STUDENTS' CORNER - 125

3PL Partnership

We have looked into the kinds of 3Party Logistics and their objectives. Finally, we discussed the importance of communication skills and the popular barriers to effective communication. All our discussions have been business oriented and we have to therefore say a few words about Business Communication.

Business Communication forms one of the major means of successful and sustainable business. Let us look into Business Communication restricting to basic facts since, again, it is a vast subject taught in some business schools for a semester, to say the least.

Broadly speaking, there are only two major kinds of business communication. When we say business communication, we primarily mean business correspondence. The singular aim of business correspondence is promotion of business which includes primarily maintaining good relationship with customers.

All business letters can be broadly categorized into two kinds: ‘Yes’ letters and ‘No’ letters. And obviously, writing ‘Yes’ letters is comparatively less difficult. It means saying ‘yes’ to the request of the customer, say yes to a project, yes to a product, yes to a price, yes to a compromise, yes to extension, yes to refund , yes to a return of a product, so on. The customer in the end is pleased as his demand or request has been honoured. And, he will not nourish any negative feelings, generally.

The opposite of all such situations constitutes ‘No’ letters. The request of a customer has to be rejected leaving in the end the customer dissatisfied, if not seriously disappointed. It requires tactics, excellent language, simple but effective, putting to use the existing relationship and its context and above all, the genuineness of ‘No’ to convince the customer your inability to comply with his request, professionally. This strategy comes through experience and an earnestness to learn the complexities involved in a No letter.

There are some standard parts of a letter like date, from address, to address, body of the letter, complimentary close followed by the signature; of course, any letter begins with salutations.

The crucial point is the complimentary close which must aim at sustaining the relationship with the customer even in ‘No’ letters.

Having seen some fundamental facts of business communication, let us move on in our next session to discuss how to choose the right 3PL.