Answer to Question 1
Answer: All business messages should be written with an eye toward fostering positive relationships with audiences, but some messages are written specifically to build goodwill. You can use these messages to enhance your relationships with customers, colleagues, and other businesspeople by sending friendly, even unexpected, notes with no direct business purpose. In addition to creating messages for a specific goodwill reason, you can craft almost any routine message in a way to build goodwill. Two ways to do this are by providing information that your readers might find helpful and by using the content and tone of your message to provide an element of entertainment. Goodwill messages include congratulatory messages, messages of appreciation and messages of condolence. One prime opportunity for sending goodwill messages is to congratulate individuals or companies for significant business achievementsperhaps for being promoted or for attaining product sales milestones. Other reasons for sending congratulations include highlights in people's personal lives, such as weddings, births, graduations, and success in nonbusiness competitions. You may congratulate business acquaintances on their own achievements or on the accomplishments of a spouse or child. An important leadership quality is the ability to recognize the contributions of employees, colleagues, suppliers, and other associates, and sending messages of appreciation. Your praise does more than just make the person feel good; it encourages further excellence. A message of appreciation may also become an important part of someone's personnel file. Condolence letters are brief personal messages written to comfort someone after the death of a loved one. You may have occasion to offer condolences to employees or other business associates (when the person has lost a family member) or to the family of an employee or business associate (when that person has died).
Answer to Question 2
Answer: Condolence letters are brief personal messages written to comfort someone after the death of a loved one. Follow these three principles: short, simple, and sincere. Open a condolence message with a simple expression of sympathy, such as I am deeply sorry to hear of your loss or I am sorry for your loss. How you continue from there depends on the circumstances and your relationships with the deceased and the person to whom you are writing. For example, if you are writing to the husband of a colleague who recently died and you have never met him, you might continue with Having worked with Janice for more than a decade, I know what a kind and caring person she was. Such a statement accomplishes two goals: explaining why you in particular are writing and letting the recipient know that his loved one was appreciated in the workplace. You can conclude with a simple statement such as My thoughts are with you during this difficult time. If appropriate for the situation and your relationship, you might also include an offer of assistance. Please call if there is anything I do for you. As you decide what to include in the message, keep two points in mind. First, make it a personal expression of sympathy, but don't make the whole message about you and your sense of loss. Second, don't offer life advice, and don't include trite sayings that you may have heard or read. At this point, soon after the loss, the recipient doesn't want your advice, only your sympathy. Also, don't bring religion into the discussion unless you have a close personal relationship with the recipient and religion is already a part of your relationship.