Your regional electric utility provides power to rural, urban, and suburban customers. Recently, a series of heavy summer rainstorms knocked out electricity to thousands of customers. Because overhead power lines came down—in some cases due to inadequate tree trimming by home owners—some customers were without power for more than a week. In addition to the inconvenience of not having electricity, many customers also had to throw away spoiled food, as well as go without air conditioning on days when temperatures climbed past 90 degrees.

Today, you receive a letter from Harper Henry, a long-time customer and local business leader whose husband, Stephen D’Amico, is a county commissioner. Ms. Henry is angry that power to her neighborhood was out for four days and that though similar storms have knocked out power in past years, nothing seems to have been done to prepare for future storms. In particular, there is no plan to bury overhead power lines. “Your company puts making money ahead of customer service,” she writes. “You continue to post record profits while putting countless lives at stake, all for the sake of your bottom line.”

The following letters are possible approaches to answering this complaint. How well does each message meet the needs of the reader, the writer, and the organization? Is the message clear, complete, and correct? Does it save the reader’s time? Does it build goodwill?

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Dear Sir or Madam: You opinion is valuable to us, and you can rest assured that we are looking into the problem. Should you have questions or concems in the future, please do not hesitate to contact us.