1) Show how you appreciate the suggestion.

Sample sentences:
We appreciate your time to let us know on how we can improve our ordering system to serve you better.

Mary and I carefully studied your suggestion and we have decided that we will include your suggestion in our operations manual for the betterment of our services.

Thank you for calling our attention regarding the quality of our packaging materials. We have plans of considering your suggestion.

2) Explain in your letter how you plan to take action with the given suggestion.

Sample statements:
I have raised during the meeting with the President your suggestions and concerns. After he reviewed the matter, we will let you know for the decision.

I have asked Jane Smith to directly look into this matter. Kindly expect a call from her anytime this week.

We will discuss in our next meeting your ideas and we will see what we can do to incorporate your concerns with the existing system. We will let you know for updates.

3) State in your letter the benefits that you will get from the action.

Sample statements:
According to the Accounting department, the revenue will be increased by 25% if we implement the suggestion of the Marketing department.

We think that it would be a great idea to boost the morale of the employees.

The suggested procedure by one of our customers will be of great help to efficiently do the job of our sales clerk.

4) Close your letter expressing your appreciation.

Sample sentences:
Thank you for your suggestion. You deserve a credit for this very effective suggestion.

We appreciate your concern to help us improve our service.

Excellent recommendations like yours would definitely help our company’s revenue.

I sincerely thank you for taking the time to look into this matter.

Here’s a sample letter accepting a suggestion.

SAMPLE

November 26, 2010

Lorelei Doe
2345 Antioch Drive
Queens, NY 02345

Dear Ms. Doe,

Thank you for your letter dated November 24, 2010 regarding your suggestion that we have to implement “non-smoking areas” in our hotel. You are indeed correct that we have to provide both non-smoking and smoking areas in our hotel such us in the dining area.

Our management has looked into this matter and decided to make changes in our policy. We will strictly implement smoke-free areas and there will be designated areas for smoking customers.

We certainly appreciate your time and efforts to make this very helpful suggestion. Our guests, like you are our first concern and we thank you for your comments to improve our services.

Sincerely,
Jane Gates, VP Operations

Whatever the factors that caused the customer dissatisfaction, the letter writer must make sure the complaint is valid before transmitting the correspondence to the proper person, usually the head of an establishment or customer service head.

A letter of complaint about poor customer service may be written in a polite and constructive manner, so that ultimately, the legitimate issues raised will be addressed and may result in better services for everybody. Here’s a sample letter complaining about poor customer service:

November 30, 2010

Ms. Marjorie Taylor
Guest Relations Manager
Sugar Beach Resort
Maui, Hawaii 98765

Dear Ms. Taylor:

My husband and I stayed at Sugar Beach Resort last November 20-21 and we thoroughly enjoyed the ambience, the clean surroundings, and complete resort amenities. It was everything we expected, except that we had an unpleasant encounter with one of your staff members.

While we acknowledge that it was a very busy weekend and the resort-hotel’s housekeeping staff was all doing their best, we had hope to experience good customer service. During the second day of our stay, we noticed that our room hadn’t been serviced even though we were gone the whole morning. We brought this to the attention of the housekeeping personnel and requested for some fresh towels. The housekeeping staff assigned to our area irritably said she will get to it, but the rest of the day went by and our room was not spruced up. Housekeeping did send up the towels but we were already packing to leave.

Please know that we would have loved to refer your resort to our friends, but there is clearly a need to improve the customer relations of your staff members. I hope you look into the matter and ensure it is not repeated.

Thank you & Sincerely,

Sophia Carter

DATE______________

CUSTOMER____________________________________________________

ADDRESS_____________________________________________________

_____________________________PHONE___________________

MERCHANDISE PROBLEMS: DELIVERY PROBLEMS:

ORDER NOT FILLED BAD ADDRESS

DEFECTIVE MERCHANDISE CUSTOMER NOT IN

REPAIR PROBLEM DELAYED/LOST IN TRANSIT

WRONG MERCHANDISE SOLD DAMAGED IN TRANSIT

AMOUNT CHARGED IN ERROR MDSE. MISSING IN PACKAGE

CREDIT/REFUND NOT ISSUED OTHER___________________

OTHER___________________ ________________________

REMARKS:

DISPOSITION:

It has been over six months since you have come to visit
us at Covert Corner. We have missed seeing you.

Anything wrong? Please let us know if this is the case.

If you have a chance, why don’t you stop in to see us. I
think you will be pleasantly surprised by some of the new
merchandise we now have available. As one of our preferred
customers, you will, of course, be entitled to use your ten
(10%) percent, life-time discount privilege.

We stand at the ready to be of service.

It has been so long since we have had the opportunity to
be of service to you, that I have begun to wonder if
perhaps, we have offended you in some way in the past.

If this is the case, I would greatly appreciate knowing
what happened. In fact, if you have any grievance with
our firm, I wish that you would call so that we might
discuss the problem.

We have introduced many innovations into our product line
since the last order you placed with our firm, and if the
reason we haven’t heard from you has nothing to do with a
complaint, we would appreciate having the opportunity to
show you these innovations.

In either case, it would be wonderful to hear from you.

We have missed you!

We didn’t see you at our Summer Sale and we didn’t see you
at our Fall Sale, either. So, after putting our heads
together here at Lord & Chambers, we concluded that one
possible reason for your having stayed away so long might
be that you don’t like crowds. We came up with the
following solution:

A PRE-CHRISTMAS SALE

OPEN ONLY TO PREFERRED CUSTOMERS

DECEMBER 17, 1986

5:00 P.M.- 9:00 P.M.

If there is any other reason that has kept you away, won’t
you please let us know by calling me at West Palm Beach (305)
662-000. Thank you.

It has been over six months since we have had the
opportunity to service your automobile. We certainly
hope that we haven’t done anything to offend you. If
we have, please call us so we can find out what has
kept you away.

We invite you to bring your [make of car] into
our shop for a free inspection and tune-up.

We are
strong advocates of periodic inspection of vehicles in
order to assure their safety and to prevent major
repairs through the early detection of problems.

Won’t you accept our offer, which is our way of saying
that we have missed you? Please feel free to bring
your automobile in at anytime between 8:00 A.M. and
1:00 P.M., Monday through Friday. An appointment is
not necessary.

We are looking forward to your visit.

It is our pleasure to notify you that a charge account has
been approved in your name. We welcomes you as a new
customer and hope that you enjoy the convenience of your
charge account.

We have established a credit limit on your account in the
amount of $ At such time as you may wish to raise
the credit line, a phone call or visit to our credit office
should expedite our handling of your request.

We have enclosed your card and our pamphlet that explains
our billing procedure, how to use your credit card plus
additional information we believe you will find useful.

Thank you again for choosing to shop with us.

As a valued customer of [name of company], we couldn’t
wait to bring you the good news. This letter is to
announce the incorporation of our new customer incentive
program (CIP?). Well, maybe we haven’t thought of a great
logo for it yet, but if you read on I think you’ll agree
that no matter what we call it, it’s super!

Starting on June 1st, a record of your account with our
store will be maintained on a cumulative basis for a
period of one year. Once your purchases have reached
$500, you will be automatically entitled to a 5% discount
on any order placed, including orders for sale items.
When your orders have reached the $1,000 mark, your
discount will increase to 10%. A $1,500 accumulation of
orders will entitle you to a 15% discount and once you
have reached $2,000 you will receive 20% off all
merchandise orders. We think it’s a great idea and hope
that you agree.

Won’t you send us a purchase order today to get you
started on your way? If you think of a good name for us
to tag onto this new discount program, please let us know!