The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions

The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions The reality of using English in correspondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY

-GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON THE REALITY OF USING ENGLISH IN CORRESPONDENCE OF STAFF IN CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENT AT HAPYC INC AND SUGGESTED

SOLUTIONS

Supervisor: MA Duong Thi Hong Tham

Student: Nguyen Khanh Linh

Class: K53N3

Student’s number: 17D170138

HANOI - 2021

Moreover, I have to acknowledge as well the participation of the staff inCustomer Service Department at Hapyc Inc who have enthusiastically taken part inthe research My thanks also give to all of our friends at Thuongmai University whohave been the best study partners since the very beginning.

Last but not least, my thank gives to our parents who have been emotionallyand financially supporting us to study English at Thuongmai University If it wasnot because of their help, I would never be here to finish this study

I sincerely thank you!

Hanoi, April 18th, 2021

Student

Nguyen Khanh Linh

Business correspondence is considered to be an important skill of learningwriting skills, the importance of writing English in general and English writingemail in particular, so it is very big for people learn any language Limitation inwriting can reduce job advancement, limit social interactions, and negatively affect

a writer's assessment of a writer's ability and reputation

This study investigates the reality of using English in correspondence of staff

in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc and suggested solutions In otherwords, to find the difficulties employees have to come through and find ways tosolve these problems The method used for this research is quantitative The toolsused for data collection were interviews and structured questionnaires Thecollected data was analyzed both descriptively and artistically

The purpose of this study is to identify common problems encountered byHapyc's customer service staff and provide solutions Literature review shows thatwith careful preparation and integration, writing in business correspondence canplay an important role in supporting learners' overall communication skillsincluding communication, direct and indirect communication

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES vi

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1

1.1 Rationale of the study 1

1.2 Previous studies 3

1.3 Aims of the study 4

1.4 Research subjects 5

1.5 Scope of the study 5

1.6 Research methodology 5

1.7 Organization of the study 6

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 7

2.1 Definitions 7

2.1.1 Business correspondence 7

2.1.2 Emails 7

2.2 Format of a business correspondence 8

2.3 Content and style of business correspondence 11

2.3.1 Length 11

2.3.2 Order and Sequence 13

2.3.3 Planning 14

2.3.4 Style and language 14

2.3.5 Clarity 15

2.4 Types of a business correspondence 17

2.5 Layout of an email 20

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 22

3.1 The attitude of staff in CSD in Hapyc Company about writing an email in

English 22

3.1.1 The staff’s frequency in writing English emails at Hapyc 22

3.1.2 The employees’ attitude towards indirect email communication 23

3.1.3 Staff’ attitudes toward the level of difficulty in writing an English email

23

3.1.4 Staff’ attitudes toward the importance of responding oversea customers via email. 24

3.2 The problems in the process of writing emails in English 25

3.2.1 Common mistakes in writing English emails 25

3.2.2 Common problems in using email 26

3.3 Suggested some solutions to improve writing English email skill 27

3.4 Interview 28

CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 30

4.1 Limitation of the study and suggestion for further study 31

4.1.1 Limitation of the study 31

4.1.2 Suggestion for further study 31

4.3 Future research recommendations 32

CONCLUSION 33

REFERENCES 34

APPENDIX 35

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Abbreviation English meaning Vietnamese meaning

CSD Customer Service Department Bộ phận chăm sóc khách hàngHapyc Inc Hapyc Incorporated Tập đoàn Hapyc

WTO World Trade Organization Tổ chức thương mại thế giớiEVBN Eu-Vietnam Business Network Mạng lưới thương mại EU-

Vietnam

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES

LIST OF TABLES

Table 2.2.1: Complementary close following to salutation 10

Table 2.3.4 The preferred alternative form……….

Table 3.2.1 Common problems in using email 27

Table 3.3.1 Staff’s solution to improve writing an English email skill 27

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1.1 The staff’s frequency in writing English emails at Hapyc

Figure 3.1.2 The employees’ attitude towards indirect email communication Figure 3.1.3 The employees’ attitude towards the level of difficulty in writing

an English email

Figure 3.1.4 Staff’ attitudes toward the importance of responding oversea customers via email.

CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY

1.1 Rationale of the study

The first point is that English is the most widespread language forcommunication, which makes it a top choice when deciding what language to studywith different purposes In history, languages, and especially their popularity, arelargely affected by political and geographic factors, and thus, English has becomethe most widespread language in the world The British and American colonizationsresulted in a large number of the world’s population speaking English as a nativelanguage According to Salman Rushdie, Imaginary Homelands (Granta Books1992) “What seems to be happening is that those people who were once colonized

by the language are now rapidly remaking it, domesticating it, becoming more andmore relaxed about the way they use it – assisted by the English language’senormous flexibility and size, they are carving out large territories for themselveswithin its frontiers.” The United States and the United Kingdom are two of the mainpolitical powers in the world which means that business is thriving there.Consequently, English has become the main engine for communication in thebusiness sphere

In a report of British Council called “The English Effect”, they said “English

is spoken at a useful level by some 1.75 billion people worldwide – that’s one inevery four By 2020, we forecast that two billion people will be using it – orlearning to use it And it is the economically active, the thought leaders, thebusiness decision-makers, the young, the movers and shakers present and futurewho are learning and speaking English They are talking to each other more andmore and English is the ‘operating system’ of that global conversation.” As we cansee that nowadays the language becomes more and more popular because of itsimportance to business growth and communication English is the only languagethat has attracted more than one billion learners globally, which is no surprise,considering the opportunities this language reveals for businesses Manyinternational companies have adopted English as the primary language they workwith, even as the origin of these companies is not from an English speaking country.Some of the most prominent examples of such companies include Nokia (Finland)and Airbus (France)

Another point is the development of electronic commerce which is also known

as electronic commerce or internet commerce According to The World TradeOrganization (WTO), electronic commerce is “a new area of trade involves goodscrossing borders electronically Broadly speaking, this is the production,advertising, sale and distribution of products via telecommunications networks Themost obvious examples of products distributed electronically are books, music andvideos transmitted down telephone lines or through the Internet.” Since the model

of e-commerce has helped businesses and customers more convenient in the buyingand selling process In the early days when customers were still unfamiliar withonline purchases, businesses had difficulty in branding and building trust withonline customers Until now, online shopping has become a habit of a lot of peoplebecause of the convenience it brings

Along with the trend of technology development in the world, e-commerce inVietnam is also gradually forming and growing strongly According to Eu-VietnamBusiness Network (EVBN), in the report called “E-commerce Industry in Vietnam”(2018), they showed that “Vietnam is a land of opportunity for foreign E-commercecompanies because of its young population, high Internet penetration rate (ranked17th in the world) and climbing smartphone penetration rates.” They also forecastedthat the internet penetration will steadily increase, with the share of Internet usersreaching 65% by 2022 According to statistics of Vietnam Finance Magazine(2021), Vietnam is considered one of the fastest growing e-commerce markets inSoutheast Asia, following to Indonesia With high and continuous growth from

2015 onwards, it is forecasted that by 2020, the size of Vietnam's e-commercemarket may reach 13 billion USD

Founded in 2016, although not a large-scale enterprise, Hapyc Inc alwaysstrives to develop e-commerce, the main market is the US English is one of theessential requirements for a candidate in the marketing and customer servicedepartment In fact, during the internship as an employee of the Customer ServiceDepartment, the researcher found that taking care of international customers viaemail is very effective and brings many benefits to the company However, forVietnamese businesses in general and Hapyc's customer service staff in particular,the use of English is not flexible and accurate, especially email writing skills

Vietnamese people in general and of Hapyc's customer service staff in particular,the researcher would like to conduct a study on “The reality of using English incorrespondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc andsuggested solutions” All previous studies not only are immensely helpful for theresearcher but also gave the researcher inspiration to consider the study.

Thomson, in the study “Writing Effective Business Letters”, the author said “Good

business letters open doors and promote business Poor business letters can closedoors fast” and he showed how to write a letter well Another study called

“Problems In Writing English Business Emails of Non-Native Speaking Employees

in An International Real Estate Service Company in Thailand” written by PatittaMalathong is really useful for the researcher, it showed the problems in writingbusiness emails of people who speak English like the second language in aninternational company In the study “Analyzing Genre: Language Use InProfessional Settings”, (1993a, p.51) Bhatia used a genre approach, analyzing quite

in detail about English business discourse In addition, he also came up with a step voice model for English sales and cover letters Henry and Roseberry (2001,p.94), while studying Anglo-American commercial correspondence, have alsopresented a 14-step voice model in cover letters Maier (1992, p.67) examines thedifferences in correspondence between native speakers and non-native speakers,mainly Eastern students (China, Thailand, and Korea)

7-In Vietnam, the research on commercial correspondence is not much, however,some studies below contribute to help the author's research to be more complete.The author Nguyễn Xuân Thơm (2001), in his doctoral thesis on linguistic elements

in international trade negotiations called “Các Yếu Tố Ngôn Ngữ Trong Đàm PhánThương Mại Quốc Tế”, compared to the analysis of linguistic characteristics in the

English language and language Vietnamese in international trade negotiations.Regarding the discourse of commercial correspondence, two authors have analyzedthe discourse of this type of document, that is Nguyễn Trọng Đàn (1996), in hisdoctoral thesis called “Phân Tích Diễn Ngôn Thư Tín Thương Mại” has analyzedand collated a number of linguistic characteristics between English and Vietnamesecorrespondence The author Trịnh Ngọc Thanh in the doctoral thesis called “ĐốiChiếu Văn Bản Thư Tín Thương Mại Tiếng Anh Với Tiếng Việt” has pointed outthe characteristics of the form and content of some types of English commercialcorrespondence documents.

All these studies not only helped the researcher with precious knowledge butalso inspired the researcher to conduct a study on “The reality of using English incorrespondence of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc andsuggested solutions ” which aimed to gain more knowledge, seeking out difficultiesand suggesting some solutions to improve staff’s writing email skill

1.3 Aims of the study

It can be said that objective of the research is one of the most important parts,this is considered as guidelines for researcher to find out the right direction A clearresearch objective will not only help the researcher but also the reader to solve theresearch problem Comprehending and grasping the importance of the study aims,the researcher defined three main objectives

First of all, the researcher points out the customer service staff's attitudetowards writing emails in English, specifically via Gmail Since then, the researcherhas assessed the importance of English in indirect communication with foreignersand at the same time understands the meaning of taking care of foreign customersvia email

Secondly, research paper shows some problems in the process of writing email

in English In fact, the way of writing letters of Vietnamese people and foreigners,specifically Americans is quite different, so in the process of writing letters toAmerican customers, employees at Hapyc also encounter many problems not only

in appearance but also in the content of the letter

Last but not least, the study is to provide several solutions to improve emailwriting skills These solutions may not be the most optimal, but they help research

subjects and readers to improve their writing English skills, especially Englishemail writing skills.

1.4 Research subjects

It cannot be denied that there are many businesses in Vietnam using English as

a tool for development and expansion, Hapyc Inc is also one of them There aremany Vietnamese qualified to access English, but not all of them are fluent inEnglish, in fact working at Hapyc, most of the staff of the customer servicedepartment are graduated students and they have approached English in manydifferent ways, which leads to different problems encountered in writing emails inEnglish This study is a significant study with high practicality The researcherexamines the major mistakes and give some solutions not only for the staff but alsofor those who need to improve their writing email skill

1.5 Scope of the study

This study is researched to point out the current situation of using English bystaff in Hapyc's Customer Service Department in writing emails and offeringspecific solutions to solve the problems

Firstly, due to the researcher’s time and experience constraints, other areassuch as structure and vocabulary in writing skill or the causes of the problems arenot mentioned in depth The researcher just focus on writing an English email skill.Secondly, because of the limitation in time, budget, facilities and experience,the study paid main attention to the 19 major employees in Hapyc company

1.6 Research methodology

The study was carried out with a survey research design Questionnaire andinterview were two methods that were chosen to conduct this study The firstinstrument is a questionnaire consisting of four parts

The first part referred to personal information, the researcher gives them somequestion like: “How long have you been learning English?”, “What do you useEnglish for?”

The second part of the questionnaire are questions to investigate currentsituation and attitude of subjects about writing an email in English, for instance,

“How often do you write an email?”, “Do you like to communicate indirectly byemail?”, “Do you think writing an email in English is difficult?”, “Do you think it's

really necessary to give customers responses through email?” The researcher used a4-point Likert scale, from A to D following arrangement “Really like, like, neutraland dislike” to discover the respondents’ attitudes toward writing English emailskill.

Part three included questions which aimed to answer the question “What arethe problems in the process of writing emails in English?” The researcher listssome issues about writing an English email and using email ang give somequestions such as “Do you think it is difficult in spelling words correctly?”, “Is thisdifficult in using correct punctuation” and so on

The last part of the survey is about the solutions to improve writing email skill

in English It includes several useful methods not only for the employees but alsofor students

The quantitative data gained from three parts of the questionnaire werecalculated and transferred into numerical form concerning the items’ percentage ofparticipants who share similar answers

1.7 Organization of the study

The study consists of four main chapters:

Chapter One, Overview of the study, provides an overview of the study inwhich the reasons for choosing the study was presented It also includes the aims ofthe study, research subject, the scope of the study, research methodology and theorganization of the study

Chapter Two, Literature review, provides the theoretical background for thethesis There are four main parts in this chapter, including the definitions and theformat, content and style of English business correspondence and the layout of anemail

Chapter Three, Research findings, aims to describe the backdrop informationabout the reality of staff in Customer Service Department at Hapyc Inc andsuggested solutions Detailed data analysis and discussions are also given

The Last Chapter, recommendations and suggestions are given for further studies

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter presents an overview of the document, ensuring adequateknowledge of the definitions of business correspondence and email Moreover, itshows the format, structure and the characteristics of a commercial email document,and how to write a complete email

2.1 Definitions

2.1.1 Business correspondence

According to the book called “Merriam-Webster's guide to businesscorrespondence” (1993), business correspondence means “the exchange ofinformation in a written format for the process of business activities Businesscorrespondence can take place between organizations, within organizations orbetween the customers and the organization The correspondence refers to thewritten communication between persons Hence oral communication or face to facecommunication is not a business correspondence”

In the study calls “Business Correspondence Style and Format”, YuliaViktorovna Sviatiuk showed that “Business correspondence is common and iscommon and widely used in business communication and transactions Successfuland effective business letters assist the flow of information in a company orbusiness environment Business letters can enhance business contacts, benefit ordetriment company performance, and influence the outcomes of negotiations.Effective letter writing is crucial to the success of every company or professional.Therefore, the research of business correspondence language and types is an urgentproblem It is essential to study the rules of business letter writing and single out thepeculiarities and specific features of types, styles and structure of business letters”

2.1.2 Emails

E-mail or Electronic Mailbox (email or e-mail) is “a method of exchangingmessages between users of electronic devices E-mail was first introduced intolimited use in the 1960s and by the mid-1970s took what is today called email E-mail works through computer networks, mainly the Internet today Some early emailsystems required the sender and receiver to be both online at the same time, just like

instant messaging Today's email systems are based on a save and forward model.Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages The user or theircomputer is not required to be online at the same time; they need to connect in amoment, usually to an email server or to a web-based email interface as long asthere is a sending or receiving function”.

2.2 Format of a business correspondence

Based on 2 main resources are “Oxford Handbook of CommercialCorrespondence” written by the author A.Ashley and the textbook called “BusinessCorrespondence” of Thuongmai University, below are 12 difference parts of abusiness correspondence

 Heading

The heading of a business letter usually contains the name and postal address

of the business, e-mail address, website address, telephone number, fax number,trade mark or logo of the business (if any)

E.g AB/FADept./2005/29

 Inside address

This includes the name and full address of the person or the form to whom theletter is to be sent This is written on the left hand side of the sheet below thereference number Letters should be addressed to the responsible head

E.g

The Chief Manager,State Bank of IndiaUtkal University CampusBhubaneswar,

Orissa - 751007

 Subject

It is a statement in brief, that indicates the matter to which the letter relates Itattracts the attention of the receiver immediately and helps him to know quicklywhat the letter is about

E.g Subject: Enquiry about Samsung conditioner

 Salutation

This is placed below the inside address It is usually followed by a comma (,).Various forms of salutation are:

Sir/Madam: For official and formal correspondence

Dear Sir/Madam: For addressing an individual

Dear Sirs/Dear Madam: For addressing a firm or company

 Body

This comes after salutation This is the main part of the letter and it containsthe actual message of the sender It is divided into three parts:

- Opening part: it is the introductory part of the letter In this part, attention

of the reader should be drawn to the previous correspondence, if any

- Main part: this part usually contains the subject matter of the letter Itshould be precise and written in clear words

- Concluding part: it contains a statement of the sender’s intentions, hopes

or expectations concerning the next step to be taken Further, the sender shouldalways look forward to getting a positive response At the end, terms like “thankyou”, “with regards”, “with warm regards” may be used

Mr Married or unmarried male Yours sincerely

Ms Married or unmarried female Yours sincerelySir Male-name not known Yours faithfullyMadam Female-name not known Yours faithfullySir/Madam When unsure whether you are

addressing male or female

Yours faithfully

Medical/academic/militar

ye.g Dr/Professor/General

These titles do not changewhether addressing a male orfemale

Yours sincerely

Table 2.2.1: Complementary close following to salutation

(Source: Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence, p.11)

 Signature

It is written in ink, immediately below the complimentary close As far aspossible, the signature should be legible The name of the writer should be typedimmediately below the signature The designation is given below the type name.where no letterhead is in use, the name of the company could be included below thedesignation of the writer

E.g

Yours faithfullyFor M/S Acron Electricals(Signature)

SUNIL KUMARPartner

 Enclosures

This is required when some documents like cheque, draft, bills, receipts, lists,invoices etc are attached with the letter These enclosures are listed one by one inserial numbers

 Copy circulation

This is required when copies of the letter are also sent to persons apart of theaddresses It is denoted as C.C

 Post script

This is required when the writer wants to add something, which is not included

in the body of the letter It is expressed as P.S

2.3 Content and style of business correspondence

Oxford Handbook of Commercial Correspondence illustrates that there are 6main contents in a business correspondence, each content contains some styles

2.3.1 Length

The writer needs to consider the amount of information transmitted throughthe mail that is sufficiently balanced and reasonable for the recipient to understand.The style of writing as well as the language used will influence the length of theletter Some letters below are examples for three styles of this content

 Too long:

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you very much for your request on March 2 that we received today Wereceive a lot of requests from many potential customers, especially right now thestores are full of gifts for Mother's Day on May 9

We've included our souvenir catalog and are sure to be impressed by our widerange of T-shirts You will find that they include models for women of all ages atprices that are right for all of your customers In addition, we also have a returnpolicy, for any returned product that the fault belongs to our company, we will sendyou the product as soon as possible, and give you a discount of 10 % of the totalnumber of defective rows

Along with that, you will also find our pricelist that provides full details onprices to California (including costs, insurance and rates) and explains our offers forloyal customers like you We think you'll be so excited and we hope you get themost out of it

We are always ready to provide you with more information of our productsand are capable of giving you special attention whenever you ask As you can see,

we deal with a lot of stores in countries from the Far East to Europe, this alonespeaks to our reputation, in line with our company motto "Always Leading TheTrend"

Once again, thank you for your inquiry and we'd say we look forward tohearing from you in the future.

Best regards,

There are some things wrong with this letter Although the writer tried toadvertise the company's products and strengths, it was too wordy There's no need toexplain that the stores are making Mother's day purchases - Mr Smith knows this.Instead of drawing attention to the company's T-shirts and other items, the writertalked about the company's history, the thing Mr Smith was not interested in

This letter is too short, it has some mistakes:

- It should have begun with “Dear Mr Smith” because the writer knew hisname when receiving his inquiry

- It should show more details about the product including the pricelist andincentive

 The right length:

Dear Mr Smith,

Thank you for your inquiry on March 2

We enclose a catalog and a pricelist providing details of the CIF Californiaprice, discount and delivery date

While you will find we offer a lot of souvenirs, we can draw your attentionfrom page 5 to 8 where the products could match your description

All of our products have return policy and are backed by our worldwidereputation

If you need any further information, please feel free to contact us We lookforward to hearing from you soon

Yours sincerely,

2.3.2 Order and Sequence

In addition to the requirement of length, order and sequence is also important.The information in the following paragraph must be connected to the previousparagraph instead of repeating it.

 Unclear sequence:

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are very interested in your company's collection of posters We would like

to know more information about the prices and offers of each product

One store used your painting for wall hanging and they showed me yourcompany's catalog We are very impressed with the pictures of food and do notknow if your company accepts pictures on request

In your catalog, we found that the products on page 8 match our requirementsvery well In addition, we also want to order to print some samples not in thecatalog, we want to ask you more about printing service on request If so, we willsend you the mockup and design which we want to print

If you offer competitive prices, I will order in bulk to decorate all of ourstores

We would like to make a decision on this soon, so we would appreciate anearly reply

However, it is very helpful to have your company printed poster on request,

we will order 500 posters

Of course, our choices will be affected by competitive price and full guarantee

of related services

Please respond as soon as possible as we want to make a decision within the

next few weeks.

Thank you for your inquiry on March 2

We enclose a catalog and a pricelist providing details of the CIF Californiaprice, discount and delivery date

 Middle paragraphs: This is the most important paragraph, it containsquestions you need to ask or answers Make a plan to ensure that your problems arenot missing or duplicated

 Final paragraph: At the end of the message, if it's a reply, thank the senderfor sending the letter to you If it is a request, emphasize that you look forward tohearing from the recipient

2.3.4 Style and language

 Simplicity: The language of a letter dealing in international trade should

be kept simple and easy to understand for the recipient to use too high academiclanguage

E.g This is a letter with complex and unclear message

Dear Sir / Madam,

We are pleased to inform you that we have received your request for a refundfor the product you ordered at the end of March

We sincerely apologize for not returning your item as requested, 1 week afterplacing your order We hope you understand for the printer malfunction, so theproduct has not been completed yet to send to you soon

According to the company's policy, if the product has not been delivered for