Customer service representatives are the lifeline when everyday things go wrong. From defective products to forgotten logins, customer service representatives help the rest of us fix problems and get back on our feet. While many customer service positions are gradually being automated, companies are looking for human representatives with great communication skills who can handle complex problems and provide quality care. Customer service jobs offer steady employment, often in call centers or the headquarters of large companies. These positions also make great entry points into a variety of other careers, especially sales associates or in marketing. So how do you get your foot in the door to this world of opportunity? You’ll need a great cover letter, of course.
If you haven’t already perfected your resume, that’s a good place to start. Make sure to check out this customer service-specific example guide, our cover letter templates and general resume writing guide.
Now it’s time to craft an exceptional cover letter that seals the deal on your perfect application. This guide, along with an effective cover-letter example will:
Before we jump into the how of cover letter writing, it’s important to understand the why. By keeping your mission at the forefront of this process, you can build each part of your letter to be as effective as possible
Whether called an application letter, letter of interest or letter of motivation, a cover letter is one of the most commonly requested application materials. Why? Because it allows an employer to get a true sense for your personality and strengths before you ever set foot in the building for an interview. On your resume, the profile summary comes the closest to the mission of a cover letter, allowing you to express your interests and motivations in a few lines. A cover letter, however, gives you much more room to expand on the list of dates and titles that a resume can sometimes turn into. Have a mysterious gap in work history? Learned a key skill in an unrelated job? Have a notable success you want your new employer to hear about? Your cover letter is the perfect place to address all these questions with examples from your work experience.
Tailoring Your Cover Letter
One of the biggest mistakes that job seekers make during the job search is not tailoring their application to the job description. A professional cover letter not only explains why you excel at customer satisfaction and problem-solving but also why you are motivated to work for this specific company. You can use the job posting, website and general information about the company to tailor your letter to the exact position.
You should keep your cover letter, including heading and conclusion, to the length of one page, between 200-400 words. The goal here is not to cover every topic a hiring manager might ask about. Instead, you should remain focused on a handful of key points while encouraging the reader to get in touch for more information. You should also stick to an easy-to-read font and keep the size at 11 point. You can find more information about styling specifics in this overall guide on cover letters.
Occasionally, an application won’t specify whether a cover letter is actually required. In these cases, it may be easy to make the same mistake that a lot of other candidates do by saving yourself the trouble and submitting your application without a cover letter. Unfortunately, this is a surefire way to drag out your job hunt. A cover letter is just one piece of a complete application, but it’s vital for maximizing your chances of actually landing the job. There may be applicants with similar – or even better – resumes than you have, but a great cover letter can give you the edge. This is your opportunity to make a personal connection and convince an employer that you’re worthy of a shot.
Prioritizing customer care
Customer service standards are rising – rapidly. Research shows that 70 percent of consumers have paid a little extra to do business with a company that offers better customer service. Millennials in particular are increasingly willing to spend additional cash to be well taken care of. Conversely, more than half of survey respondents said they have forgone a planned purchase because of one negative customer service experience. Customers are also more likely to tell a friend about a negative interaction with a company than a positive one. Companies are learning that a poor service reputation can quickly spell trouble, while positive customer interactions can make business boom. That means hiring managers are looking for CS reps with great dispositions and customer-oriented mindsets to make personal connections that keep people coming back.
Need more inspiration? Have a look at our related administrative cover letter examples:
Some people are unnecessarily afraid of the cover letter writing process because they feel like it lacks structure. While it’s true that your cover letter is much more free-form than your resume, this basic framework for a cover letter will allow you to break down this task into a series of easy steps. Here are the key components:
The good news is that these sections work well regardless of the company, field or job title you’re applying to, so learning to write a great cover letter now is a skill you can use for the rest of your career.
Dear Mr. Felsted,
When serving customers, I put myself in their shoes and stay there until their needs are met.
Not everyone knows the answers when it comes to home improvement projects: when they come to Hope Depot, they come for the advice as much as the products. Customer service to them is as much about walking out with solutions as well as products. With thirty years of experience in running a hardware store, customers come back because you help them as well as sell to them. Now I want to help your customers.
It is central to your culture that you expect your people to be good team players, make sure that the right product finds the right person and to maintain a high level of energy and enthusiasm at all times. You need great listeners, willing assistants and product champions.
A 31-year career of retail service experience would make me the ideal candidate:
Customer service has been a passion since I was serving mud pies to my sister as a child. While I might not have the energy to run my own store anymore, I am looking forward to focusing all my energies on the customers rather than being distracted by all the paperwork.
I look forward to sharing some of my customer service stories and would be grateful for your consideration of my application. I would strive to be a dependable and productive addition to your customer service team.
Best regards,
Sophie Walton
In many large companies, hiring is done by a team of HR representatives so your letter will likely float from desk to desk. That’s why the main job of your cover letter header is to identify the document as belonging to you and to keep your contact information right at the reader’s fingertips. If sending a letter by mail, your physical mailing address and a formal letter heading will be appropriate. For online applications, however, you’ll want to stick to the most necessary information like phone number and LinkedIn to avoid taking up too much of that precious space where you convince them to give you the position. The goal of this cover letter section: Keep your name and contact info at the top of the document so that everyone who reads it knows who it belongs to and how to get in touch.
Align document styles!
The secondary purpose of your cover letter is to add professional and stylish formatting to an otherwise plain document. Before you finalize your formatting, make sure to pay attention to the image of the company you’re applying to. Bright colors and strong fonts work much better for some organizations and industries. When in doubt, it’s best to stick with trusted styles and professional color palettes. A professionally-designed template can help you get this balance right.
To appear even more put together, you can align the header styles of your resume, cover letter and any other job application materials you may be asked to submit. This will create a sort of “personal brand” – a visual stamp that ensures the reader remembers your application and sees you as a highly polished candidate.
Your greeting may only contain a few words, but it is vital for setting the appropriate tone throughout the rest of the cover letter. Since customer service representatives work across industries, you may have several options depending on the formality of the company. When in doubt, “Dear” followed by the proper salutation and a last name works nicely in a variety of situations. If the company has a youthful feel, “Hi” or “Hello” may be appropriate, especially if sending the letter via email. The goal of this section: Address the reader in a respectful and company-appropriate tone using the recipient’s name if you have it.
Dear Mr. Felsted,
The power of a name.
It’s been scientifically proven that people have a positive neurological reaction upon hearing their own name. You can – and should – use this fact to your advantage by addressing the hiring manager or person responsible for reading your cover letter. This helps to establish a personal connection and also helps in showing that you care about the company and its values.
However, many customer service reps work inside large organizations where it’s almost impossible to tell who the hiring decision-makers are. There may even be too many to name in the greeting.
In this case, there’s no need to go to extreme lengths to address the letter personally. Instead, avoid the outdated and disinterested-sounding “To Whom It May Concern,” and opt for a greeting that uses the company name followed by “Hiring Manager” or a collective noun like “Team,” for example.
Your opening paragraph is a crucial moment – after the first sentence, a hiring manager may have already decided whether to continue with the rest of the cover letter or not. Instead of the sleep-inducing “I am writing to express interest in your vacancy for a customer service representative…” make sure to give your introduction some spark. An illustrative anecdote, a bold statement or an attention-grabbing presentation of yourself are all good options. You should aim to come across as professional rather than eccentric while still making sure the hiring manager wants to read on. The goal of this section: Inject energy and passion into your letter right from the start, hook the reader’s attention and create a seamless transition into the body section.
When serving customers, I put myself in their shoes and stay there until their needs are met.
Not everyone knows the answers when it comes to home improvement projects: when they come to Hope Depot, they come for the advice as much as the products. Customer service to them is as much about walking out with solutions as well as products. With thirty years of experience in running a hardware store, customers come back because you help them as well as sell to them. Now I want to help your customers.
The body section is where you can finally dive into all the great qualities that make you the ideal candidate for this role and company. Your goal is to prove that you have the right skills and disposition to make a great customer service representative for this product or service. To that end, you can use the STAR method to highlight all your notable achievements. First, briefly explain the Situation and the Task, and then reveal the Action you took and the positive Result it caused. In a customer service setting, you’ll probably have a lot of such interactions to choose from, so make sure to pick a common challenge that you handled exceptionally well or a particularly difficult situation that could also arise at this company. If the body section feels a bit overwhelming, you can also break it into two subsections. In the first, you’ll discuss your previous highlights and achievements, and in the second, you’ll explain your skills and qualities that make you a great customer service representative in this new company. The goal of this section: provide the strongest examples of your customer service skills and relate your current strengths and experience to this new position.
It is central to your culture that you expect your people to be good team players, make sure that the right product finds the right person and to maintain a high level of energy and enthusiasm at all times. You need great listeners, willing assistants and product champions.
A 31-year career of retail service experience would make me the ideal candidate:
Customer service has been a passion since I was serving mud pies to my sister as a child. While I might not have the energy to run my own store anymore, I am looking forward to focusing all my energies on the customers rather than being distracted by all the paperwork.
You’ve done an excellent job creating the strongest arguments about why you deserve this role, now it’s time to wrap it up and send it off. The best way to finish your closing paragraph is with a Call To Action. This line allows you to express passion and enthusiasm for the role and is a professional way to invite the hiring manager to get in touch. You may even choose to leave your contact information again in this section. Then, sign off with a company and position-appropriate signature like “Best,” “Best regards,” or “Sincerely,” The goal of this cover letter section: Encourage a hiring manager to contact you via your call to action, close the letter respectfully and on a positive note.
I look forward to sharing some of my customer service stories and would be grateful for your consideration of my application. I would strive to be a dependable and productive addition to your customer service team.
Best regards,
Sophie Walton
You're in that Catch-22: You're looking for a job but all the listings ask for experience. How are you supposed to get experience if you can't get a job? You definitely need a stellar customer service representative cover letter to wow hiring managers from the start.
How do you write a cover letter with no experience? You focus on the qualities and attributes that make you a responsible, empathetic person. Employers know that some skills can be taught and others can't. A customer service representative needs emotional intelligence to understand what customers want and to solve their problems in a way that leaves them feeling good about the interaction. Inc. lists 13 signs of high emotional intelligence. When you write your letter, exhibit one or two of these in your appeal.
Remember that even if this is your first official job, you have probably held responsibilities either in school or life. Think about how these experiences translate into marketable skills and then relate that in your customer service representative cover letter. Your goal is to prove that you have the people skills and work ethic necessary and are willing and eager to complete any training you need to get the job done.
As a customer service representative, there are a few key traits you’ll want to convey regardless of the company you work for.
One way to write a highly-effective cover letter is to show your potential employer why you’re a good fit instead of just telling them. The weight behind your words can come in the form of numbers, anecdotes, facts and other evidence. Illustrating your worth in this way helps you utilize the psychological principle of belief-matching: the idea that people are more likely to respond positively to your message if they first believe you understand their problem. This principle takes on a double meaning in the world of customer service – you want to leave a hiring manager with the impression that you understand both the challenges facing their business and the challenges their customers face in relation to the company’s products or services.
Where to incorporate the empathetic approach
To maximize the effects of the belief-matching technique, begin incorporating it from the top of your writing, according to professional marketing expert Joanna Wiebe. Wiebe often uses this technique to drive online sales, but in this case, you are the product.
An anecdote is one of the easiest ways to show that you’ve handled similar situations before. But as a customer service representative, you’ll probably have a lot to choose from. The best option is the one that you think your prospective employer is most likely to relate to. Again, it’s important to keep the story short, straightforward and relevant to ensure success.
As a customer service representative, your goal is to be the bridge. A company can’t survive without customers, yet it also can’t afford to give every disgruntled caller everything they want. Clear and concise anecdotes can effectively demonstrate your ability to protect company interests while making sure customers leave satisfied with their interaction. Whether it’s troubleshooting and technical support, account and billing issues or general questions, each company’s customer service needs are slightly different. Make the most of your cover letter by doing some research into your potential employer’s business and customer service model in order to focus on strategies that work for them.
There are a few common mistakes that other candidates applying to customer service positions are likely to make. Get ahead by avoiding these pitfalls:
When do customers ask for help?
Research shows that customers’ preference for self-service is growing. When people need help with simple questions, they often turn to online FAQs or apps before picking up the phone.
However, as the issues become more complicated, for example with billing and payment, people are much more likely to seek out human assistance. That means as customer service positions grow increasingly competitive, representatives are being asked to take on bigger challenges.
Now it’s time to get out there and land your customer service position. Resume.io makes the process easy with our expertly-designed cover letter builder to help you craft the perfect cover letter in just minutes!