Professional communication - Essay Example

Critique of a business proposal letter "We are now accelerating the process of replacing all ignition coils in cars potentially affected, whether a malfunction has occurred or not. We are writing to you today to invite you to return to your Audi dealer to have your vehicle updated.If an ignition coil becomes inoperative, the engine and it's electronic controls are designed to keep your vehicle running. Your malfunction Indicator Lamp (MIL) will illuminate and you may experience some deterioration in performance.

This condition may also affect the emissions of your vehicle. You can continue driving and should take your car to the nearest Audi dealer for repair.The update to your vehicle will take less than one hour. Please call the service department of your Audi dealer to schedule an appointment.If you have already incurred out-of-pocket expenses, please write us at the address below, and we'll be happy to reimburse you. Please include any receipts you might have along with your letter.Audi Of America, Inc.

Attn: Customer Relations3499 Hamlin RoadRochester Hills, MI 48309I want to emphasize that taking care of you, our customer, remains our highest priority and we thank you for your patience. If you have any further questions, or require assistance locating an Audi dealer, please visit audi.com or call us directly at 800-822-8987.Thank you for your continued loyalty,sincerely,Len HuntVice President" (TTRicks 2003).First of all, as an important rule of business proposal letter writing serves the need to initially define who will be a reader of a letter, or, if it may have multiple recipients, what is its audience.

In our particular case the letter is addressed to a concrete person, but there is every reason to believe that this letter was actually sent to many people, and thus is audience-oriented in nature. Its audience then is a group of people who have purchased a certain model of Audi, i.e. the existing clients of the company. Although the signature of the letter belongs to the Vice President of the company, the authorship of the letter is presented as if being from Audi company itself. In this situation such an authorship sets clear relations of seller-buyer between the sender of the letter and its recipients.

Moreover, in this case the relations emerge on the ground of sellers responsibility before customers. Therefore, all this sets the task for authors of the letter to at least avoid dissatisfaction from the side of their customers, and show them that everything is being done to minimize their inconveniences, and, on the other hand, the second purpose of the letter can be to use this situation and convince existing customers that Audi company is the one for which customer care is of the paramount importance, and by this to boost the image of Audi.

A distinctive feature of this letter is that while it is a formal one, the language and the structure of it are simple. This is already manifested in the very first paragraph which instantly introduces a reader to the matter without going into preliminary introduction. While this approach is definitely better than excessive attention to general phrases, the beginning of the letter seems nevertheless a bit hurried. On the other hand, this letter seems to be not the first piece of information about the problem with ignition coils sent to Audi customers, and its authors apparently presuppose that the recipients are already acquainted with the matter.

Moreover, if the customers have already been informed about the potential problem, or even actually encountered it, then such quickness in letters pace is even necessary in order to show that immediate action is taken and avoid possible customer irritation. For this purpose the energetic tone chosen for the letter is also helpful. The authors of the letter also managed to compress quite a lot of information into a relatively short space which should incline readers not to postpone reading the letter.

This was possible due to such an organization of the letter when the most important information is inserted into the text, and for possible specific questions from customers website and phone number are indicated. Also, the text of the letter has clear separation between blocks of information, a method which strengthens the positive impression. Building on this aspect of letters organization, it must be noted that authors did right in devoting separate paragraphs to highlighting of the fact that customers will have only minor inconveniences related to replacing of ignition coils, and that customers can have reimbursement of their related expenses.

This fact satisfies the important condition of composition of business proposal letters which requires that the author should clearly emphasize interests of the reader. From the first sight, the address offered for sending of receipts can be taken for the end of the letter. While in fact it is not, the paragraph that follows can be recognized as the postscript. Considering the fact that most people who open a one-page letter usually initially look in the end of it to see the signature of the sender, this paragraph could actually become very important and serve as the main message of the letter.

In this case the statement of the highest priority of custom care as the main principle of the company can help in winning the favor of the reader.All in all, I believe that this letter is an example of a very good communication. However, this would be true only if we correctly determined its context (i.e. that it is not the first letter sent to a customer on the subject of ignition coils problem). In this case the letter manages to provide an adequate approach to the solution of the problem and shows resolution in actions of Audi company.

SourcesGuffey, M. E. (2000). Business Communication: Process and Product. South-Western Pub.TTRicks. (2003, August 19). I found this recent letter from AOA about replacingthe coilpacks. AudiWorld TT Discussion Forum [online]. Available: http://forums.audiworld.com/tt/msgs/925978.phtml (12 June 2005)