Management

BCOM1001 Applied Business Communications

CASE C: Problematic Client Relationship

Assignment Objectives:
Analyze information by thinking critically, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting, and documenting.
Determine solutions to business communication-related problems using communication theories, concepts and best

Assignment Description:
Short, full-sentence or (where appropriate point form) responses to case study questions that apply course concepts, theories and best practices. Questions follow the case below.

Length: Two pages maximum.
Criteria: Completeness of answers + professionalism of delivery + accuracy of writing
Submission due date: Sept. 30, 2019; submit as a word document (hard copy in class please)
Weight: 10 %

CASE B

Bob has been a customer service representative at an Edward Jones branch in Scarborough for the past two years. Recently, he was promoted to financial services representative. Eager to please his boss and ensure his future with the company, Bob upgrades his cell phone to an iPhone. He makes sure his new number is listed on his business card as well as his office number. He creates a profile on LinkedIn and sends out 124 connection requests to everyone he knows.

Marge Priddy is one of Bob’s most important clients. She is a long-time friend of Bob’s parents, and when she heard about Bob’s promotion, she decided to switch from her financial advisor at CIBC to Bob at Edward Jones as a show of support.

With the recent downturn in the market, Marge has been quite anxious. She’s noticed the value of her investments plummet on her last few monthly statements. She didn’t do anything in September, but after the October statement arrives in the mail showing she’s lost roughly $25,000, she decides to call Bob to receive an explanation.

Marge has called the number on Bob’s business card three times, left three messages, but hasn’t heard anything back. She’s tried emailing Bob twice and once again, there’s been no response. Marge decides to try one more time, and finally Bob picks up the phone. It’s 4:30 pm on a Thursday afternoon. Marge can hear a lot of noise and music in the background – loud voices, yelps, laughter. Bob asks Marge to “Hold on a minute so I can move to a quieter place” before resuming the call. Marge is disconcerted because she’s pretty sure that Bob is in a bar. Bob says “Okay, I can hear you now” and asks what he can do for Marge. Marge proceeds to tell him about the three unreturned messages. Bob says he’s been forgetting to check his smartphone messages. The rest of the phone call goes downhill from there. Bob offers to meet with Marge “first thing next week,” but not before Marge has decided to leave a voicemail with the branch manager and with Bob’s parents complaining about Bob’s interpersonal communication skills. Bob is let go on December 1. His boss says the downturn in the market has forced the company to cut some frontline staff.

Bob has now been unemployed for two weeks. He has five months of experience as a financial services representative, two years’ experience as a customer service representative, as well as his applied business degree from Seneca College. He’s been revising his resume and messaging his LinkedIn connections to ask them to help him find a job.

One day in early December at Scarborough Town Centre, he sees Marge Priddy. She’s with her husband Reg. Bob desperately wants to talk to Marge – she might be able to “get him into” Rogers Communications Inc. where she works, and where there are a lot of different job categories. Similarly, Reg works for the City of Toronto, and it’s possible there might be some openings there for customer service representatives or entry-level business analysts. Bob remembers that his last exchange with Marge went pretty awfully, and he’s still embarrassed by his ineptitude. He’s even more embarrassed because apparently Marge and Reg are no longer as friendly with Bob’s parents as they used to be.

Still, Bob decides that this situation is a golden networking opportunity: after all, isn’t networking about using your contacts to help you access opportunities? Bob decides to approach Marge and Reg and try to repair the relationship as a first step in networking.

As he approaches Marge and Reg, Bob keeps in mind what his Business Communication professor at Seneca College kept repeating: never ignore someone you’ve known – you can turn any situation into a networking situation if you know how to manage the small talk.

Walking up to Marge and Reg, Bob taps Marge’s shoulder (she’s looking at the display in the window of a store) and, looking at his feet, says “Hi Marge, hi Reg, long time no see!” Marge and Reg turn around in surprise. Bob quickly continues, “This mall is so busy all the time, eh? It sucks around Christmas time, for sure.” Marge and Reg look at each other uncomfortably. “Anyways,” Bob continues, “my parents are really sad about not being in touch with you guys anymore. They kind of blame me. Hopefully that’ll change after Christmas when things get less busy. Anyways,” he continues, staring once again at his feet in nervousness, “this is probably going to sound funny considering what happened at Edward Jones, but I’m having a hard time finding a job. I know that the companies you work for are always hiring entry-level people, so I wondered if I could ask a big favour: could you help me get a job? I mean you don’t actually have to set things up, obviously, but maybe you could just put in a good word once I drop off my application? I notice you didn’t respond to my LinkedIn request…”

By this point Marge is clearly shifting her body weight from one foot to another. Neither she nor her husband has said anything yet… “It’s just so tough out there now,” Bob continues, “for someone without much experience. Anyways, that’s why I thought I’d ask you for help.” Marge interrupts Bob here, saying “Reg and I have to be off now Bob. Please say hi to your parents from us. We’ll think about your request and leave a message for you at your parents if I think we can help. Bye now.”

Solving the Case

1.
Identify and rank the various communication (and other) problems in this scenario in order of importance: most important to least important.
Explain what you would do differently as Bob if you could live through this scenario again

Modeling the behavior

2.
In your opinion, to what degree is LinkedIn a successful replacement for or add-on to traditional networking skills? (Be specific about why and how.)
Demonstrate how the small-talk conversation at the mall between Bob, Marge, and Reg should ideally have played out. Produce a short conversation script of this interaction.

Research

3.
, locate two recent articles which offer differing interpretations/advice on networking skills in the workplace. Give me the bibliographic information for the sources (i.e. author, title, publication, date of publication, page numbers, etc.).
Summarize the best piece of information you find in each source that relates to today’s case.
Which advice makes most sense to you? Why?