Metodología en el desarrollo del blog

When you are complaining about something, do not become aggressive or abusive, especially if it is your first communication. The action – or lack of action – about which you are complaining could well be the result of a genuine error or misunderstanding. We all make mistakes, and it is only common courtesy to give the other person the benefit of the doubt. As we have seen, emotion has no place in business communications; not only is it good manners to be polite and unemotional, it will probably be in your own long-term interests. An aggressive approach might get results, but it could easily make the other person defensive and uncooperative, and it could be at the expense of your long-term business relationship. As always, put yourself in your audience’s shoes. How would you react if you received a letter like the following?

C. J. DOBSON PLUMBER 45 King Street

Brownchurch BC2 1DE Tel. 01987 654321 3 September 20XX

The Manager

National Midland Bank 5 High Street

Brownchurch BC1 2FG Dear Sir/Madam

Are you trying to bankrupt me? Don’t you get enough out of me legally without trying to cheat me as well?

For the last three months my statements have shown interest charges for an overdraft, together with a ‘service charge’ of £50 and ‘transaction charges’ of varying amounts. I was overdrawn by £1,000 for a short period in May, so I expected to pay a small amount of interest in June, and perhaps a small charge. But I did not expect to be penalised for the next three months. Do you realise that you have taken a total of £300 of my money? And for all I know my next statement will show another amount deducted.

This is not the kind of treatment I expect from my ‘friendly High Street bank’. You will please credit my account with the excess you have taken, plus interest, immediately. If I do not receive a corrected statement within a week, I shall take my account elsewhere and report you to the Office of Fair Trading.

EXERCISE 20

If you are working in a group, role-play a short meeting to discuss the Christmas party, based on the agenda you drafted in Exercise 19 (or on the example given in the answer to that exercise).

Then write up the minutes of that meeting. If you are working on your own, write your own minutes of a meeting you have recently attended.

You would hopefully correct the error, but you would not feel very well disposed towards the writer – Charles Dobson would have soured his relationship with an impor-tant person in the success of his business.

Before you start writing, you should have two things clear in your mind:

G What precisely are you complaining about?

G What do you want done about it?

It is no use complaining in a general way – about ‘poor’ service, for example, or ‘shoddy’

workmanship or ‘late’ delivery – unless you have specific details to quote. The other person can only take corrective action if he or she knows precisely where things have gone wrong.

Similarly, they can do little more than apologise if you do not say what corrective action you want taken. This action may simply be to improve the service, workmanship or delivery you receive, but even then you should try to be specific. What level of service do you expect? What do you consider a satisfactory delivery time? And of course, many complaints require more specific action – to issue a credit note, to replace faulty goods, or to compensate you for financial loss.

With the answers to these questions, you should be able to prepare your complaint, which should be in three parts:

G a polite introduction, perhaps pointing out the good relationship you have enjoyed with the other person or organisation so far

G the specific details of your complaint

G a request for corrective action

Overleaf is a letter based on this format.

The Four-stage Approach to Complaining

1 Write a friendly letter, e-mail or memo, or make a friendly call, explaining the nature of your complaint and the action you would like taken.

2 If you do not receive a reply, or no action is taken, contact the organisation or person again, still in a friendly way, but take a slightly firmer line.

3 If you still do not receive satisfaction, drop the friendly tone but remain polite.

4 Finally (and this stage should always be in writing), while remaining polite, threaten some kind of action – withholding payment, reporting your correspondent to the authorities, legal action, whatever seems appropriate to the nature of the complaint.

It is important to keep a record of the date on which you took each action and the outcome, if any, even if you are phoning rather than writing. In that way you can refer back to each stage if necessary.

C. J. DOBSON PLUMBER 45 King Street

Brownchurch BC2 1DE Tel. 01987 654321

3 September 20XX Mr Gordon Marshall Manager

National Midland Bank 5 High Street

Brownchurch BC1 2FG

Dear Mr Marshall

ACCOUNT NO. 43876653

As you know, I have been a customer of your bank for many years, and I have always found you and your staff friendly and efficient. I hope, therefore, that you will be able to correct what I assume is an error in your computer systems.

In May I was overdrawn by £1,000 for a short period, owing to an unexpected repair to my van. I know that I should have cleared the overdraft with you, but as I say, the bill was unforseen. I therefore expected to have to pay interest on that amount, as well as a charge for becoming overdrawn without prior clearance. The relevant amounts were shown on my June statement, and I thought that was the end of it.

However, I have had interest, a service charge and transaction charges deducted in July and August as well, with the result that I have paid a total of £300. I am sure this cannot be correct, and I can only assume that your computer is automatically deducting these charges on the assumption that I am still overdrawn.

I would be grateful, therefore, if you would look into the matter and credit my account with the excess that has been deducted, plus any interest that might have accrued.

I look forward to receiving an amended statement shortly.

Yours sincerely

Charles Dobson

This is friendly and clear, and should achieve Charles Dobson’s objective as well as the pre-vious example, while keeping the relationship with his bank manager on a friendly basis.

EXERCISE 21

You are refurbishing your office and have ordered 30 workstations and chairs. You only receive