When the mail is sorted, all orders are placed together, and these are then sorted into the classes shown by the tally sheet. To prevent holding order, a memorandum tally should be made of each lot of mail handled, and the totals for the day entered on the sheet.
The tally sheet should be loose-leaf and made in manifold. A sufficient number of copies should be made to supply all department heads who have a direct interest in the volume of the day's business. Usually, copies will be required by the executives and the sales manager.
Departmental Distribution. The sorting and distribution of the mail, after it reaches the department for which it is intended, is also of considerable importance. And, in this sorting, the department manager's stenographer can render valuable assistance. For the same reason that the head of the house is relieved of details, the head of a department should strive to rid himself of tasks which can be as well performed by a subordinate.
Whether the mail is sorted by the correspondent or his stenographer, it should be gone through before an attempt is made to answer it. Letters that can be answered at once should be placed by themselves; those necessitating further information should be handled specially; if a letter requires the attention of another department, it should be answered immediately and passed on.
Under this plan, the mail is prepared for answer before a stenographer is called to take dictation, which saves time. The correspondent who does not plan his work calls a stenographer and starts dictating, taking the first letter that comes to hand. When a letter about which further information is needed is found, he sends to the files for correspondence, wasting both his own and his stenographer's time while waiting for the information.
Before any letters are answered, the necessary notations should be made on all letters requiring information, and the letters sent to the proper departments. The very first letters answered should be those that must be referred to another department. These should be not only dictated first, but transcribed and forwarded to the next department before further dictation is given.
These methods will go far toward solving the problem of the prompt handling of correspondence. Most large houses receive complaints of delay in answering letters, and when these complaints are investigated the causes of delay are found to be divided between a lack of method in handling correspondence and ignorance or carelessness on the part of the complainant. In any well-managed concern everything possible will be done to overcome the first-named defect, even to the extent of providing a system which will, at least partially, overcome the defects due to the latter cause.
As to the complaints due to ignorance or carelessness, it is found that at least 75% of all complaints received come within this classification. In many cases complaints come from persons whose correspondence is limited to a half-dozen letters, or less, a day. They fail to appreciate the difficulties of the correspondent whose dictation averages a hundred letters a day; being unaccustomed to the departmental plan of organization, they do not realize that each subject about which they write must be referred to one certain department. And so, a single letter contains an order, a remittance, and a request for some special information, and, because he does not receive a reply covering all subjects referred to in his letter by return mail, the customer complains of delay. It is entirely legitimate to politely request a customer to use a separate sheet for each subject—as orders, remittances, complaints, etc.—but since not all will comply, some such method as has been described is needed to insure against unreasonable delay in handling letters that require the attention of several departments.
In another class is the letter which, for some reason, cannot be answered at once. An example is the letter to a manufacturer, asking for a price on a special machine. Before a price can be named, the engineering department must make a careful estimate of the cost, and it may be necessary to secure quotations on some special material needed. This means an unavoidable delay, but the prospective customer should not be left in a state of expectancy—the letter should be acknowledged immediately, and the cause of the delay explained. The customer then feels that he is receiving attention, while if no reply is made until full information can be given, a competitor more courteous may secure the order.
Interdepartment Correspondence. Of considerable importance in every large organization is the interdepartment correspondence—the notes from one department head to another. Every department head finds it necessary at times to request information from other departments. Even with an intercommunicating telephone system, with which every large office and plant should be equipped, many of these requests are of a nature that, to guard against misunderstandings, demand written communications.