UALE 1073

ENGLISH FOR ENGINEERING

TYPES OF BUSINESS
CORRESPONDENCE
TYPES OF BUSINESS
CORRESPONDENCE

COMPLAINT
ADJUSTMENT
SALES
ORDER
ACCEPTANCE
CREDIT
COLLECTION
E-MAIL
FAX

COMPLAINT LETTER
REASONS:
- wrong goods received
- poor service
- unsatisfactory quality of goods
- late delivery
- damaged goods
- prices not as agreed, etc.

TYPES OF COMPLAINTS
Complaints concerning goods
Complaints concerning delivery
Complaints concerning service
Personal complaints

EXTRACTS FROM COMPLAINT LETTERS
1. I am writing to express my
profoundest dissatisfaction with the
treatment I have received from your
staff. My visit to your premise last
Saturday was certainly the worst
experience I have ever had in a
bank. I do not believe that banks
cannot recruit staff who are better
able to deal with customers.
2. You obviously did not take care in
packaging the goods prior to
shipment. There is no question in
my mind that your company must
be held liable for the damage
sustained.
3. Despite several letters which we
have sent to you regarding dust
and debris caused by the
renovations to your building, we
have not had the courtesy of a
reply, let alone any attempt to
clean the pavement outside our
premises. If this letter does not
cause you to take any action, we
shall commence legal proceedings
against you.
4. On examining the consignment I
discovered that you had sent us 200
copies of the book Freedom at Midnight
instead of Freedom at Dawn. This is an
extremely irritating mistake on your part
because we have many unsold copies of
the former, but several customers have
requested the latter. Kindly arrange to
take back the wrong consignment and
send us the books we ordered as soon
as possible.
APPROPRIATE? INAPPROPRIATE?
WHY?
I am writing because I am angry at your total
inability to carry out my simplest order.

I am afraid that my instructions have not been
carried out as I had requested.

Would you kindly have the decency to give me
an answer to my three letters?

I should appreciate a reply to my previous
letters.
I wish to complain about

I would like to draw your attention to

Your speed in requesting payment is most laudable, but I
refuse to part with a cent until you have delivered every
item.

I have received your bill, but am withholding payment
until the complete order has been delivered.

The insulting behaviour of your staff has caused me to
write this letter of complaint.

I regret to write to you about the behaviour of your staff.
Sample of the
Introduction
Body
Conclusion of a complaint letter.
INTRODUCTION
(EXAMPLE)
On August 15, you shipped to my
company 36 XYZ digital
oscilloscopes (copies of invoice
#3492 are enclosed). Several of
our customers have since
complained that the o-scopes are
malfunctioning.
DISCUSSION (EXAMPLE)
The following occurred after we delivered the o-
scopes to three of our customers.
1. August 20 AAA Electronics stated that two of their
five o-scopes were malfunctioning, giving incorrect
readings.
2. August 25 Richards Electronics, Inc., said three of
their o-scopes were incorrectly calibrated.
3. September 5 Five of ABC Computers o-scopes
would not interface with their computers.
These ten o-scopes need to be repaired. You should
also send service technicians to troubleshoot our
clients other o-scopes to avoid future problems.
CONCLUSION (EXAMPLE)
You can reach me at 469-8200 from
8.00a.m. to 5.00p.m., Monday
through Friday. Thank you for your
help. After working with your
company for the past eight years, I
have been impressed with the way
you stand behind your products. I
know you will help us with these
defective o-scopes.
LETTER OF ADJUSTMENT
Reply/response to letter of complaint.
Types: totally justified (100% yes)
totally unjustified (100% no)
partial adjustment

POINT IS TO RETAIN THE
CUSTOMERS GOODWILL!!!
ASSURANCE > APOLOGY

I am very sorry that you have been
disappointed by our service. We were
definitely in the wrong and we
sincerely apologize for the
inconvenience which you have to
suffer because of the negligence of
our staff.

If unjustified or trivial
I must point out that the damage
to the goods in transit is no
concern of ours whatsoever. Your
proposal to hold us liable is totally
absurd.
THE FIVE AS
1. Acknowledge
2. Accept
3. Account
4. Action
5. Assurance


100% yes letter with 5As
Thank you for calling our attention to your problem. We will
be happy to replace your defective oscilloscopes.
I have looked into your order and discovered the cause of
the problem. The oscilloscopes were damaged during
shipment. They were stacked too high, which led to
breakage while handling. I have met with the carrier, who
agrees that the packages were handled improperly.
In two days time, I will be sending you a service
technician to check on your other o-scopes from this order.
Acme has worked with your company for many years, and
we look forward to continuing this business relationship.
We apologize for the inconvenience and give you our
assurance that we shall do all we can to prevent a
recurrence.
Should you require any further clarification, please call me
at 392-8270.
SALES LETTERS
Aims to sell particular goods or
services to selected types of
customers.
Purpose is to persuade readers that
they need what you are trying to sell,
and persuade them to buy it.

You take something attractive and
make it seem necessary, or you take
something necessary and make it
seem attractive.
SALES LETTERS
They aim to motivate readers to act
by gaining their attention and
interest and prompting their desire
and action.

1. Arouse interest
2. Create desire
3. Carry conviction /develop claim
4. Induce action/persuade
AROUSE INTEREST
Layout, print, colour could attract
attention
Tell readers what and why you
are writing
May begin with a question, an
instruction or a quotation. (lead-
ins)
.
AN ANECDOTE
Its late at night, the service stations are closed, and
youve just had a blowout on Highway 35. Dont worry.
Our new Tire-Right will solve your problems!
A QUESTION
Where will I get the money for my kids college
education? How am I going to afford to retire? Will my
insurance cover all medical bills? Youve asked yourself
these questions. Our estate planning video has the
answers.
A QUOTATION
Omit needles words, technical writers say. If you cant,
let us help you. Write now, our new office
communications service, can help you write your in-
house newslettersclearly and concisely.
DATA
Youre not alone. In fact, if youre at least 25 years old,
youre in the majority. Today, 51 percent of our students
are older than 25, so why not enroll now? Our college
offers the nontraditional student many benefits.

CREATE DESIRE
Knowing what will appeal to the
reader and how it will appeal to him.
If the reader is a lay person, clear
description must be given.
Study the product and then select
those features which make it superior
to others of its kind.
Special features should be stressed
from the readers point of view.
Mattress
- Comfort or appreciation of a good, deep
revitalising sleep

Life insurance
- Readers sense of responsibility to family

An electronic scanner for medical practice
- Listing and explanation of the functions
and technological superiority of the
product

CARRY CONVICTION / DEVELOP ASSERTIONS

Convince the reader that the product is what
you claim it to be.
Support by evidence facts, opinions.
- Invite the reader to your factory or showroom
- Offer to send goods on approval
- Provide guarantee
- Quote your 100 years of experience in the field
- Give testimony from satisfied customers

AVOID FALSE OR EXAGERRATED CLAIMS
INDUCE ACTION
Persuade the reader to take the action you want.
Do something to make the reader act.
Reader wants to know the way ahead / next step
SUGGESTION:
1. Give directions (with a map) to your business
location
2. Provide a tear-out to send back for further
information
3. Supply a self-addressed, stamped envelope for
customer response
4. Offer a discount within a given period of time
5. Give your name or customer-contact name and a
phone number (toll-free if possible)
THE LESS EFFORT REQUIRED FROM THE
READER, THE MORE ACTIVATED THEY ARE
THE LETTER HAS SERVED ITS PURPOSE
MORE TIPS
Use adjectives to create a vivid picture
Use verbs to give your letter punch
You approach
Format for reader-friendly ease of access.
Highlight through white spaces,
underlining, boldface, bullets, numbering
etc.
Imply urgencynow, today, soon, dont
delay to force immediate action

Dear home-maker

YOU DESERVE A BREAK!

Do you ever tire of these long, tedious, thankless tasks? The hours spent
slaving over the stove? The frantic, flustered rushes to bring in the washing
when the rain starts? The dreary, daily mopping?

Do you ever tell yourself, There must be more life than this?

Youre right, and by investing in electroworld time and labour-saving
appliances, you will begin to discover all those wonderful things in life that
you have until now only dreamt about.
Automatic washing machines that dry as well as wash
Tumble driers for those wet, wet days
Microwave ovens for effortless, quick cooking
and many other wonderful things to take the slavery out of home-making

Call at any of our showrooms today for a demonstration of how we can help
to take the slavery out of your life.

We look forward to meeting you

E-MAIL
sent via intranet/internet
quick, easy and cheap
create, send, receive, file, copy,
print & delete electronic messages
has become an essential tool in
business


7 sins of an email
1. Your e-mail messages often bounce back because
of an error in the address.
2. You sometimes wish you could backtrack after
sending a message, but its too late.
3. You are frequently interrupted throughout the day
without a constant flow of e-mails.
4. You have sometimes sent messages via e-mail
when you know a telephone call would have been
better.
5. You havent done any housekeeping or deleted
any messages for a long time.
6. You have sent private or confidential messages
via e-mail, which you have later regretted.
7. You sometimes send messages off quickly without
a greeting or a sign-off, and without checking
through for a good grammar, spelling and
punctuation.

SUFFIXES ON NET ADDRESSES
.com
.org
.gov
.net
.mil
.biz
.info
.edu

Despite the wide usage of e-mails,
problems do occur:
1.No common standards, guidelines.
2.System overloads, miscommunication
happens, reputations get damaged,
feelings are hurt and time is wasted.
3.Informality of an e-mail message
(content) might face legal action.
4.Messages could be intercepted by
management who owns the system

NETIQUETTE
Never think youre talking to a computer!
Ensure you follow the rules of good writing.
Take off the caps lock. DONT SHOUT!
Informality is OK in e-mails
Question your subject heading.
Use short sentences & paragraphs.
Enumerate with numbers/bullets.
Tidy up long sentences.
Take pride in your finished message.
Ensure everything is right before you hit
send.

To RosehannahWethern@Pioneer.co.sg

From shirley@shirleytaylor.com (Shirley Taylor)

Date 14 August 11 14:30

Subject Customer Services Training

Dear Rosehannah

We are considering sending some of our staff on a training course on Customer
Services. Do you have a suitable course available within the next few months? If so
please let me have the dates and times plus costs.
If there isnt a regular Pioneer course scheduled, can you tailor-make a course
specially for our staff? We could hold it in our conference room.
Perhaps we can arrange to meet to discuss this. Are you free next Friday 26
February at 11am?I could come over to you, or you could come over to my office.
Please let me know.

Shirley Taylor
Project Manager
Shirley Taylor Training and Consultancy
Tel: +65 64726076 Fax: +65 63392710
Mobile: +65 96355907
http://www.shirleytaylor.com
FAX MESSAGES
send copies of letters, memos, reports,
graphs, blueprints, and artwork over
ordinary phone lines
relatively cheap, internal/external

- Confidentiality must be protected unless
the other user has own private fax
machine & details.

FAX GUIDELINES
E-mail your reader before you fax
Print your message in a larger font size
(12 or 14)
Avoid writing comments in margins or at the
top or bottom of a fax
Please include:
a) The persons sending and receiving the fax
b) Their addresses, phone, and fax numbers
c) The total number of pages being faxed
(3-4pgs)
Nowadays, most companies would have their
own templates.
The Community Resource Centre
29 Viva Street, Victory Park, Freedomville, Comradia
Telephone: (0120) 6789 Fax: (012) 10112
e-mail: vivacamradia@upbeat.org.cx

To: Gabriel Pele, fieldworker, Jojo Agricultural Project

From: Karabu Xavier, fieldwork manager

Telephone: (012) 112233

Fax: (012) 445566

Date: 22 July 2003

Number of pages: 1, including this page

Message: Thank you for agreeing to speak at our conference. With this fax
cover sheet you will receive the conference programme. Please let
us know if you need any special equipment for your presentation.

Thank you.