2015
Written documents in the company Communication & Customer Service
MarĂa Montes Cervera Communication & customer service
INTRODUCTION Although, as we have seen during this course of communication and customer services, we can use verbal and non-verbal communication, the most used type of communication within the company is written communication. It is the most popular because it is lasting, that’s means that it remains over the time. Furthermore, written communication allows the receiver to analyze the information better, because the time it’s not a barrier in this type of communication. If we want to achieve an effective communication through written communication we must think before starting to write. We must have a clear idea of that that that we want to transmit because there is not an immediate feedback, because the receiver is not present. So, The message has to be clear, coherent, and easy to understand.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
In this document we will see different models of written documents that are very frequent in communication in the companies. We will analyze it structures, and an example of each one of them.
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1.BUSINESS LETTER………………………………………….PAGE
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2.MEETING REQUEST………………………………………….PAGE
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3.MEETING MINUTE…………………………………………….PAGE
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4.GREETING………………………………………………………PAGE
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5.APPLICATION……………………………………………………PAGE
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6.CERTIFICATE……………………………………………………PAGE
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7.BUSINESS CARD………………………………………………..PAGE
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8.PRESS RELEASE……………………………………………….PAGE
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9.EMAIL……………………………………………………………..PAGE
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1.BUSINESS LETTER It plays an important role in communication between companies. This type of document has many options to create it, for example we can do it by handwriting or by computer. Making a business letter by hand, as we have done, has many advantages, but it has also some disadvantages: ADVANTAGES
DISADVANTAGES
This type of document has important advantages against other , for example:
It has also some disadvantages like
Personal image Closer image
Slower than other methods because of postal mail services. You have to have a good and understandable handwriting.
As we are going to see in our example of a business letter, it has the following parts : Header: - It must include the logo of the company on the top of the sheet.
-The date. -A brief greet like: “Dear Mr./Ms.” -A brief description or summary of the reason for the letter. Content: -Development of the topic we want to treat. In this part we have to follow some rules if we want to achieve the goal of the letter, we must follow some “rules”: 1.Introduce our company 2.If we are trying to achieve new clients, like in the example of letter that we are going to see, we have to offer some advantages which difference us from other competitors. We have to expose it with clarity, and without lying about the services we’ll offer.
Conclusion: - Brief farewell, we can use expressions like “ I remain at your disposal for any question you wish to clarify, yours sincerely…” -Signature: Name and position in the company
- Data of our company * We can also include on it our data(name, position in the company, etc.)But in this case I have followed a different style of business letter, and I have included this information at the end of the letter.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
-The data of the recipient*.
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
2. MEETING REQUEST It’s an internal document which is used to inform certain people officially that a meeting that is important for the will be celebrate. In this document we must include: Who is required to be in the meeting.
Date and place of the meeting.
Topics that will be treated in the meeting(Agenda), and the order in which they are going to be treated.
As we are going to see in the next meeting request example it has the following parts: 1. Brief explanation and data of the meeting(date, place, time) 2. Agenda(Topics that will be treated in the order in which they will be treated)
3. Formal farewell (We can use expressions like without further ado, respectfully yours) 4. Signature of the sender or senders(in this case the president and the secretary)
5. We can also include at the bottom of the document the stamp of the company.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
Exact time of the meeting.
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
3.MEETING MINUTE It’s the summary of the development of a meeting which has already been celebrated. In this document there are basic things that we must not forget to include on it as: The logo of our company in the upper right side Number of the minute, in order to improve the organization of the minutes.
The meeting attendees on the right side of the sheet, this allow us to know who was present in the meeting the day that it took place, and know the position of each attendee regarding the discussed issues.
The issues that were treated. We must write it in the order in which they were treated. The position of each one or each group. This means the opinion of each group regarding each issue. The decisions that were taken. A fixed text to finish. It can be something like “Without more business to discuss the session was adjourned at ________(Hour)
Signatures of all the attendees.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
The date, place and hour of the meeting. It can be through a fixed text.
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
4.GREETING It is a document used to express appreciation, invite someone to an event, and so on. In a greeting we must follow some rules for the organization of the text: First, we have to write the position of the sender. Then we should write “GREETS” in the middle of the sheet with big letters.
After this we have to include the name of the receiver with capital letters.
Then we’ll write the name of the sender with capital letters too, and generally, we include a fixed text like: “takes this occasion to offer you his highest consideration”. We must know that a greeting is never signed.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
Following the name of the receiver we’ll write the reason of the greeting, and if it is an invitation to an event(like in the example that we´ll see in the next page)we must include the date, hour and place where the event will take place.
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
5.APPLICATION This document is used to request services like permissions, documents, inclusion on job offers, and so on, to the authority or people who can grant it. Its use is so frequent that it has a fixed structure. Normally the authority or people who we are requesting will provide us a model of application and we only have to fill in this document.
HEADING: -Data of the person who send the request. -Name and surnames -ID -Address -Place of birth And if you want you can add data about your job, your marital status…But in this case I haven’t included any of that because it isn’t necessary to request a building permit .
BODY: Here you must include the reason why you are requesting. This section stars with the word “EXPOUNDS” follow by the cause of the request. And if you want to add more information or another reasons, we usually expose them in different paragraphs, starting always by the word “THAT”. PETITION: Here we have to express briefly that that we want. The goal that we want to achieve through this request. It isn’t necessary to explain the details again, so generally we write the petition in one or two phrases. FAREWELL: As a farewell we only write: - The date and the place where we are writing the request. -The name of the applicant and her/his signature. FOOT: We will write the position of the recipient (in capital letters).
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
It has the following structure:
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
6.CERTIFICATE
It’s an official document, with legal value. Its objective is to state an event or status. In this type of document there are three basic things to include on it: The logo of the company The name and position of the person who certifies. The data of the applicant(Name, surnames, and ID The signature of the person who certifies The data of the moment when the certificate was made.
HEADING: -Logo of the company on the top (Here you can include the address of the company) - Following the logo we find the Name and the position of the person who certifies. BODY: -Starts with the word “CERTIFIES”(normally in third person)and then, in other paragraph we’ll write the data of the applicant and the fact that we are going to certify. CLOSING: -We use a fixed text as: “ and for the record for the purposes, signing this certificate…” -Date written in letters. -Signature of the person who certifies.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
The structure of a certificate can change a little from a company to another, but all the certificates are similar. They have a basic structure like this:
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
7.BUSINESS CARD In my opinion, this is one of the most important documents for the image of our company. It makes in our clients the first impression, and that’s really important for the future of the relationship between the clients and the company. The more elegant and impacting, the more effect will cause in our clients. If you need to make a business card…don’t forget to include:
And if, as the example, the card is of an employee it will included, added to the thing named previously, the following details: Name of the employee Position in the company Data of contact( To contact directly with that person)
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
The logo of the company The address and data of contact of the company The activity of the company
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
8.PRESS RELEASE It’s a document that allows the communication between the company and the exterior. It is used by the companies in order to inform the public about something new that it’s going to happen or that has just happened, for example a new product, new work center, or some important person who has joined to the company. When we write a press release we must be objective, that’s means avoid giving our opinion of the topic we are writing about. A press release should be brief. Generally a press release has the following structure:
The title “PRESS RELEASE” in capital letters
The date
A brief headline, where we introduce the topic of the release.
Summary about the topic we are writing about( It is usually contents a little more information than the headline, but it doesn’t content all the information) Content of the release (here is where we write the entire information)
Contact data (address, telephone ,web and email of the company)
Optionally we can put the logo of the company at the bottom of the release, on the right or on the left side, as a stamp, to confirm that it’s an official document.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
Logo of the company
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
9.EMAIL It’s sending a message via internet. It’s the most used method of communication among companies nowadays. It has some advantages comparing with postal mail. But it also has some disadvantages. Let’s see both:
ADVANTAGES It’s faster than postal mail It’s more eco-friendly, because we don’t need to use any paper.
We need to have an internet connection to be able to send an email, furthermore we need a PC, so we need to pay for that connection and for the PC. We need to have basic knowledge about some computer tools, however nowadays almost everybody have basic notions about informatics.
Emails don’t have a defined structure , but all have three basic elements at the beginning of the email: A sender (email address of the person who is sending the message) A recipient (email address of the person who will receive the message) An issue (The topic you will write about in the email) If we want to write a formal email, as in the example that we are going to see, we will start it the same way that it would be a business letter: -A brief greet like: “Dear Mr./Ms.” Content: -Development of the topic we want to treat, explaining what’s the matter and requesting for that that we want. Conclusion: - Brief farewell, we can use expressions like “ I remain at your disposal for any question you wish to clarify, yours sincerely…” -Signature: It has no signature, but as a signature we will write our name and our position in the company.
Communication&customer service: written communication within the company
DISADVANTAGES
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Communication&customer service: written communication within the company