Cover letter with no work experience

Dear Esther,

I'm Youssef El Amrani and in June I completed my vocational qualification in Service Provision. I'm now looking for my first permanent job, ideally one where I work with people and can grow quickly. In your vacancy for junior customer service assistant, I read that you genuinely help customers instead of just transferring their calls. That's how I want to work too.

For three years, I worked weekends on the till and service desk at a DIY store. There, I learned to stay calm when someone is angry, and to keep asking questions until I understood the real problem. My manager therefore put me on returns, where the trickiest conversations happen. I remember a customer who came in with a broken drill and no receipt. I traced the purchase through his card payment, arranged a replacement, and he went home with a smile.

During my placement at the council's customer contact centre, I worked with a customer system and helped an average of forty residents a day. I picked up the system quickly: after two weeks, I was training new placement students myself. At the end of the placement, my supervisor gave me a 9 out of 10 for customer focus. What I liked most was knowing, at the end of the day, that I'd genuinely helped people, even when that meant looking something up twice.

I'd be glad to tell you, at an interview, how I handle a difficult customer conversation, and what I learned from dealing with returns. You're welcome to call or email me at any time.

Kind regards,

Youssef El Amrani