Need

A senior vice president from a Fortune 500 company wanted to involve his vice presidents in planning a letter to all employees giving them the organization’s objectives for the coming year. To signal the fresh direction he sought for the organization, he needed this letter to be different—direct and clearly written, minus the usual “execu-speak.”

Need

The vice president of market research for a large consumer products company used a Write to the Top® program to spur and reflect a culture change. He worried, however, that some of his people would be resistant to the change.

Solution

Using the Write to the Top style, the VP wrote an e-mail to his team urging them to sign up for the workshops. He told his team, “This e-mail took me only 36 minutes to write, including [the preliminary reader analysis]. Normally it would have taken me twice as long!”

Impact

The learners who received the e-mail were impressed by management’s support for the program. Since the VP took an active role in his team’s learning, communicating his stance clearly, the culture change was widely accepted.

Need

The vice president of a major wireless company attended a retreat for top executives. In exploring obstacles to optimal performance, nearly all executives complained about inbox and e-mail overload.

Solution

To combat this problem, the wireless company trained its managers and salespeople in the Write to the Top process. By streamlining everyday communications to top leaders, the company was able to focus on strategy rather than inboxes.

Impact

The company has considerably cut down on information overload, vastly improving the flow of new ideas and streamlining business processes.

Need

The director of training at a large telecommunications firm was having trouble filling training programs.

Solution

During a workshop, she wrote an e-mail message in Write to the Top style, urging people to sign up for a new learning program.

Impact

The class was full in just two hours—a process that usually took two weeks!

Need

A new sales representative was feeling frustrated—prospects were shutting down and he was having trouble moving sales to closure.

Solution

After learning from a Write to Win Sales workshop how to enhance his sales process through writing, he wrote a new letter to a prospect that he considered cold.

Impact

With the new, customer-focused letter, he was able to resurrect the prospect. He also became more successful in advancing sales. After being promoted several times, he called to thank us for jump-starting his career.

Need

The director of sales and marketing at an international package delivery company had hit a slump when it came to new sales.

Solution

After attending a Write to Win Sales workshop, she rewrote her boilerplate introductory sales letter. It changed from a wordy document focused on her personal objectives to a concise document centered on her reader’s needs.

Impact

Only two months later, she made more sales and appointments than ever before—a breakthrough that she attributes to her new writing style.

Need

The vice president of a top pharmaceutical company was having trouble reading the reports from his analytical chemists. Their reports were dense and hard to understand and act on because they were trying to communicate too much information.

Solution

Better Communications delivered a program on Reader-Centered Technical Writing that helped the chemists rewrite several reports.

Impact

After reading one of the rewrites, the vice president told us that he thought that it had been written by another author. He couldn’t believe the report had improved so drastically after only one brief workshop.

Need

An IT department was overwhelmed with internal and external communication problems. The problem with the reports the IT director received could be summed up in two words: “So what?” These reports consistently omitted why the information was important to internal and external processes or users, leaving readers perplexed.

Solution

After attending Write to the Top, the IT team used our audience-analysis tool to ask important questions about audience and impact before writing their documents.

Impact

Thanks to the new style, the team’s documents focused on the readers. The new reports explained why the information was relevant to the business mission; they also proposed clear action steps. The department saved time previously spent clarifying reports, and the director’s image soared.

Need

A global automaker was experiencing costly communication errors between itself and its dealers who were inundated with mounds of hard-to-read internal messages.

The result: missed marketing opportunities, costly re-work at every level, widespread productivity losses, and most importantly, the probability that dissatisfied consumers would turn to competitors.

Solution

With the full involvement of its key decision makers, the automaker began its long-term commitment to writing efficiency with an intensive Write to the Top program to train 8,000 people. The goal: write action-driving documents to move money-making ideas and problem solving quickly from start to finish.

Impact

More than 80% of Write to the Top graduates reported that they cut their writing time between 30% and 50%.

Need

An unhappy major corporate customer was about to change banks because of problems that the bank had caused and its fumbling in fixing the problems.

Solution

The head of Customer Service used our audience-analysis tool to write her “Dear Unhappy Customer” letter. The letter did not beat around the bush—it addressed the problem and the bank’s errors directly and suggested clear action steps.

Impact

The letter impressed the customer so much that he called the president of the bank, saying, “I was about to fire you and change banks, but I’ve received a letter that is sincere—admitting the error—not just a bunch of baloney. Because of that letter, I’m going to give you another chance.”

Need

The company was receiving an overwhelming amount of calls from customers who couldn’t understand the health insurance documents they had received. Customers were confused because the documents did not focus on their needs and level of understanding.

Solution

Better Communications identified the heart of the problem: the company was writing the same document for two different audiences—its customers and the state-based regulatory insurance board. Write to the Top workshops helped refocus the company’s documents to meet the needs of a dual audience.

Impact

The company’s Customer Support Center noticed a dramatic decrease in calls from customers needing clarification. Clear action steps in the new Reader-Centered documents saved time for both the company and its customers.

Need

An executive at a popular entertainment studio was notorious for his slow response time to messages. It usually took him several weeks.

Solution

A graduate of Write to the Top sent him a clear, concise message in the new style.

Impact

The message was so easy to read that the executive responded within 24 hours—a first for him. He cited the clear, presentable format of the document for his quick reply.

Need

A global manufacturer was having trouble with its communications between corporate offices and the field—messages were often ignored and documents were consistently late.

Solution

The company targeted the problem for a quality intervention and chose Write to the Top workshops as the solution. To ensure that the workshops were achieving their goals, the company used its quality measurement process to track the training results on a weekly basis.

Impact

The company found that 85% of their field messages were going out ahead of schedule—a dramatic improvement. The field responded with resounding praise for the improved readability. “Keep ’em coming,” they said.

Need

A leading chemical company required ISO certification, but they were having difficulty writing clear, easy-to-follow procedures.

Solution

Better Communications helped the company write procedures that were much easier to understand. The company was particularly pleased by how knowledgeable our instructors were about procedures.

Impact

The ISO manager credited Better Communications with speeding up the ISO-certification process, saying, “It was a good investment because we saved the engineers a lot of time.”

Need

Several years ago, a top consulting firm was on a campaign to increase employee recruitment and retention. The aggressive plan quickly showed that a more high-powered development program was a key solution. The firm held a national competition to identify leading companies that were delivering innovative and successful employee learning programs.

Solution

This firm selected Better Communications to create and deliver its written-communications development strategy.

Impact

The firm now offers a worldwide learning program that attracts and retains a quality workforce. Write to the Top continues to be among the programs rated “most valuable” by graduates.