8: Positive and Negative Messages

Positive (Goodwill) Messages

Goodwill messages are as essential to healthy professional relationships as they are to personal ones. Thank-you, congratulatory, and sympathy notes add an important, feel-good human touch in a world that continues to embrace technology that isolates people while being marketed as a means of connecting them. The goodwill that such messages promote makes both the sender and receiver feel better about each other and themselves. In putting smiles on faces, such notes are effective especially because many people don't send them--either because they feel that they are too difficult to write or because it does not even occur to them to do so. Since praise for someone can be harder to think of and write than criticism, a brief guide on how to do it right may be of help.

Information Shares

Perhaps the simplest and most common routine message type is where the sender offers up information that helps the receiver.

Replies to such information shares involve either a quick and concise thank-you message or carry the conversation on if it's part of an ongoing project, initiative, or conversation. If you are using email, remember to change the subject line as the topic evolves. Information shares to a larger group, such as a departmental memo to 60 employees, don't usually require acknowledgment and would be slightly more formal in tone. If everyone wrote the sender just to say thanks, the barrage of reply notifications would frustrate them as they try to carry on their work while sorting out replies with valuable information from mere acknowledgments. Only respond if you have valuable information to share with all the recipients or just the sender. Pay attention whether you need to Reply All or whether it is sufficient to reply just to the sender. Do not burden others with messages not directly relevant to them.

Information or Action Requests

Managers, clients, and coworkers alike send and receive requests for information and action all day. Because these provide the recipient with direction on what to do, the information that comes back or action that results from such request can only be as good as the instructions given. Such messages must be well organized and clear about expectations, opening directly with a clearly stated general request (unless you anticipate resistance to the request) and proceeding with background and more detailed instructions if necessary. Figure 1 below provides an example of a request email.

Figure 1: Request Email, Communication @ Work

Note that, because we expect action to come of the request rather than a yes or no answer, the opening question does not require a question mark. Never forget, however, the importance of saying "please" when asking someone to do something. Notice also that the list in the message body helps break up dense detail, so the request message is more reader friendly. All of the effort that the writer of the above message made to deliver a reader-centered message will pay off when the recipient performs the requested procedure exactly according to these clearly worded expectations.

If you expect resistance to your request, an indirect approach is more effective. Ideally, you'll make such persuasive pitches in person or on the phone so that you can use a full range of verbal and non-verbal cues. When it's important to present your argument in writing, however, such requests should be clear and easy to spot but buffered by goodwill statements and reasonable justifications.

When responding to information or action requests, simply deliver the needed information or confirm that the action has been or will be completed unless you have good reasons for refusing. Ensure the accuracy of all details and utilize the "you-attitude." Note that sometimes manager approval may be necessary before providing the information. Organizationally, a positive response to an information request delivers the main answer in the opening, proceeds to give more detail in the body if necessary, and ends politely with appreciation and goodwill statements.

Complaints and Claims

Business doesn't always go smoothly and bad customer experience can have long-lasting consequences. Customers can be disappointed with a faulty product or poor service; shipments might get damaged, lost, or arrive late; or one business might infringe on the rights and freedoms of another. In all such cases, customers or clients are likely to make your company aware of what went wrong and what they want o be done about it. Indeed, it's their consumer right to do so and the business or organization receiving such a message should take it as valuable intelligence on customer expectations that must be met for the business to be viable.

A claim explains what went wrong and demands compensation from the offending party while a complaint explains what went wrong and merely demands correction or apology. Minor complaints are best communicated in person, on the phone, or by email (if it's important to have them in writing) so they can be dealt with quickly. More serious complaints or claims are delivered as formal letters to lay down a paper trail in case they need to be used as evidence in a lawsuit.

When customers are reasonable about communicating a problem with a situation or business transaction, the customer service representative or manager dealing with the matter is more likely to respond positively and meet the needs of the client. However, ineffective complaints or claims often merely vent frustrations, issue threats, don'ts say what they want or only vaguely imply it, or demand completely unreasonable compensation. Assume that a business will take your complaint or claim seriously if it's done right because, no matter the industry, companies are rightfully afraid of losing business to negative online reviews. In this day of social media, good customer service is crucial to business survivability. A complaint provides a business with both valuable information about customer expectations and an opportunity to win back a customer--as well as their social network if a good endorsement comes of it from the now-satisfied customer--or else risk losing much more than just the one customer.

Effective complaints or claims are politely worded and motivated by a desire to right wrongs and save the business relationship. They are best if they remind the business that you have been a loyal customer (if that's true) and really want to keep coming back, but you need them to prove that they value your business after whatever setback prompted the complaint. If the writer of such message strikes the right tone, they can end up getting more than they originally bargained for.

Complaints and claims take the direct approach of message organization even though they arise from dissatisfaction. They follow the usual three-part message organization.

Adjustment Letters

If a company grants what the customer has asked for, communicating this is called an adjustment message. An adjustment letter or email is heavy on courtesy in letting the disappointed customer know that they are valued and will be (or have already been) awarded what they were asking for, and possibly even a little extra. In the case of coupons for discounts on future purchases, the little extras help smooth things over and win back the customer's confidence, hopefully so they will tell their friends that the store or company is worthy of their business after all.

An adjustment message takes the direct approach by immediately delivering the good news about granting the customer's request. You may start with an apology, but starting on a purely positive note is more effective, especially in a written message. Tone is also important here; resist the urge to shame the customer--even if they are partly to blame or if part of you still suspects that the claim is fraudulent. If you are going to grant the claim, write it whole-heartedly as if others will be able to see it and judge whether your company has good customer service or if you are going to be difficult about it.

Though a routine adjustment letter might skip a message body, a more serious one may need to go into more detail about how you are complying with the request or take the time to explain what your company is doing to prevent the error again. Doing this makes the reader feel as though making the effort to write will have made a positive impact in the world, however small, because it will benefit not only them but also everyone else who will not have to go through what they did. Do not make empty promises, though.

An apology might also be appropriate in the body of the message, but be aware that apologizing is tricky. It is essential to winning back customer confidence in some situations, but it also leaves you or your company open to legal action in others. For minor matters, admitting fault with an apology usually helps vindicate or validate the customer. In more serious matters, especially involving injury or damage to property or even someone's reputation (and thus their earning potential), a written apology might be read as admitting fault and be used as evidence in court. For this reason, it is best to ask a manager or legal department for guidance on apologizing to a customer or other stakeholder in writing.

If apologizing is appropriate because you genuinely erred, no legal repercussions are expected, and it is the right thing to do when trying to calm an angry response and mend a damaged business relationship, ensure that the apology has the following characteristics:

• Sincere - Saying "We are genuinely sorry that you were disappointed with the customer service experience" is a good first step, but it requires some additional assurances to prove it.
• Responsible - Own the error by admitting fault (again, only if you are at fault and it does not open you to litigation). Say what should have happened versus what actually happened and acknowledge that you were wrong.
• Specific - To be sincere, an apology must refer to a specific error by briefly describing it, possibly including dates, locations, and the names of product or service. The worst apologies are blanket, generic statements such as "We are sorry if anyone was offended by our actions." On the other hand, it is unprofessional to throw your employees under the bus or to vent about the situation in your company that might have contributed to the problem. These issues should be dealt with within the business.
• Improvement-focused - An apology is useless unless it includes some assurances that you will make every effort for the error to not happen again. Simply saying it won't happen again is not convincing and might sound as an empty promise. Instead, describe what will be done to ensure improvement. When Starbucks apologized for a racist incident at one of its locations in 2018, for instance, it followed through on a plan for improving customer service by shutting down all of its stores for a half-day racial sensitivity training for employees.