Providing Information For Customers

The Nobel Peace Prize awardee Prof. Wole Soyinka often argued that you should put your thoughts in writing because learning to write is learning to think. Unfortunately, customer service can’t be performed from a script. When you are on stage and interacting with your customers, the script has to be in your head, not on paper. However, you still need writing skills.

Writing organizes the messages you want to communicate and enables you to choose and edit your ideas into their most effective formats. As a result, while you may not be responsible for a lot of writing in customer service, you will constantly use the patterns and forms of communication that writing introduces.

Learning those patterns – referred to as principles in the readings for this unit – becoming comfortable with those formats, and shaping your words for maximum impact enable customer service experts to communicate with clarity, efficiency, and impact, whether that is done on paper, face-to-face, or just in your brain.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.

Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1. Explain the differences between oral and written communication;
2. Distinguish among the uses of different writing styles;
3. Identify when different written forms of business communication should be used;
4. Demonstrate an understanding of document organization and structure;
5. Discuss the elements needed to compose a business document that is clear, persuasive, and easy to understand; and
6. Critique an example of business writing.

Course Curriculum