gift Shop, I provide gift recommendations, help coordinate deliveries and fulfill online orders, and manage all aspects of the customer experience from greeting to follow up.

In my seven years as a sales associate, I’ve acquired extensive knowledge of point-of-sale systems including Shopify and Intuit Quickbooks. I’m known for my calm and cheerful demeanor, and excel at defusing tense situations with customers. I truly believe that the best sales associate is one who listens.

I’d love to hear more about the role and what you’re looking for in a sales associate. You can reach me via phone at 555-123-4567 or email at anna.smith@email.com.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.

Phone: 555-123-4567 Email: anna.smith@email.com

• Choose an appropriate subject line  for your email cover letter. To avoid your message getting stuck in a spam filter or lost in a crowded inbox, make sure your topic is clear. Include your name and the job title in the subject line of the email message.
• Omit the address paragraphs and date.  Instead, include your contact info in your email signature.
• Keep your message concise and to the point.  Aim for three well-crafted paragraphs, and consider adding bullet points with your most impressive skills and experience.
• Include an  email signature  with your email address, phone number, and LinkedIn or portfolio URL.
• Proofread and test your message before sending it.  Your message should be free of typos, grammatical errors, and formatting problems. Email yourself a test copy before you send the final draft to the hiring manager.

Review sample cover letters for a variety of circumstances, including a follow-up letter, inquiry letters, job/industry specific sample cover letters, all-purpose cover letters, cold contact, and referral letter samples.

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Customer service representative cover letter templates

The importance of a customer service cover letter, how to title your customer service cover letter.

This will let potential employers know that you’re serious about the customer service position and it will help them find your letter when searching through applications.

Customer service cover letter title examples

What to write in a customer service cover letter.

Then, in the second paragraph, describe your skills and experience in customer service. Be specific and include examples of times when you’ve gone above and beyond for customers.

What to include in a customer service cover letter

Customer service cover letter examples, title: [role] – [your name], title: [role] – [your name], [contact information], title: [your name] – [role], [contact information], title: customer service representative cover letter – [your name], title: cover letter for [role] – [your name], title: [your name] – cover letter, good practices for writing a customer service cover letter.

How to handle your customers' issues? Use our customer complaint handling procedure checklist to ensure everything is taken care of.

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LiveAgent is a help desk solution that connects multiple channels in one interface. Find out more about LiveAgent and its business/industry benefits.

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Try all communication channels while your LiveAgent is ready.

• Customer service CV examples

Landing a customer service job can be tough.

If you want to beat the competition, you need an impressive customer service CV to grab recruiters’ attention and stand out from the crowd.

This guide (Which includes 3 customer service CV examples ) will show you step-by-step how you can create a winning customer service CV and get the job you want.

Guide contents

• How to write your customer service CV
• What skills do customer service staff need?
• Checking your CV

Customer service CV example

Customer service manager CV example

Bank customer service CV example

The above example CV should give you a good idea of how a customer service CV should look , and the type of information it should contain.

Now, I will explain how you can create your own CV tailored to your unique situation.

Structuring your customer service CV

The structure of your CV is extremely important because it will determine how easy it is for recruiters and employers to read your CV, and find the information they need.

A simple and logical structure will always create a better reading experience than a complex structure.

The infographic below gives a basic outline of how you should structure your CV, along with a few pointers on formatting and style.

CV structure summary

Add your contact details to the very top of your CV to ensure that recruiters can’t miss them when they want to call you in for an interview .

Head your CV up with an eye-catching profile that gives readers a nice summary of your abilities and acts as an elevator pitch.

List your work experience (this could also be voluntary work, placements or school projects if you don’t have any experience yet) in reverse chronological order.

Finish your CV by detailing your education along with any technical skills and vocational qualifications .

Some formatting tips..

• Keep your CV looking professional and easy-to-read by using a clean simple font along with a plain colour scheme.
• Break text up as much as possible to create the best reading experience for recruiters.
• Keep your CV under two pages in length to provide enough detail to impress readers without boring them.

Writing each section of your CV

Now, I will walk you through each section of your CV, and explain what content needs to be entered when writing it .

Name and contact details

Sitting at the very top of your CV, your name and contact details should take up minimum space on the page.

You should include…

• Your mobile telephone number so that recruiters can contact you quickly.
• Your email address – tip: use a professional sounding email address, and not an embarrassing one from your school days – [email protected] is fine, [email protected] is not.
• Your location such as Liverpool/Leeds/London

But you don’t need to include…

• Your full address – it’s too much information at this stage
• Your date of birth – hiring decisions are not based on age
• A photograph – Employers do not need to know what you look like – only what skills you have

If you want to hold recruiters’ attention, and really wow them when they open your CV, you must write a punchy profile at the top.

A profile is an introductory paragraph which highlights all of your most important skills and knowledge for customer service roles.

Here is an example:

The type of things employers will want too see in your profile are:

• What kind of customer service skills do you have? Communication , product knowledge, interpersonal skills etc.
• What type of companies have you worked for? Retailers? Restaurants?
• What relevant qualifications do you have?

Use positive persuasive language throughout your profile and really sell yourself – don’t be afraid to brag a little.

Quick tip:  If you struggle with spelling and grammar, try our partner’s CV builder

Also, check out our customer service cover letter example.

Core skills section

A great way to ensure that recruiters don’t skip past your CV, is to add a core skills section.

A core skills section is simply a bullet pointed list split over two or three columns which reiterates your most valuable skills. It creates a snapshot of your abilities so that recruiters can get an instant idea of your offerings within seconds of opening your CV.

You can also swap these points around if you need to tailor your CV for a specific role.

For example a clothing store customer service role might require slightly different skills to an insurance call centre role, so you’d need to adapt your core skills accordingly.

Work experience

Detailing your work experience gives you a great opportunity to showcase your ability to apply your skills and knowledge in the workplace.

If you already have some customer service experience then great, you should try to highlight as much of it as possible in this section.

If you don’t have any direct work experience, that’s fine – you can also include unpaid experience such as volunteering , school work placements and even extracurricular activities here. Just include anything that will demonstrate that you have the necessary skills.

You should list your experience from latest role to oldest role, like this.

Structuring and writing your role descriptions

To prove your value as an employee, it’s vital that your roles are easy-to-read, well written, and demonstrate a broad range of customer service skills .

This example of a role description, gives you an overview of how your roles should be laid out.

Basic CV template

Now, let’s take a closer look at what should be included in each section.

Outline/Intro

The first line of your role descriptions should set the scene for readers and allow them to quickly understand who you work for (a small retailer? A big airline?), what environment you work in (shop floor? Call centre?) and what the overall aim of your job there is, in relation to serving customers.

“Customer facing role for global clothing retail chain working across 2 busy stores, ensuring all customer needs are met and driving sales of all products”

Responsibilities

List your responsibilities within your roles in short bullet points, so that busy recruiters can quickly skim through them. Detail all aspects of your role, and try to showcase as much of your customer interaction as possible. I will talk about the skills that customer service employers look for in a CV in the next section.

• “Serving customers at the till, processing transactions and dealing with enquires”
• “Handling complaints and resolving issues to ensure positive outcomes for the store and customers”
• Performing haircuts , shampoos and colours for female customers

Achievements

A really good customer service CV should contain plenty of impressive achievements that show you have gone the extra mile to help your customers and employers. Tag some achievements on to the end of your role descriptions to show recruiters the impact you make – and try to include numbers where possible

• “Resolved 95% of all allocated complaints within 4 day target timeline and won best barista of the month”
• “Sold over 300 units of luxury goods and awarded top regional sales award”

What do employers look for in a customer service CV?

Most businesses and public sector organisations require customer service staff, but there is an especially big demand within B2C organisations such as retailers, insurance firms, restaurants and leisure services etc.

Customer service requires a broad range of skills, here is a list of the most important ones that employers will expect to see in your CV.

• Meeting and greeting – The ability to make customers feel welcome and comfortable is essential in a customer facing role and extremely important to a company’s reputation.
• Transaction processing – Whether you take card details over the phone or handle cash over a till, dealing with customer transactions is a valuable skill.
• People skills – Customer service roles revolve around the customer, so it makes sense that your CV should showcase your ability to deal with people positively.
• Complaint handling – Unfortunately complaints will arise in any customer service role – but if you can demonstrate your ability to handle them well, and create effective resolutions for both the customer and employer, it will look great on your CV
• Sales – Customer service staff are on the front line of any company’s sales, so good sales skills are vital.
• Product knowledge – Customers will often have questions to ask before making a purchase, and a good customer service agent will have the ability to familiarise themselves with their employer’s products, and give out sound advice .
• Communication – written and verbal communication between customers colleagues and managers are required frequently in customer service work.
• Team work – Serving customers is a team effort, so give some examples of your ability to work within teams in your CV.

Education & qualifications

Add your education and qualifications to the bottom of your CV for completion. You should add your formal education such as:

As well as any specific customer service qualifications such as an NVQ in customer service.

Skills and experience tend to be more important in customer service environments, so there’s no need to go into much detail in your education section.

Interests and hobbies

Your hobbies and interests outside of work are an optional section and won’t always make a huge difference in a hiring decision.

However, there are two situations where they can influence a recruiter’s decision.

a) You have no experience

To compensate for a lack of work experience, you can use your interests as a means of showcasing your relevant skills. For example if you captain a sports team, that can demonstrate leadership, motivation and communication skills.

b) You have highly relevant interests

If you have interests outside of work that are directly related to customer service, then it’s definitely worth including them. For example, you might volunteer at a local event which requires you to deal with the public and utilise lots of customer service skills.

If you have popular interests such as eating out and going to the cinema, they are unlikely to have a big effect on a recruiters decision to call you – so keep them brief or omit them completely.

Finalising your customer service CV

Once you’ve used this guide to create your customer service CV, you should proofread it several times to ensure that there are no typos or grammatical errors. Nothing will scare off an employer more than a CV full of sloppy mistakes – it’s your professional marketing document, so it needs to be flawless.

With a punchy profile that really sells your most valuable talents, and well written role descriptions that are tailored to showcase customer service skills, you should have a winning customer service CV at your disposal.

You may also be interested in our waiter/waitress CV example .

Applying for roles

Once you have created your CV, don’t stop the hard work there.

Apply for plenty of customer assistant roles across the job websites, company career pages and LinkedIn. Maybe even set yourself a daily or weekly application target to ensure you stay on track.

To save time, create a cover letter template to use when sending applications. Don’t be deterred if you don’t get many responses to start with, keep preserving and adapting from feedback until you start seeing results.