Reference no: EM132966514

Case study:

As Flora Powell, owner of Town & Country Landscaping, you must refuse the following request. Paul and Judy Alexander have asked that you replace the landscaping around the home they recently purchased in Canmore, Alberta. You had landscaped that home nearly a year ago for the former owner, Mrs. Hunter, installing a sod lawn and many shrubs, trees, and flowers. It looked beautiful when you finished, but six months later, Mrs. Hunter sold the property and moved to Calgary. Four months elapsed before the new owners moved in. After four months of neglect and a hot, dry summer, the newly installed landscaping suffered.

You guarantee all your work and normally would replace any plants that do not survive. Under these circumstances, however, you do not feel justified in making any refund because your guarantee necessarily presumes proper maintenance on the part of the property owner. Moreover, your guarantee is made only to the individual who contracted with you, not to subsequent owners. You would like to retain the goodwill of the new owners, since this is affluent neighbourhood and you hope to attract additional work here. On the other hand, you can't afford to replace the materials invested in this job. You believe that the lawn could probably be rejuvenated with deep watering and fertilizer.

Before writing a letter to refuse the claim, analyze and answer the following questions:

Who is the reader? How will the message affect them?
Should I use a subject line, and if so, what might it be?
If I could use only one sentence to deliver the message, what would it be?
What is the main reason for writing this message?
What is my job or role in this situation? How will the message affect me and my organization?
What other details do I know about my reader(s)? What about potential secondary readers?
How do I want my audience to react when the message is read?
What would be the best tone for this message?
What questions might my reader have about the situation?