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.
Additional E-mail Seminar Available
Effective Communications through Enhanced Customer Service
This course is a one-day seminar designed to improve customer service skills of personnel who communicate with clients by telephone and e-mail. The telephone component is a half-day seminar and the e-mail component is a half-day seminar. This training can be booked as a one-day offering or as separate half-day offerings.
Telephone Component:
A Flash of the Obvious - Introduction
Customer wants and needs - an experiential exercise
Common Customer Complaints
Words and phrases that irritate customers
How Do You Sound
Telephone voice self evaluation
A Way with Words
Developing "can-do speak" Re-phrasing exercise
Meeting Challenges
Dealing with upset, angry, dissatisfied, misinformed, demanding or surly customers
Addressing Problems (opportunities)
Seven progressive steps to problem resolution
Why Customers Become Irate
Experiential discovery exercise
The Importance of Listening
How to hear what is not said and confirm what was heard
Voice Mail and General Tele-standards
Departmental greetings, Desk telephone greetings
Telephone Image
Experiential exercise of re-stating common telephone responses
E-mail Component: Six Principles of Effective E-mails
The Organization of an E-mail:
How to organize your information so it's "reader-friendly"
Ways to be E-mail Savvy:
How to respond to customers with sensitivity and political correctness
Following E-mail Etiquette:
How to avoid committing an e-mail faux pas
The Elements of an E-mail Message:
How to make the most of an e-mail's three components
How to Edit your E-mails:
How to evaluate your e-mail's content and organization to achieve a professional appearance
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.
Instructor
Catherine Hibbard
Catherine S. Hibbard is a nationally recognized expert in business and technical writing. She designs and delivers customized training seminars in technical and business writing, writing effective policies and procedures, and proofreading/editing.
Ms. Hibbard's client base, which is diverse and impressive, draws from both corporations and government agencies such as Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), several NASA centers, and numerous military branches. Her corporate clients include Nestlé Purina, Lowe’s, Verizon, and Campbell Soup. She has been awarded contracts for large training initiatives with the Office of Professional Management (OPM), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), New York State Insurance Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
