writing

WRD 202

Assignment 1 Social Media Packet

PART 1: Yelp Response

The background. A customer posts the following complaint about a branch of the national company U.S.

Freedom Insurance. The review was posted on the website Yelp.com:

Written by Carol K. in St. Louis, MO

U.S. Freedom Insurance: St. Louis, MO

Terrible, disrespectful, and dishonest service. I can handle folks making

honest mistakes, and an employer needing to coach and train staff. What I

can't handle are dishonest people making up stories to cover their own tail.

I tried to correct a policy issue with them for many months, providing

correct information to them repeatedly which was never incorporated into

my account/documents. I had to turn to the U.S. Freedom corporate office

for any type of resolution as the Agent and staff simply do not care. Four

months later, multiple emails, multiple phone calls and the only result I get

from this Agent's staff was basically "we asked corporate, nothing we can

do, your fault, sorry".

Too bad for them that I had already spoken with the U.S. Freedom Corporate folks earlier that day and learned

that no such request was made on my behalf. The U.S. Freedom Corporate folks were actually honest and

helped me. This Agent and his staff could not be bothered to lift a finger. I don't care about the additional cash

charged to my account actually, as it was change really. But the horrible service, and the dishonest responses

from this Agent's staff is too much to ignore.

The assignment. You work at the corporate office for the U.S. Freedom Insurance company as their

social media manager. Write a response to this customer to be posted on Yelp.

Grading criteria. A successful Yelp response will demonstrate:

 Understanding of the potential audiences.

 Thoughtful attention to the specific situation—in other words, the response won’t sound like it

could be copied and pasted directly to other complaints.

 Attention to the genre and conventions of the Yelp website in terms of length, formality, and

style. Be careful here, though: Different complaints will warrant different types of responses.

 Careful editing for organization, tone, style, concision, and formal grammar and punctuation.

Definition: The Corporate Office

Many national and international

companies have a corporate office, or

headquarters, where the top

management, like the CEO, works.

Sometimes the corporate office is

referred to as “corporate” for short.

In this example, Mary K. had a

problem with a local office in St. Louis,

Missouri, but also contacted someone

at the central corporate office to solve

her problem.

PART 2: Internal Memo

The background. Unfortunately, before you can post your comment, someone from the local office

posts following response:

Dear Carol,

While I appreciate your “feedback,” what I don’t appreciate is being blamed for a mistake that a customer

made. If I recall correctly, you were too busy with your whiney kids to listen to my explanation of the error

that YOU made. Next time, ask your husband to help you with your finances.

Also, I shouldn’t have to spend my time fixing something that you are too lazy to fix yourself. I also find it

hard to believe that you called corporate because no one has called me regarding this incident. Good luck

finding someone else to put up with your attitude.

Sincerely,

Blake

The assignment. Blake’s manager is dealing with him separately. However, the incident has made the

company realize that they don’t have any policy in place for dealing with customer complaints.

Because of your role as Social Media Manager, you have expertise in this area. Therefore, they have

asked you to develop this policy for them. The document will be distributed as a memo to all employees

and should include detailed guidance that employees can reference when they receive a complaint—

whether the complaint is in-person, over the phone, or online.

Grading criteria. A successful policy memo will demonstrate:

 Understanding of the genre conventions in terms of formatting (for example, the header), style,

length, and organization.

 Detailed guidelines that will be useful to employees when encountering a difficult situation—put

yourself in the place of your audience here: What would you want to know when faced with an

angry customer?

 Present a tone and content that will motivate employees (see the textbook’s emails about the IT

workshop for an example).

 Attention to the audience’s needs in terms of the content, style, and structure of the information.

 Careful editing for tone, style, conciseness, and formal grammar and punctuation

PART 3: Public Statement

Background. Blake’s response goes viral on social media after a feminist blogger posts it under the title

“The Invisible Burden of Conducting Business as a Woman.” There’s evidence that this story is going to

be aired on local news as well, as an area newspaper has contacted the company asking for comment.

The assignment. Upper management also needs an external response to this incident, and they’ve

asked you to write it. This is beyond your normal responsibilities, and you hope it is a sign that your

bosses are considering you for promotion.

They’ve asked you to write a public statement apologizing for Blake’s rude response to Carol K. Your

statement will likely be about 2-3 paragraphs. It will be released to various media outlets and posted on

the company’s website.

Grading criteria. A successful Social Media Packet will demonstrate:

 An in-depth understanding of the rhetorical situation, especially the context and purpose of the

apology, as well as the multiple audiences.

 Attention to the structuring of information;

 Careful editing for tone, style, concision, and formal grammar and punctuation.