Letters and Communication

• Business letters are the most important means of communication to customers and clients.
• When writing a letter, you must

  1. Write from the "you" attitude
  2. Accentuate the positive
  3. Make your letter smile
  4. Make your letter live
  5. Make your letter clear, complete, correct, and neat
• Parts of a letter

  1. Letter head
  2. Date
  3. Inside Address
  4. Salutation
  5. Body of the letter
  6. Closing
  7. Signature
• Part of a letter which contains the company name, address, and telephone numbers

  Letter head
• Part of a letter which contains the date the letter is written

  Date
• Part of a letter which contains the name, position, company, and address of the person to whom the letter is written.

  Inside address
• Part of a letter which contains the greetings such as Dear Sir, Dear Madam, etc.

  Salutation
• Part of a letter which contains the actual subject matter.

  Body of the letter
• Part of a letter which contains the complimentary ending such as Yours truly, Sincerely, Cordially yours, and others.

  Closing
• Part of a letter which contains the handwritten signature and printed name of the letter writer.

  Signature
• Forms of a Business Letter

  1. Block form
  2. Indented form
  3. Semi block form
• Form of a business letter wherein all paragraphs and lines are set on the left margin.

  Block form
• Form of a business letter wherein the address line and paragraph beginnings are indented. The rest of the parts of the letter are set on the left margin.

  Indented form
• Form of a business letter wherein the paragraph beginnings are indented and all the rest of the parts of thee letter are set on the left margin.

  Semi block form
• This allows a prospective customer to see what costs would be involved for the work they would like to have done or product they would like to buy.

  Sales Quotation
• A/an inquiry received by a business is an opportunity to create good will and promote sales.
• Responses should be prompt, courteous, friendly, and give complete answer to the questions asked.
• After you have made a sales letter, seen a prospect or made a sales call, you will find some prospect not completely sold on the product or service. In this case, a/an follow up letter is needed.
• A follow-up letter may contain:

  1. A special offer on a limited supply
  2. The ease of ordering
  3. A simple reminder of the previous letter
• A type of sales letter which its purpose is to sell good reputation and show friendliness of a company.

  Goodwill Letters
• Since most businesses are done on a credit basis, credit letters play an important role in business letter writing.
• Credit is applied and granted upon the submission of information and requirements to guarantee the good paying capacity of a prospective customer.
• Kinds of credit letters

  1. Applying for credit
  2. Asking for credit information
  3. Sending credit information
  4. Making inquiries
  5. Granting credit terms
  6. Denying credit terms
• A collection letter is a reminder to a customer of the unpaid account. Its objective is to collect money without losing the customer.
• Parts of a collection letter

  1. Statement of the account involved
  2. Argument for payment
  3. Appeal or demand for payment
• A claim letter should be written firmly but politely with the assumption that the error will be cheerfully and immediately corrected.
• Routine business letters

  1. Placing orders
  2. Acknowledgement of orders
  3. Change of address
  4. Price increase or decrease
  5. Making travel or hotel reservations
• You can create letter and faxes, mail merge memos, agenda, calendar, resume, brochures, directory, manuals, thesis, reports, and other documents using the MS Word Template.
• A/an letter is a written communication to another person.
• A fax is a telecommunication technology used to transfer documents over the telephone.
• A fax cover sheet is usually the first page of the documents that you are sending.
• A report is a document which presents a specific content submitted to an individual or in public. It is used in business, education, science, and government.
• A resume is a document that contains summary of job experiences, educational attainment, and other important information regarding a person seeking for employment.
• A mail merge is a software function where you can produce documents or mailing from a data source from a spreadsheet or database.
• A data source is a file that contains the information to be merged into your Word document. It may contain name, address, telephone and other information you want to include.