Enhancing Customer Relations: Business Communication Case Study

This case study discusses how a bank hosted an end of year dinner party to enhance customer relations. It includes a staff email, guest letter, progress report, final report, and self-assessment. The importance of effective communication in a business environment is highlighted.

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Business Communication
Student’s Name
Course
Date

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Staff Email
To: Staff@Commonwealth_bnk.
From: CM@Commonwealth_bnk.
Subject: Invitation to the end of year dinner party.
Dear colleagues,
You are all invited to attend the end of year dinner party which will be held at the Westin Hotel
at Martin Place, Sydney. The event will kick off at 6.00PM sharp and end at 11.00PM in the
evening on 15th December 2018. Alongside, there will be a range of entertainment and three-
course dinner served at the event.
The event will be attended by the bank’s top management and also the board directors of the
bank. The main theme of the event will be enhancing customer relations. The management will
be addressing the event in order to express their honest appreciation for all of your hard work
and all the generous input that you have put toward the success of the bank.
This being an organizational event, you are all asked to dress formally for the party and observe
protocol.
Ensure that you have informed the human resource manager, Mr Mathew, in case you are
unable to attend the party before 10th December 2018.
Thank you and I look forward to seeing you all at the party.
Best regards,
Student’s name,
Communication Manager,
Commonwealth Bank.
Guest letter
Mark Andrew

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The Chairman
National Banking Corporation
P.O. BOX 12, George Street
Sydney
Dear Mark,
It is with great pleasure that I invite you to our end of year dinner party as the guest of honour
that will be held at the Westin Hotel at Martin Place, Sydney. The event will kick off at 6.00PM
sharp and ends at 11.00PM in the evening on 15th December 2018. Alongside, there will be a
range of entertainment and three-course dinner served at the event.
The event will be attended by the bank’s top management and also the board directors of the
bank. The major theme of this event will be enhancing customer relations. Being a respected
person and having served in the banking industry for over 25 years now, we would like you to
deliver a speech on creating better relations with the customers. We expect our employees to
benefit a lot from this party. From our annual reports, it is clear that we need to improve
greatly on the relationships with our customers so as to maximize our profits come to the next
annual report. The employees will be excited and eager to learn a lot from your experience as
you are a very well respected figure in the banking industry.
This being an organizational event, we humbly request you to dress in your formal attire.
For any further enquiries about the party, you may contact my deputy, Mrs Mary, Jane at 0555-
2844946121. You can also send her an email at DP.CM@Commonwealth_bnk. Please confirm
your attendance before 5th December 2018.
We highly appreciate your presence at the party and will be looking forward to seeing you
soon.
Thank you.

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Sincerely,
Student’s Name
Communications Manager
Commonwealth Bank.
Progress report
Date: 29th November 2018
From: The Communications Manager
To: The Chief Executive Officer
Subject: Progress on the preparations for the dinner party.
Background
On the 15th of December, the bank will host its end of year party. The event will be held at the
Westin Hotel at Martin Place in Sydney. The party is scheduled to start from 6.00pm to 11.00
pm in the evening. This being an organizational party, those expected to attend will include the
bank’s top management officials, shareholders, employees, customers and special guests. The
main theme of the party will be enhancing better customer relations.
Venue
The venue of the event will be at the Westin Hotel at Martin Place in Sydney. The human
resource has already booked and paid for the venue. The Westin Hotel is a hotel that offers a
five-star accommodation and is spacious enough to accommodate over two hundred guests.
This was one of the reasons that we chose it to be our venue. The hotel also offers a discount
depending on the packages that one is booking. It offers a delicious menu for its guests. The
organization has also selected its menu for the party and has settled on a three-course dinner.
The is currently finalizing on the menu for the big occasion. We have also book various
entertainers such as musicians, a DJ and also a corporate MC who will entertain during the
party.

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Communication
Communication of the party is still going on and the organization is ensuring that we do not
leave anyone out on the big occasion. An email has been sent out to all the employees inviting
them to attend the party and also confirm their attendance. Only three employees have
confirmed that they will not be attending the event due to various reasons are best known to
them. Invitations to the customers are being sent via text messages and emails inviting them to
attend the party. We have also invited the chairman of the national banking corporation and we
are waiting for him to confirm his attendance. The CEO for Australian Stock Exchange has
already confirmed he will be in attendance. Three more special guests are yet to send their
confirmations.
There have been no issues reported so far concerning the planning of the planning and there
are high chances the event will be a success.
Final report
Introduction
The bank hosted a successful dinner party at the Westin Hotel. The party was attended
by high-end figures in the banking industry such as the chairman of the national banking
corporation and politicians. Also in attendance were the bank’s top management, shareholders,
employees and its clients. The major theme of the event was enhancing better customer
relations. The event kicked off at 6 pm and ended at around 11.30 in the evening.
Events at the party
The guest speaker was the chairman of the national banking corporation who gave a
wonderful speech about creating better customer relations. This was important so if the bank
wanted to win new and the loyalty of the customers. The speaker suggested that the bank
should improve its communications with the customers. This would help get feedback from the
customers. Interactions between the customers and the bank through social media needs to be

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improved. The speaker also suggested that the bank needed to reward their customers. Loyal
customers needed to be rewarded for their loyalty by offering them gift vouchers and free
holiday tips.
Conclusion
The dinner party was a success and both the bank and its clients gained a lot. They were
able to interact and have fun together. They learnt a lot especially from the guest speaker who
advised the employees on how to improve their relationships with the customers.
Self-Assessment
There has been a tremendous change of reasoning and carrying out my activities since I
started taking classes in business communication and academic learning. The unit’s main
agenda is equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge of communication in a
business environment (Chesher and Kaura, 2012). In the 21st century, most workplaces have
had a great change and require a person who can communicate effectively in a wide range of
challenging circumstances. Due to evolving cultural practices in the working environment, there
is a great need for someone to have the effective skills and knowledge for communicating with
colleagues at workplaces (Stuhec, 2010). The units also offer students with the great effective
writing skills so as to enhance organizational communication ability. This unit is applicable in
effective business writing at a high level, interpersonal skills, and verbal and nonverbal
communication across various teams and cultures. In a business environment communication is
done through writing and verbally (Ricci, AutoConnect Holdings, 2016). Writing communication
is done through various documents that include reports, business letters and memorandums.
Verbal communication is through the exchange of ideas and knowledge through the mouth. It
can be in meetings, workshops or even discussions. These skills will enable one to tackle the
range of current and emerging business problems (Elmore, Hoeser, Horn, Horne, 2010). By the
end of the course, a student is required to demonstrate a good understanding of writing
business letters, effective business communications, interpersonal communications, developing
and delivering effective presentations, and effective problem-solving skills (Weyer and Javaher,
2010). The students should develop writing skills for electronic communication and social

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media. This course and unit are offered all across many universities in Australia. Due to the
emerging different issues in the business environment in Australia, universities have opted to
introduce this unit so as they can produce graduates who have the skills and knowledge of
tackling these issues.
I have gained a lot of knowledge and skills since I started taking classes in this unit.
Before, I was a shy person who could not stand in front of people and communicate effectively.
I was afraid of looking my audience straight into the eyes and could not deliver an effective
speech. I noticed that my audience was not attentive most of the time that I delivered a speech,
especially in class. I could see various students looking out the window, chewing gum and even
playing with objects. This was a clear indicator that I was not delivering the perfect speech and
did not have the best communication skills when it comes to communicating to a large crowd of
people (Kotz, Kozubowski and Podgorski, 2012). I was not able to write an effective speech. My
speech did not follow the correct order. My major and strong points came in between the
speech and this I was not able to capture the attention of the audience. When asked to write
business documents such as reports, memorandums and business letters, I did not follow the
correct format. This gave me the reason why some of the business letters that I wrote were not
replied. I lacked the negotiation skills and conflict management skills too.
So far so good, there was a great change since I undertook the unit. The knowledge and
skills that I have acquired from the lessons, I believe that has had a great impact in my life. I am
able to deliver a speech to a large audience without being shy as I was before. I am able to
capture the attention of the audience which makes me a good public speaker. The audience is
never looked outside as before or even playing with objects. These are clear indicators that I
have clearly captured the attention of the audience and it is attentive. Such skills are important
in the business environment such as reading the business reports for an organization (Wright,
2011). As a good public speaker, this means that one should not make his/her speech boring
since one wants to capture the attention of the audience which includes the customers,
shareholders and even the organization’s management (Fisher, 2010). Coming up with a speech
is not an ambiguous problem like it used to be before. I have learnt the basic steps of writing an
effective speech. There is a format for writing a speech. Which requires one to start with the

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main points and end with the weak points (May, Thompson and Hebblethwaite, 2012). The
language during such presentations needs to be formal as it involves interacting with the high
ranking business people and officials. Organizations are looking for individuals who have the
skills in delivering proper speeches and presentations (Davis and Yin, 2011). I have gained the
skills of writing business documents with the correct formats. Business documents such as
reports, memorandums and business letters are very important to every organization.
Memorandums are used in organizations to communicate important notices to employees and
customers (Ericsson, Hoffman, Kozbelt and Williams, 2018). This may include business meetings
and providing suggestions to problems. Business letters are important especially with
communicating the organization’s officials and customers. Reports are important as they are
used to deliver sales reports and also the progress of an activity in the organization (Bailey,
2011). Such skills are important for every employee as they will foster better relationships
between other employees and the clients. It is viewed that better communication skills will
always yield to better relationships (Karmas, 2011).
The skills learnt from this unit require a lot of practice to perfect. This is because it
involves mainly communicating through verbally and writing. Different scholars have proved
that practice makes it perfect (AlAfnan, 2014). This means that I have to do a lot of practice if I
want the best results. The most important part is listening to my other colleagues speak as this
will help me grasp the most important parts that will enable me to improve my accuracy in
speaking (Bryman, and Bell, 2015). The next part will be speaking. I need to speak to a group of
people or even record myself. I should use the feedback that I get from the group of people so
as to improve my skills. To write effective business documents, I need to read a lot on them and
practice on writing these documents. Using the lecturer's comments to improve on writing
these documents is also very important (Turban, Sharda and Delen, 2010).

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