ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION FOR BUSINESS COMMUNICATION JUNE 2021 EXAM

CYCLE

Ans – 1)
Dear Maneka Sir,
I hope you are safe and doing well.
I am reaching out to you because I need a recommendation letter for applying to a new position
of Social Media Manager at Manendra & Manendra. After giving a careful thought, I believe
you are the most suited person who could provide me a recommendation letter considering you
have seen my work as an intern at SuperEventz during the 2018 summer.
While working for you at SuperEventz, I learned a lot about the social media management and
managing the online platforms in general. I understand you know my capabilities very well and
hence can provide the insights into my abilities in a well framed and thoughtful manner that
will substantially improve my chances of getting this new opportunity and role.
The role of Social media manager at Manendra & Manendra is very similar to what I
experienced working at SuperEventz except for the change in industry. Key skills that I learnt
at SuperEventz including Creativity, data interpretation and analysis, digital marketing,
Customer relationship management, building professional networks, Agility, Verbal and
written communications, etc. will help me in excelling in this new role.
Though you already know my work very well, here is a quick recap for your ready reference
of how I learnt the above mentioned skills during the short period of 6 months of my internship:
Creativity: Do you remember how I used to create & publish posts, campaigns, posters etc.
across various platforms such as Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn for marketing of our company
and upcoming events? One of my favourite creative moments was when our sales team come
across the funny Halloween costume tweet by our partners at Freshworks and knowing that we
had our own similar costume, we jumped into action and trolled them badly. Overnight, the
tweet had gone viral and captured lot of eye balls giving us instant market recognition.
When it comes to social media skills, creativity is particularly versatile. As you know one of
the key task of social media manager will be to create content that are visually appealing,
exciting & buzz creating, valuable and differentiating w.r.t competitors, my prior experience
of handling such content and tasks along with a creative mind-set will definitely give me an
edge over the other job seeking candidates.
Data Mining and Analysis: Our end of month reporting used to be a herculean task involving
pile of data analysis and interpretation. The qualitative data analysis was related to timely
responses and finding errors in digital marketing tool optimizations whereas quantitative data
analysis involved tracking the sales figures & expenses, monthly budgeting & resource
allocation, interpreting historical trends etc. Further the use of SAS for all our data analysis is
an added advantage for me because Manendra & Manendra is seeking a person well versed
with SAS tools. Though I am confident of working on SAS, I wish I had more time to work on
that during my internship at SuperEventz.
Professional Networking & making connections: One of the key quality of a successful
social media manager is being inherently social. Establishing and building digital relationships
is a core aspect of any social media manager’s daily routine. Our marketing survey that we did
for XYZ client had found that 65% of consumers want brands to connect with them on social
platforms.
Within a short span of 6 months working with you, I am sure you must have noticed my
networking skills and the proactive approach with which I build and maintain relationship with
various colleagues, customers, people on social platforms etc.
Agility: During the internship and experiencing the culture of SuperEventz, I recognised that
the social landscape moves extremely fast and even the best laid plans can quickly become
irrelevant. The ability to quickly pivot and react to a new trend, opportunity or crisis is an
indispensable social media skill. Being agile and flexible can help a person decisively respond
to an unsatisfied customer or to a loyal fan in equally empathetic and personalized ways.
Further, I realised that it is very important to be agile when it comes to building long-term
strategy. Social strategies have to be as dynamic and flexible as the platforms they rely on. As
a social media manager, it’s important to experiment with different tactics, or even shake up
your strategy entirely, to adapt to new trends, to incorporate business changes or to bounce
back from subpar results.
Before my internship at SuperEventz, I was not much appreciative of this key skill. However,
while working with you, I learnt how to be always on toes.
Communication skills: In our team, you had assigned me the task of interfacing with all team
members seeking their digital marketing ideas, compiling and conducting workshops for
brainstorming the ideas. After the workshops, I used to prepare minutes of meetings for those
sessions. All these tasks along with regular interface with our customers not only helped me in
gaining insights of the digital marketing field but also honed my verbal and written
communications skills. Considering the role of Social media manager at Manendra &
Manendra will involve lot of communication on day-to-day basis with various stakeholders, I
am confident of handling such communications with an ease.
At the end, I want to thank you for paying focused attention to my request. I have attached a
copy of my most recent resume as well as the job description of the role at Manendra &
Manendra for your consideration.
You have always been very helpful and supportive and I am sure you will help again with a
thorough and well-articulated recommendation letter. A human resource representative from
Manendra & Manendra may reach out to you in order to have a background verification and
further clarification about me.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or require additional information.
I will talk to you soon to discuss more about this opportunity.
Thank you very much.
Best Regards
ABC
Ans – 2)
Introduction to Buffer

Relaying a bad news is a tightrope walk for any communicator especially in a business context
as it can impact a company’s brand value. Creating the content and structure to convey a bad
news calls for meticulous thinking. One method often used in business communication is
indirect approach which starts with buffer, followed by main explanation and justification, and
ends on a respectful note.
Buffer is a neutral sentence that is used to make a connection with the reader without being
very apparent about the information which will follow. When an organisation or a person needs
to communicate some bad news in a business communication, a buffer statement is inserted at
the beginning of the correspondence to soften the impact or reduce the severity of the message.
The buffer method is commonly used by senior management, HR, marketing, customer
services representatives etc. to ‘ease the blow’ when liaising with people within a business
context. Rather than being apologetic for the bad news to be disclosed, the buffer statement
prepares the reader for the upcoming news, paving the way for the better cooperation.

Types of Buffer

Various types of Buffer approaches used in business communications are:

1) Agreement Buffer: When a sender knows that the audience of the message will
disagree with him, he needs to find a common ground on which both the parties share
similar thoughts and agrees on. Using such statements at the start helps in connecting
with the reader in an effective manner.
For example, when a company plans to do retrenchment and need to lay off some
employees, the email message buffer could be:
Dear Colleagues,
As you know, recently our company has been going through some of the unprecedented
challenges faced by stiff competition, reduced profit margins etc., it is very important
that we re-evaluate our past actions and plan for future to regain our market position.
To achieve our 2022 targets, we plan to...

2) Cooperation Buffer: In this type of buffer, communicator shows his willingness to

help and be as much supportive as possible. It is typically used when the sender knows
that he can’t fulfil the direct & immediate requirements of the recipient but tries to fill
in the gaps and extend all possible help.
For example: If a customer has purchased a laptop and demands its replacement which
is not possible as per company policy, Cooperation buffer can be:
Dear Mr.ABC,
We are very sorry to hear about the heating issue that you are facing with the new
Laptop and assure you to provide the best possible service. Such heating issues in our
popular XYX series of Laptop is very rare and we had no such complaints from our
customers so far. As per company policy and warranty terms, the replacement is not
possible but our Company engineer will visit...

3) Gratitude or Appreciation Buffer: Appreciation buffer is used to thank the other

party for whatever help they were able to provide in the business dealings. Even though
the positive thing that the other party did was not sufficient or different from what was
 expected, Gratitude buffer is used to start the communication on positive and
appreciative note.
Continuing with previous example of laptop, the buyer can respond with Gratitude
buffer as follows:
Dear TT Team,
I appreciate your quick response to my laptop problem and thank you for assuring the
fastest possible repair service. I would appreciate if you can send the laptop
maintenance engineer by tomorrow considering you repair centre is near to my place...

4) Good News Buffer: If the sender of the message has both positive and negative news
to convey, it plays well to start message with favourable news followed by the bad one.
With this, the recipient gets more cushion to absorb the upcoming bad news when he
already have got some benefit first.
For example, if a company plans to provide option to its employees for doing work
from home with cut in travel allowance, buffer can be:
Dear Colleagues,
Following our last update regarding work from home option, we are pleased to
announce that all employees (barring few roles) can now do work from home. To make
it workable without impacting company costs and to be fair with all employees who
still wants to come to office for doing work, we have to take a cut in...

5) Understanding Buffer: If there is no silver linings in the message, showing that you
care and understand the problem of the recipient & have sympathy with them is a
possible alternative to start with.
For example, if a bank can’t disburse the loan to one of its customer, the company could
start message as:
Dear Mr. NNN,
You have been one of our prime customers for past 10 years and we truly understand
your requirements of Rs. 50 lacs loan for your dream house. Our bank policy, however,
restrict us to disburse a loan of more than Rs.30 lacs, considering your…

After understanding the various types of buffer in business communication, we can conclude
that though the buffer statement helps bring the reader into a positive frame of mind, it is very
important to make a fine balance between buffering and misleading. Since the bad news is
always unwanted, overdoing buffer may cause more harm than good. When done poorly, this
indirect approach can be quite disgraceful and even unethical. The buffer statement should
always remain neutral and never give the reader the impression the succeeding message will
contain good news, when that certainly isn't the case. On the other side, if sender hit the
audience with bad news right away, they may be more distracted with emotion to rationally
process the explanation for what to do about the bad news. When properly framed and created
in a thoughtful manner, buffer is a good method of audience-centred communication structured
with focus on ethics and etiquette.

Ans – 3a)
1) We are unable to process your email order. You will get more prompt service using
the order form on our website.
 2) With credit card, you will experience smooth transaction processing in our store.

3) You can avail 25 percent discount on all 15-inch LCD screens this week as we need
more space in our warehouse for new 19, 23 and 25-inch monitors.

4) I find the position of accounting intern in your office intriguing and considering my
good academic grades, I believe I would be a good fit for it.

5) As requested, your refund of Rs.4500 is being processed.

Ans – 3b)
1) Please fill in every section of the questionnaire we sent you.

2) It seems the question has not been understood correctly.

3) Please ensure processing of refunds for all my costs.

4) While ordering the blouse, the colour choice has been missed.

5) Using the water jet cleaner without following the instructions carefully can result in
damage to the machine or can cause injury to the user.