Definition of Application letter, Inquiry letter, Complaint letter, and Purchase order letter

1. Application Letter

Application letter is merely another name for a cover letter, the official business letter often included with a job application and/or resume and sent to a prospective employer. Although application letters are generally considered optional components of applying for a job, more and more frequently, employers are singling out those who actually take the time to write an application letter as their top picks.

Seven elements of a highly effective job search cover letter:

1.     ADDRESS your cover letter to a REAL PERSON! Do your best to find out TO WHOM you should address your cover letter. “Dear Manager” is lifeless.

2.    OPEN with an attention-grabbing first sentence to really grip the reader. This approach will almost guarantee your cover letter and resume get a much closer look.

3.      REMEMBER — Less is MORE! The best cover letters have plenty of white space. Clear, focused, short and sweet gets the interview every time.

4.     FOCUS on what you can do for the employer. How can you benefit the company specifically? Do a little research and relate this value-added simply and clearly in your letter.

5.     CHOOSE WORDS that show enthusiasm and passion for the position you seek … (big, big secret!) Then, carry this passion into the interview with you.

6.     REQUEST ONE ACTION you want the employer to take: “I would really like the opportunity for a personal interview this week.” (You never know until you ASK)!

7.      END your cover letter with enthusiastic and telling verbiage, such as, “I look forward to being interviewed at your earliest convenience. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Sincerely, Jane Jobseeker.” (Notice how Jane assumes she’ll land the interview? This approach is clever, smart, and it works like a charm).

Think of your cover letter as a sales letter. The only purpose of your job-search cover letter is to land you job interviews. That’s the bottom line. By using the proven marketing strategies I’ve outlined above, you will land a great number of quality job interviews than your competition.

You must get your foot in the company door first to have any chance at all. With the right cover letter, you can blow several doors wide open immediately. More job interviews translate to a wider range of opportunity and (drum roll, please) … more job offers.

Finally, the most important advice I can offer you is this: Follow up every job lead, contact, and communication. Following up is the “golden key” to getting hired for the job of your dreams. Use follow-up cover letters, thank-you letters, and follow-up phone calls. Following up actually doubles your chance for success. It is also the one missing ingredient in 99 percent of all job seekers recipe book. Good news for you.

Example :

Mr. George Gilhooley 

XYZ Company 

87 Delaware Road 

Hatfield, CA 08065 

(909) 555-5555 

george.gillhooley@email.com

Dear Mr. Gilhooley,

I am writing to apply for the programmer position advertised in the Times Union. As requested, I am enclosing a completed job application, my certification, my resume and three references.

The opportunity presented in this listing is very interesting, and I believe that my strong technical experience and education will make me a very competitive candidate for this position. The key strengths that I possess for success in this position include:

I have successfully designed, developed, and supported live use applications

I strive for continued excellence

I provide exceptional contributions to customer service for all customers

With a BS degree in Computer Programming, I have a full understanding of the full life cycle of a software development project. I also have experience in learning and excelling at new technologies as needed.

Please see my resume for additional information on my experience.

I can be reached anytime via email at george.gillhooley@email.com or my cell phone, 909-555-5555.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to speaking with you about this employment opportunity.

Sincerely,

ALI BABA

2. Inquiry Letter

 Inquiry letter is a tool of collecting information about people, products and prices. It plays vital role in making decisions relating to employment, purchase and sale of goods. Prospective employers extensively use inquire letter to collect information about job candidates. In modern time, it is very customary that job applicants mention one or more references in their job application. Prospective employers write inquiry letters to those referees mentioned by applicants. In addition to employment purpose, inquiry letter is written to collect information about business enterprises that want to make credit purchase. Sometimes, inquiry letter is also written to obtain price quotation, cataloger, terms and conditions of sales etc. with the growth and expansion of a business, utility of inquiry letter increases.

Contents or elements of personal status inquiry letter or, factors to be considered in writing inquiry letter about a person.

When a prospective employer writes letter to a referee for obtaining information about a job applicant, it is called personal status inquiry letter. The following contents should be included in the personal status inquiry letter:

Name and address of the applicant: The enquirer must mention full name and address of the applicant in the letter. This helps the receiver to identify the right person.

Cause of inquiry: In a personal status inquiry letter, the sender must clarify the cause of writing it. This enables the receiver to supply necessary and relevant information.

Information needed: The employer must clarify the type of information he requires. The employer may ask for information relating to educational attainments, character, habits, honesty, sincerity and family background of the applicant.

Promising to maintain secrecy of information supplied: An important aspect of inquiry letter is to assure the receiver that information provided by him will be kept secret.

Assuring further cooperation: The writer of the letter should also assure the receiver that similar help would be provided to him in future if he needs.

Expressing gratefulness: The sender should express gratitude or thanks to the receiver for cooperation. The writer can express gratefulness by some friendly comments like “Any cooperation will be highly appreciated” or “Thank you in advance for your response.”

Enclosure: The sender should enclose a return envelope with the letter. If facilitates quick response from the receiver.

Signature: At the end of the letter, sender should put his signature along with his full name and position.

Five tips for writing an inquiry letter:

• Begin your letter by stating who you are and giving your status or position.
• Clearly state what it is that you are inquiring about and what you would like the recipient of your letter to do. Make your inquiry as specific as possible.
• You might want to briefly explain the purpose of your letter or what you hope to accomplish.
• Include the date by which you need the information, services, etc. that you are requesting, and indicate that you await the reader’s response.
•  Thank the person for his/her time.

Example :

        

3. Complaint Letter

Complaint letter definition can be described in many ways. A complaint letter is the part of written communication. In general word complaint letter means a letter which is written to submit a complaint to the authority. And it is generally done when other way of complaint are failure like phone, email etc. However here we provide complaint letter definition in formal way.

Complaint Letter Definition

A Complaint letter is a request for an adjustment. In other words, it is a letter that describes about the damage; errors or mistakes happened to the delivered goods and therefore claims for compensation is known to be a complaint letter.

In modern age, the chain of business is not limited within the boundary of country. As business is expanding, its complexities are also increasing. So, mistake or fault is not a strange matter in the arena of business. There may be wrong delivery of goods shipment of obsolete, poor quality or underweight goods, faulty packing, delivery after the specified date and other damages to the goods shipped. In the above cases, buyer is supposed to suffer financial loss and therefore he has every reason to complaint to the seller demanding compensation. Hence a letter is used to serve such purpose is called complaint letter.

To draft such a letter, buyer must have valid grounds to explain that he has suffered financial loss or otherwise there will be misunderstanding which may damage business relation buyer requires special care with the art of convincing the seller. Clarity and courtesy are the important factors to write a letter of complaint. The complaint should be made politely without showing any sign of anger.

Causes of Drafting Complaint Letter or, Sources of Mistakes giving rise to Complaints

The following are usual causes for which a complaint letter is drafted:

1.      Problem with the delivered goods: If the goods that are delivered are :

Under weight,

Obsolete,

Defective,

Incomplete,

Not according to buyer’s specification such as color, brand, size etc.

Wrong or poor quality; then buyer can make a claim to the seller for the mistake.

2.    Pricing: If there is any mistake in preparing the invoice of the shipped goods, then such letter is written.

3.      Packing: Faulty or poor packing of the goods causes damage to the goods which can be claimed to the seller.

4.      Transport: Goods are supposed to be shipped according to convenience of the buyer. But if wrong carrier is used it may call for writing such letter.

5.      Terms & Condition: If the terms and condition of business are violated by the seller then such a letter is placed.

6.      Faulty Insurance: If insurance coverage is not made properly according to instruction of the buyer, then there may be claim through complaint letter.

 On the above grounds, buyer can complaint but it must be in a decent and polite way.

Example :

56 Disgruntled Street
Somewhere Unhappy
1AM MAD

Customer Service Manager
That Awful Company
Somewhere Awful
UR BAD

June 15, 2008

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing today to complain of the poor service I received from your company on June 12, 2008. I was visited by a representative of That Awful Company, Mr. Madman, at my home on that day.

Mr. Madman was one hour late for his appointment and offered nothing by way of apology when he arrived at noon. Your representative did not remove his muddy shoes upon entering my house, and consequently left a trail of dirt in the hallway. Mr. Madman then proceeded to present a range of products to me that I had specifically told his assistant by telephone I was not interested in. I repeatedly tried to ask your representative about the products that were of interest to me, but he refused to deal with my questions. We ended our meeting after 25 minutes without either of us having accomplished anything.

I am most annoyed that I wasted a morning (and half a day's vacation) waiting for Mr. Madman to show up. My impression of That Awful Company has been tarnished, and I am now concerned about how my existing business is being managed by your firm. Furthermore, Mr. Madman's inability to remove his muddy shoes has meant that I have had to engage the services, and incur the expense, of a professional carpet cleaner.

I trust this is not the way That Awful Company wishes to conduct business with valued customers—I have been with you since the company was founded and have never encountered such treatment before. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss matters further and to learn of how you propose to prevent a similar situation from recurring. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

4. Purchase Order Letter

As per the life cycle of a product an enquiry about it does not always end in a sale. Once a customer likes a product it results in a sale but only through a verbal order or a written one. A Purchase Order is the document that initiates the purchase and helps close the sale. In today’s times of multiple companiesavailable for all products, there is some amount of trust in the customer and even a verbal confirmation of an order is acceptable. But most of the times it is only against some advance.

A Purchase Order Letter is a document that confirms to the seller that the customer in a specified time frame requires a particular quantity of the product. Nowadays one company to the other confirming the order, which is generally a bulk order, writes Purchase Order Letters or it is written by an individual to a company again in the case of placing a bulk order.

DOS AND DON’T’S OF PURCHASE ORDER LETTER

·         A Purchase Order Letter should be written as soon as the decision for the purchase has been made.

·         The company with whom the order is being placed should be given enough time to execute the order.

·         The letter should clearly indicate the product code or item number, the size and the quantities being ordered.

·         The date when the Purchase Order Letter is being generated is very important because that identifies when the order was placed.

·         If the order is being placed by a company then it usually should be in a Purchase Order format.

·         The Purchase Order Letter should also indicate the date by when the order is expected to be executed or delivered.

·         The mode of delivery of the material should also be identified in the letter.

·         The letter should also carry the mode of payment by which the payment will be made.

·         If any advance has already been paid against the order, it must be mentioned in the Purchase Order Letter.

·         The address where the order has to be delivered should be very clearly mentioned in the letter along with any landmarks, if any, to locate the address.

·         The Purchase Order Letter should give the details of the costing of the price including taxes, etc so that there is no confusion while making the payment.

·         The name of the company or dealer with which the order is being placed should be clearly written on the letter to avoid any miscommunication of details.

·         There is no scope for any grammatical or punctuation errors in the Purchase Order Letter,

·         The contents of the letter must be carefully read through to ensure that the order details have been correctly mentioned.

·         The Purchase Order Letter should ideally be typed but the signatory should personally sign it.

SAMPLE PURCHASE ORDER LETTER

_____________ (Name and address of company with whom order is being placed)

_____________ (Date)

Subject: Purchase Order for 1000 pairs of socks

Dear Sir or Madam

This is with reference to our meeting on ___________ (date) when we visited your factory in connection with purchase of socks for our school children.

We are pleased to place an order for 1000 pairs of white summer socks against item number ___________ and size _________. We would appreciate if the order is delivered at the address given below latest by ____________ (deadline date) so that we can start selling it to the children before the onset of summers.

___________________ (Name and address where delivery will be made)

The terms and conditions of the purchase order are as follows:

1. Order for 1000 pairs of white summer socks with item number _________ and size __________.

2. Delivery will be made at the address mentioned above.

3. The order should be delivered latest by __________.

4. 100% payment will be made on delivery.

5. If the order is not delivered by the due date, please consider it as cancelled.

6. The price per pair, as mutually agreed, is Rs. ___________ inclusive of all taxes.

We hope to have a long business relationship with you.

Please feel free to contact the undersigned for any clarifications or discrepancy in the order details.

Best regards,

(Name of signing authority)

Source :

http://www.quintcareers.com/effective-cover-letter/

http://www.neodv8.co/2013/12/contoh-application-letter-cv-inggris.html

http://thebusinesscommunication.com/overview-of-inquiry-letter-elements-of-personal-status-inquiry-letter/

http://cyberu-finch.blogspot.co.id/2012/11/inquiry-letter.html

http://www.businesscommunicationarticles.com/complaint-letter-definition/

http://www.letters.org/order-letter/purchase-order-letter.html