Business Communication Skill

Report on

Communication Related problems

In

Email

Submitted to: Mrs V Chandra

 Submitted
By:
Aditya Bikram Shah (061)

Ammerender Singh (067)

Ankur Agarwal (073)

Anshuman Gupta (074)

Ashish Aggarwal (076)

INDEX

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1.
Introduction………………………………………………………
……………………..2

2. Problem
1…………………………………………………………………………
………3

3.
Problem2……………………………………………………………
……….................5

4.
Problem3……………………………………………………………
……………………6

5. Problem
4…………………………………………………………………………
……..8

6. Problem
5…………………………………………………………………………
……10

7.
Conclusion…………………………………………………………
…………….…….12

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 INTRODUCTION

In today’s business environment, we rely more and more on

technology to communicate with one another. Our ability to
communicate has been greatly enhanced, and our choices for
communication media are ever expanding. From cellular telephones,
to Email, fax machines to Palm Pilots, communication devices are
linked to the way we do business now more than ever before. This
new technology has had many positive benefits for the business
world. Unfortunately, since the range of options has expanded at such
a quick rate, many people seem to be unaware of how best to use the
devices they now have. It is essential to develop an awareness of how
technology should best be used to avoid negative outcomes for
employees and the workplace in general. Twenty years ago, people
did not even know what “Email” was. Now, phrases like “IM me” or
“Google it” are commonplace, household terms that seem inseparable
from our personal or business lives. But most people don’t know how
to properly use these new advances.

Email has become an extremely popular form of communication in

both the business and personal communication landscapes, but it can
often lead to major problems if the underlying tone of the email
message is misinterpreted at one end. If the parties involved are in
different emotional states of mind, the slightest disagreement via
email can quickly spiral out of control leading to a full blown
argument. The email communication breakdown occurs because…
let’s face it, we all aren’t poets. Seasoned poets can clearly exhibit
brilliant emotion in their writing, but the average email
communicator’s intended written emotion gets lost in translation.

As soon as email writers start using text phrases to characterize

emotion that would normally be delivered via physical body language,
the intended message could be misunderstood by the reader due to a
complete misinterpretation of the writer’s emotional tone. It’s also
important to note that intentional sarcasm in an email message only
makes matters worst. The source of the problem with email
communication deals directly with emotion. Emotion portrayed in a
text based email can be interpreted differently when being read by
different people, in much of the same way that a well written poem or

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set of song lyrics can receive various interpretations by various
people.

PROBLEM 1

Aditya Bikram Shah

SUB: INCOMPLETE EMAIL

This event is related to my business regarding stock markets where

we have a partnership with the company called Svarn Financial
Services Pvt. Ltd. , a Delhi based stock broking entity. The date of the
event was 22 May 2006 when the stock market took a major beating
and went crashing down by 1100 odd points owing to global
meltdown.

We as a routine used to receive daily updates about the possible

outcomes of the market. Our head office had sent us news about
negative market sentiments and that we were ordered not to take
fresh positions for any scripts without taking additional margins from
the clients. I was on a business meet in Delhi and realised an
opportunity of making a fortune for my major client Mr. Chandok, an
HNI. I shot an email to Mr. Yunus, our Terminal manager, confirming
to short sell 2000 Infosys shares @ Rs. 3000 (5 lots *200) against Mr.
Chandok’s account as soon as the market opened at 9:55am.

The error I made was that I didn’t realise that the operator sitting in
the trading terminal was a new one and Yunus, who took care of all
the investments of Mr Chandok, was on leave. I, assuming that Yunus
being there, did not mention the entire details of the trade by
specifying the market type, which was Derivatives. The operator, who
was under pressure owing to several panicky calls from clients and
the crowd of investor in the room, went short in the cash market
instead of Futures.

When the market closed at 3:30 pm I got a mail confirming the final
positions and was shocked to see 2000 shares of Infosys worth
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Rs.60,00,000 short in the cash market against Mr. Chandok’s account.
I went on frenzy and called the office to confirm the position and
realised my mistake of not having sent a detailed email.

I called the Head office to confirm whether they had an additional

2000 shares to cover the short position of the client. Unfortunately
they didn’t as they had to square off the positions owing to the great
meltdown. I had to transfer the sold shares from the clients Demat
account to the company’s Main pool account from where the shares
had to be sent for clearing to the Clearing House the next day as per
the rules of NSE. The idea of disclosing the figures to the clients was
not wise so I had to borrow shares through an off market transfer from
another organisation which gave them to me at a premium of Rs. 50
for each, which I had to bear to meet the shortfall. The entire episode
costed me Rs.100000 which I could never recover.

After about a week I received a call from the client asking me to

explain the reason about the error as he owing to my mistake was
under the scrutiny of the SEBI for making such a huge transaction.
Though I had dispatched a letter to SEBI explaining the same, I lost
the trust of the client as he had to face embarrassment from the
SEBIs probing into his bank accounts. I lost the client finally and could
never retain him and it was a major loss for the business too.

Problem

The problem was relating to an incomplete or not detailed email which

lead to a major problem resulting in a loss of a precious client.

Solution

The only way that the situation could have been avoided was by
sending a detailed and elaborated email mentioning the entire detail
of the transaction. Also a routine phone call confirming the receipt of
the email could have turned the situation around during the trading
hour as on 22 May 2006, the Black Monday of World Stock market.

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 PROBLEM 2

Ammerender Singh

Due to cultural difference across the globe, we have to

sometimes face the problems in recognizing the gender of the person
to whom we are communicating or to whom we have referred in our
email communication.

One of the examples of this problem, which I have encountered, is

given below.

Hi Pat,

This is regarding the CR#77482 "Modify the Design View for Case
screen".

I had a conversation on POD with Sang-Hee regarding the changes

proposed in the above mentioned CR. He's agreed to final
Technical design document draft but has raised the following queries:
-

• Truncation of data in the "feedback column" of Case Screen

window.

• Effect on the performance of the application due to proposed

changes.

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I have scheduled a tele-conference on 26th August, as per Sang-Hee's
request, to discuss these issues. Also, he has requested to extend this
invitation to Ted Tucker.

I will be sending the meeting invitation to all tonight. Please let me

know in case of any issues.

Regards,

Ammerender Singh,

TCS, India

Solution

The person referred here, Sang-Hee is a Korean. She's a female. But I

have assumed that Sang-Hee is a male and have referred her as "he"
in the above email communications. I came to know about this fact,
later on, when Pat Calouri pointed out my mistake.

To overcome these kinds of issues, we should refer the person with

gender neutral pronouns or preferably by the name of person. For
example, in above communication we can replace “he” with “Sang-
Hee”.

PROBLEM 3

Ankur Agarwal

Time difference related: Communications regarding the deadline

and online meetings should be reconfirmed with reference to the time
and day/date in India too. As the time difference between different
time zones in the US and India is varied, it is better to be very specific.
I faced a similar problem, in which I gave the wrong time to our client
and left them wandering with no one in India attending to them.

Dear Phil,

Regarding our previous discussion on the issue of change in code in

the final phase, my team in India wants to discuss some issues about
it. So we are arranging the tele-conferencing meeting for it. The
details are as follows:

When: April 8th 2008, 8:30 pm

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Where: Conference Code is: 68 23 91 75 27

Please let me know if there is a need to reschedule the meeting.

Regards

Ankur Agarwal

Software Engineer

Aricent, India

Problem

The problem here was that I have written the details of the meeting
not in an accurate way. I have written here 8:30 pm which according
to me was right but the client sitting in USA understood that it was
8:30 pm for him. Actually, for him it was 9:00 am in the morning as
the time difference is there between India and USA of around 12
hours. He came at the wrong time and saw that no one was there to
attend to him. He was very angry and shooted a mail to my manager.
It was a big mis-understanding which happens due to time difference
and should be catered to.

Solution

The correct way to send the meeting details in an Email is as follows.

Dear Phil,

Regarding our previous discussion on the issue of change in code in

the final phase, my team in India wants to discuss some issues about
it. So we are arranging the tele-conferencing meeting for it. The
details are as follows:

When: Friday, April 08, 2008, 9:00 am, Mountain Time.

Where: Conference Code is: 68 23 91 75 27

Please let me know if there is a need to reschedule the meeting.

Regards

Ankur Agarwal

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Software Engineer

Aricent, India

PROBLEM 4

Anshuman Gupta

While I was working with "TATA MOTORS" as the Shift Incharge, Mr.S.K
Gupta, the Maintenance Manager of the company who was out of
station for some official work asked me to attend the meeting with the
"Boiler Operation Engineer" Mr. Pawan Dutta of that region to discuss
about the performance of Boiler of the company, as it was found by
the "B.O.E" that the pollution level of the boiler is above the desired
level.

The problem was critical as the negative remark from B.O.E” would
mean closure of the plant until the pollution level of boiler is reduced
below desired level

Mr. S.K Gupta asked me to note down each and every point regarding
the meeting and also to inform him.
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I attended the meeting and did every thing as asked by Mr. S.K Gupta.
The meeting lasted for around 3 hours and ended at around 6 p.m.
The response of Mr. Pawan Dutta was in favour of the company.

After attending the meeting I went back to the company and found
that there was a serious problem with the boiler and plant was closed
for 2 hours due to that problem. I along with other engineers worked
to solve that problem and finally at 8.30 pm the plant was started.

After that I wrote an E-mail to Mr. S.K Gupta regarding the meeting
and the problem due to which plant was closed down.

In the E-mail I wrote a line –"we reached to this conclusion during

the minutes of the meeting."

Next day when Mr. S.K Gupta arrived to the company he called me to
his office. When I want to his office I found that he is not in good
mood.

He asked me why the plant was closed yesterday; I told him that I was
not there in the company when that problem arises. He immediately
asked me that you was not there as the meeting was over by that
time. I told him that meeting was over at 6.00 pm and problem arises
at 5.00 pm.

He told me that "but you have written in e-mail that it lasted for few
minutes".

Then I come to know that he has wrongly understood that "minutes of

the meeting" .

Then I explained him that by "minutes of the meeting" I meant the

key points on which we discussed during meeting.

Solution

The solution to that problem was writing "we reached to this

conclusion during the meeting", Instead of what was written .As the
aim of communication of is to convey the message, so we should use
simple language while writing any letter-mail etc.and also we should
not presume that reader would know that terminology which you are
using.

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 PROBLEM 5

Ashish Aggarwal

Emails these days form an integral part of every person’s life; be it a

kid, a student, a working professional or a retired man. Who would
have thought a decade ago that emails would be the essential
element in an individuals’ life. Just think about living a full day without
checking your email once; many of us would lose quite a lot of
important information and would feel crippled. That is the kind of
impact electronic mails have on our lives these days. The problem I
had pertains to mailing a faculty in my graduation college.

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Situation:

I had just passed out from School and got admission into an
Engineering College. After 1st year I realised that this is not the place I
want to be. I wanted to pursue my further graduation studies from
abroad. Those were the days when Generation-X had been taken over
by Generation-Y. Every youngster followed western culture and I was
one of them. The Westernization effect lead to us using that slang’s in
texting our friends. Students even started using it in the
examinations. Even I was bitten by the western bug and my written
communication frequently involved using slang’s. I needed a
recommendation letter from Head of Department (HOD), Mr. Ajay
Anand. So I e-mailed him regarding the same and excerpts of the
email are shown below:

“sir im applyin 2 d south Carolina state uni fr pursuin mah furthr

studies. I wil b requiring a recommendation letter fr d admin process
of d uni. D lettr is 2 b written by a senior faculty. Plz grant me 1 asap.”

The above email was a huge mistake on my part. Using slang

language in an official mail to one of the most senior most faculty of
my college.

Solution:

One of the main causes for me sending such an email was the
frequent use of slang language in all types of communication. Also my
lackadaisical attitude lead to me committing such a huge mistake. An
email to a faculty asking for recommendation letter should be
addressed properly. Even though it’s an email it should look nice. It
should start with “Dear Mr. Anand” followed by a comma or colon. The
first paragraph should have stated what I want: "I am writing to ask if
you would be willing to write a letter of recommendation for me." Also
I should have included what I wanted him to say about me. I should
have also included when I need the letter, as in, the exact date. A
thank in the end shows your gratitude towards the faculty which was
missing in my case. Such an email should also be followed up with a
call which I did not bother to. So due to non-compliance on my part
and not following the format of an e-mail to a faculty, such an
erroneous mistake was committed.

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 CONCLUSION

A recent report estimated that over 7 trillion emails were sent

worldwide last year. Spam messages are jamming in-boxes across the
globe and the average office worker now gets between 60-200
messages a day.

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While no one denies the obvious productivity gains we've realized
from the efficiencies of email communication, many people find
themselves drowning in all these messages.

Here are tips that will make your email communications more
effective.

• Be clear and concise.

• Double check your message before sending for any mistakes.
• Copy back salient points when replying to an earlier message.
• Specific subject line descriptions.
• Avoid short-cuts and slangs in Email.
• Do not forward Viral message.

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