Business Writing:Writing E-mails, Memos, and Letters that Work

This class is designed to make business writing easier and more effective for the busy professional. Are your letters too long? Do you spend too much time writing simple memos? Does the task of answering a complaint letter seem daunting?

Topics include:

• Organizing memos and letters
• Using bullet points effectively
• Creating "reader-friendly" documents
• Choosing the correct pattern of development
• Shaping your response to letters with impact
• Producing professional e-mail

Participants will benefit by learning:

• Six principles of good memo writing
• Five steps for achieving clarity and brevity
• The format for a standard business letter
• How to achieve results by selecting the right tone
• Ways to manage incoming and outgoing e-mail

Seminar tips:

• Organize your memos like a newspaper reporter. Your most important point should be made in the first paragraph.
• Use symbols instead of numbers to set off your bullet points. Numbers suggest priority or sequence; symbols are egalitarian and suggest items equal in importance.
• The average length of a sentence in a business document should be between 15-20 words.
• Consider using specialized e-mail marketing SMTP software to track which writing strategies have the greatest impact.

Additional E-mail Seminar Available

Effective Communications through Enhanced Customer Service

This course is a half-day seminar designed to improve customer service skills of personnel who communicate with clients by telephone and e-mail.

Telephone Component:

1. A Flash of the Obvious - Introduction

   Customer wants and needs - an experiential exercise

2. Common Customer Complaints

   Words and phrases that irritate customers

3. How Do You Sound

   Telephone voice self evaluation

4. A Way with Words

   Developing "can-do speak" Re-phrasing exercise

5. Meeting Challenges

   Dealing with upset, angry, dissatisfied, misinformed, demanding or surly customers

6. Addressing Problems (opportunities)

   Seven progressive steps to problem resolution

7. Why Customers Become Irate

   Experiential discovery exercise

8. The Importance of Listening

   How to hear what is not said and confirm what was heard

9. Voice Mail and General Tele-standards

   Departmental greetings, Desk telephone greetings

10. Telephone Image

    Experiential exercise of re-stating common telephone responses

E-mail Component: Six Principles of Effective E-mails

1. The Organization of an E-mail:

   How to organize your information so it's "reader-friendly"

2. Ways to be E-mail Savvy:

   How to respond to customers with sensitivity and political correctness

3. Following E-mail Etiquette:

   How to avoid committing an e-mail faux pas

4. The Elements of an E-mail Message:

   How to make the most of an e-mail's three components

5. How to Edit your E-mails:

   How to evaluate your e-mail's content and organization to achieve a professional appearance

6. Using a Spell Checker Program:

   What can Spell Check do-and what can't it do

Seminar Tips:

• Read your e-mail more than once, and be sensitive to the possibility of various interpretations.
• When talking to a customer, avoid thinking of what to say next while the other is speaking.
• State your main idea at the beginning of your e-mail-readers want to know what you are writing about as soon as they start to read.
• Don't assume you know what the customer is going to say and let your attention lapse.
• Keep your e-mails narrow in scope-follow the adage, "One e-mail/one topic.