What is the preferred channel of communication for delivering messages outside an organization?

1.**Business letters are typically senta.to relay bad news.b.within an organization.*c.outside an organization.d.only by high-level executives.

2.Most workplace messages should be organized

Get answer to your question and much more

3.*All of the following are considered routine business messagesexcept

Get answer to your question and much more

4.**A popular format of business letters, called _____________________ style, aligns all partson the left of the page.

Get answer to your question and much more

5.Which of the following statementsbestdescribes the use of letters, e-mails, and memos inbusinesses today?a.Businesses use memos to deliver positive messages internally and externally, butthey use formal business letters to deliver negative messages.b.E-mail delivers most internal communication, hard-copy memos deliver mostexternal communication, and letters communicate only legal issues.*c.Despite the popularity of e-mail, in certain situations letters remain the preferredchannel of communication for delivering messages outside an organization.d.Businesses today use e-mail, memos, and letters interchangeably for all audiences,purposes, and messages.

6.Although e-mail is successful for both internal and external communication, you should stilluse letters when

Chapter 6

Sending Positive Written Messages

Outside Your Organization

Understanding the Power of Business letters

Letters are a primary channel of communication for delivering messages outside an organization.  Such letters go to suppliers, government agencies, other businesses, and, most important, customers.  The letters to customers receive a high priority because these messages encourage product feedback, project a favorable image of the organization, and promote future business.

                Although e-mail is incredibly successful for both internal and external communication, many important messages still call for letters.  Business letters are necessary when:

·         Business Letters Produce a Permanent Record.  Many business transactions require a permanent record.  Business letters fulfill this function.  Although telephone conversations and e-mail messages may be exchanged, important details are generally recorded in business letters that are kept in company files.  Business letter deliver contracts, explain terms, exchange terms, exchange ideas, negotiate agreements, answer vendor questions, and maintain customer relations.  Business letter are important for any business transaction that requires a permanent written record.

·         Business Letters Can Be Confidential.  Communicators know how dangerous it is to entrust confidential and sensitive information to digital channels.  Plain old letters are the form of long-distance communication least likely to be intercepted, misdirected, forwarded, retrieved, or otherwise inspected by someone you didn’t have in mind.

·         Business Letters Convey Formality and Sensitivity.  Business letters presented on company stationery carry a sense of formality and importance not possible with e-mail.  They look important.  They carry a nonverbal message saying the writer considered the message to be so significant and the receiver so prestigious that the writer cared enough to write a real message.

·         Business Letters Deliver Persuasive, Well-Considered Messages.  When a business communicator must be persuasive and can’t do it person, a business letter is more effective than other communication channels.  Letters can persuade people to change their actions, adopt new beliefs, make donations, contribute their time, and try new products.

Direct Requests for Information or Action

                The majority of your business letters will involve routine messages organized directly.  Before you write any letter, though, consider its costs in terms of your time and workload.  Whenever possible, don’t write.  Instead of asking for information, could you find it yourself?  Would a telephone call, e-mail message, instant message, or brief visit to a coworker solve the problem quickly?  If not, use the direct pattern to present your request efficiently.

                Writing Plan for an Information or Action Request

·         Opening:  Ask the most important question first or express a polite command.

·         Body:  Explain the request logically and courteously.  Ask other questions if necessary.

·         Closing: Request a specific action with an end date, if appropriate, and show appreciation.

Open Your Request Directly

                The most emphatic positions in a letter are the opening and the closing.  Readers tend to look at them first.  The writer, then, should capitalize on this tendency by putting the most significant statement first.  The first sentence of an information request is usually a question or a polite command.  It should not be an explanation or justification, unless resistance to the request is expected.  When the information requested is likely to be forthcoming, immediately tell the reader what you want.  This saves the reader’s time and may ensure that the message is read.

                If several questions must be asked, you have two choices.  You can ask the most important question first.  An alternate opening begins with a summary statement, such as Will you answer the following questions about…   That is because it is really a command disguised as a question.  Rather than bluntly demanding information (Answer the following questions), we often prefer to soften commands by posing them as questions.  Such statements, called rhetorical questions, should not be punctuated as questions because they do not require answers.

Put Details in the Body

                The body of a letter that requests information should provide necessary details.  Remember that the quality of the information obtained from a request letter depends on the clarity of the inquiry.  If you analyze your needs, organize your ideas, and frame your request logically, you are likely to receive a meaningful answer that doesn’t require a follow-up message.  Whenever possible, itemize the information to improve readability, such as using bullet points.

Close With an Action Request

Use the final paragraph to ask for specific action, to set an end date if appropriate, and to empress appreciation.  As you learned in working with e-mail messages and memos, a request for action is most effective when an end date and reason for that date are supplied.

Ending a request letter with appreciation for that action taken is always appropriate.  However, don’t all into a cliché trap, such as Thanking you in advance or Thank you for your cooperation.  Your appreciation will sound more sincere if you avoid mechanical, tired expressions.

Direct Claims

                In business many things can go wrong – promised shipments are late, warranted goods fail, or service is disappointing.  When you as a customer must write to identify or correct a wrong, the letter is called a claim.  Straightforward claims are those to which you expect the receiver to agree readily.  Even these claims, however, often require a letter.  While your first action may be a telephone call or an e-mail message submitting your claim, you may not get the results you want.  Written claims are often taken more seriously, and they also establish a record of what happened.

Writing Plan for a Direct Claim

·         Opening: Describe clearly the desired action.

·         Body: Explain the nature of the claim, tell why the claim is justified, and provide details regarding the action requested.

·         Closing: End pleasantly with a goodwill statement and include an end date and action request, if appropriate.

Open Your Claim With a Clear Statement of What You Want

                If you have a legitimate claim, you can expect a positive response from a company.  Smart businesses today want to hear from their customers.  They know that retaining a customer is far less costly than recruiting a new customer.  That is why you should open a claim letter with a clear statement of the problem or with the action you want the receiver to take.  You might expect a replacement, a refund, a new order, credit to your account, correction of a billing error, free repairs, free inspection, or cancellation of an order.

                When the remedy is obvious state it immediately.  When the remedy is less obvious, you might ask for a change in policy or procedure or simply for an explanation.

Explain and Justify Your Claim in the Body

                In the body of a claim letter, explain the problem and justify your request.  Provide the necessary details so the difficulty can be corrected without further correspondence.  Avoid becoming angry or trying to fix blame.  Bear in mind that the person reading your letter is seldom responsible for the problem.  Instead, state the facts logically, objectively, and unemotionally; let the reader decide on the causes.

Close Your Claim With a Specific Action Request

                End a claim letter with a courteous statement that promotes goodwill and summarizes your action requests.  If appropriate, include an end date.  Finally, in making claims, act promptly.  Delaying claims make them less important.  Delayed claims are also more difficult to verify.  By taking the time to put your claim in writing, you indicate your seriousness.  A written claim starts a record of the problem, should later action be necessary.

Put It All Together and Revise

                After completing your first draft, you are ready to revise as the last steip in your writing plan.

Direct Replies

                Often your messages will reply directly and favorably to requests for information or action.  A customer wants information about a product.  A supplier asks to arrange a meeting.  Another business inquires about one of your procedures or about a former employee.  In complying with such requests you will want to apply the same direct pattern you used in making requests.

                Writing Plan for Direct Replies

·         Subject line: Identify previous correspondence or refer to the main idea.

·         Opening: Deliver the most important information first.

·         Body: Arrange information logically, explain and clarify it, provide additional information if appropriate, and build goodwill.

·         Closing: End pleasantly.

Open Directly With Information the Reader Wants

                In the first sentence of a direct reply letter, deliver the information the reader wants.  Avoid wordy, drawn-out openings.  When agreeing to a request for action, announce the good news promptly.

Arrange Your Information Logically and Make it Readable

                In the body of your reply, supply explanations and additional information.  Because a letter written on company stationery is considered a legally binding contract, be sure to check facts and figures carefully.  If a policy or procedure needs authorization, seek approval from a supervisor or executive before writing the letter.

Close Pleasantly and Personally

                To avoid abruptness, include a pleasant closing remark that shows your willingness to help the reader.  Provide extra information if appropriate.  Tailor your remarks to fit this letter and this reader.  Because everyone appreciates being recognized as an individual, avoid form-letter closings such as If we may be of further assistance….

Adjustment Letters

                Even the best-run and best-loved businesses occasionally receive claims or complaints from consumers.  When a company receives a claim and decides to respond favorably, the letter is called an adjustment letter.   In these messages, you have three goals:

·         To rectify the wrong, if one exists

·         To regain the confidence of the customer

·         To promote future business and goodwill

A positive adjustment letter represents good news to the reader.  Therefore, use the direct strategy described in the following writing plan:

Writing Plan for Direct Replies

·         Subject line: (optional) Identify the previous correspondence and refer to the main topic.

·         Opening: Grant the request or announce the adjustment immediately.

·         Body: Provide details about how you are complying with the request.  Try to regain the customer’s confidence.  Apologize if appropriate, but don’t admit negligence.

·         Closing: End positively with a forward-looking thought; express confidence in future business relations.  Include sales promotion, if appropriate.  Avoid referring to unpleasantness.

Reveal the Good News in the Opening

                Instead of beginning with a review of what went wrong, present the good news immediately.  If you decide to comply with a customer’s claim, let the receiver know immediately.  Don’t being your letter with negative statement.  This approach reminds the reader of the problem and may rekindle the heated emotions or unhappy feelings experienced when the claim was written.  Instead, focus on the good news. 

                In announcing that you will make an adjustment, try to do so without a grudging tone-even if you have reservations about whether the claim is legitimate.  Once you decide to comply with the customer’s request, do so happily.  Avoid halfhearted or reluctant responses.

Explain How You Are Complying in the Body

                In responding to claims, most organizations sincerely want to a wrong.  They want to do more than just make the customer happy.  They want to stand behind their products and services; they want to do what’s right.

                In the body of the letter, explain how you are complying with the claim.  In all but the most routine claims, you should also seek to regain the confidence of the customer.  You might reasonably expect that a customer who has experienced difficulty with a product, with billing, or with service has lost faith in your organization.  Rebuilding that faith is important for future business.

                Sometimes the problem is not with the product but with the way it is being used.  In other instances customers misunderstand warranties or inadvertently cause delivery and billing mix-ups by supplying incorrect information.  Remember that rational and sincere explanation will do much to regain the confidence of unhappy customers.

                In your explanation avoid emphasizing negative words such as trouble, regret, misunderstanding, fault, defective, error, inconvenience, and unfortunately.  Keep your message positive and upbeat.

Decide Whether to Apologize

                Whether to apologize is debatable issue.  Some writing experts argue that apologies remind customers of their complaints and are therefore negative.  Real letters that respond to customers’ claims, however, often include apologies.  If you feel that your company is at fault and that an apology is an appropriate goodwill gesture, by all means include it.  Be careful, though, not to admit negligence.

Show Confidence and Helpfulness in the Closing

                End positively by expressing confidence that the problem has been resolved and that continued business relations will result.  You might mention the product in a favorable light, suggest a new product, express your appreciation for the customer’s business, or anticipate future business.  It is often appropriate to refer to the desire to be of service and to satisfy customers.

Goodwill Messages

                Goodwill messages, which include thanks, recognition, and sympathy, seem to intimidate many communicators.  Finding the right words to express feelings is sometimes more difficult than writing ordinary business documents.                  Remember, though, that the personal sentiments of the sender are always more expressive and more meaningful to readers than are printed cards or oral messages.  Taking the time to write gives more importance to our well-wishing.  Personal notes also provide a record that can be reread, savored, and treasured.

                In expressing thanks, recognition, or sympathy, you should always do so promptly.  These messages are easier to write when the situation is fresh in your mind, and they mean more the recipient.  Don’t forget that a prompt thank-you note carries the hidden message that you care and that you consider the event to be important. 

                The Five Ss of Goodwill Messages

·         Selfless.  Be sure to focus the message solely on the receiver not the sender.  Don’t talk about yourself; avoid such comments as I remember when I…

·         Specific.  Personalize the message by mentioning specific incidents or characteristics of the receiver. 

·         Sincere.  Let your words show genuine feelings.  Rehearse in your mind how you would express the message to the receiver orally.  Then transform that conversational language to your written message.

·         Spontaneous.  Keep the message fresh and enthusiastic.  Avoid canned phrases.

·         Short.  Although goodwill messages can be as long as needed, try to accomplish your purpose in only a few sentences.  What is most important is remembering an individual.  Such caring does not require documentation or wordiness. 

Expressing Thanks

                When someone has done you a favor or when an action merits praise, you need to extend thanks or show appreciation.  Letters of appreciation may be written to customers for their orders, to hosts and hostesses for their hospitality, to individuals for kindness performed, and especially to customers who complain.  After all, complainers are actually providing you with “free consulting reports from the field.”  Complainers who feel they they were listened to often become the greatest promoters of an organization. 

                Written notes that show appreciation and express thanks are significant to their receivers.  In expressing thanks, you generally write a short note on special notepaper or heavy card stock.

·         To Express Thanks for a Gift.  Identify the gift, tell why you appreciate it, and explain how you will use it.

·         To Send Thanks for a Favor.  Tell what the favor means using sincere, simple statements.

·         To Extend Thanks for Hospitality.  Compliment the fine food, charming surroundings, warm hospitality, excellent host and hostess, and good company.

Responding to Goodwill Messages

                Should you respond when you receive a congratulatory note or a written pat on the back?  By all means!  These messages are attempts to connect personally; they are efforts to reach out, to form professional and/or personal bonds.  Failing to respond to notes of congratulations and most other goodwill messages is like failing to say “You’re welcome: when someone says “Thank you.” Responding to such messages is simply the right thing to do.  Do avoid, though, minimizing your achievements with comments that suggest you don’t really deserve the praise or that the sender is exaggerating your good qualities.

·         To Answer a Congratulatory Note.  Thanks for your kind words regarding my award, and thank you, for sending me the newspaper clipping.  I truly appreciate your thoughtfulness and warm wishes.

·         To Respond to a Pat on the Back.  Your note about my work made me feel good.  I’m grateful for your thoughtfulness.

Conveying Sympathy

                Most of us can bear misfortune and grief more easily when we know that others care.  Notes expressing sympathy, though, are probably more difficult to write than any other kind of message.  Commercial “In sympathy” cards make the task easier-but they are far less meaningful.  Grieving friends want to know what you think-not what Hallmark’s writers think.  In writing a sympathy note, (a) refer to the death or misfortune sensitively, using words that show you understand what a crushing blow it is; (b) in the case of death, praise the deceased in a personal way; (c) offer assistance without going into excessive detail; and (d) end on a reassuring, forward-looking note.

Is E-Mail Appropriate for Goodwill Messages?

                In expressing thanks or responding to goodwill messages, handwritten notes are the most impressive.  However, if you frequently communicate with the receiver by e-mail and if you are sure your note will not get lost, then sending an e-mail goodwill message is acceptable.  Remember that e-mail messages are quickly gone and forgotten.  Handwritten or printed messages remain and can be savored.  Your thoughtfulness is more lasting if you take the time to prepare handwritten or printed messages on notepaper or personal stationery.