Routine Message

Summary:

You work as an assistant office manager for California Coastal Cabinets (CCC), a family-run updating/remodeling company, and you have noticed a scheduling conflict that needs to be resolved immediately.

Facts:

*Note that not all of the facts below may be relevant for your task.*

• California Coastal Cabinets (CCC) is a family-owned business, run by siblings Victor and Valerie Verenich. The company was started over 35 years ago by Victor and Valeries’s uncle, who built the business slowly by honoring the customer and being true to his word.

• Valerie is in charge of the company’s operational matters. She typically spends her days visiting the various installation sites, monitoring delivery reports, and making sure that jobs run smoothly and finish on time. She directly deals with contractors, suppliers, and laborers.

• Victor runs the financial end of the company. He typically spends his days in the office taking care of such duties as payroll, bookkeeping, customer service issues, and scheduling.

• Valerie and Victor take turns making estimates for new clients. Victor takes care of most of the large business clients, whereas Valerie typically deals with individual homeowner accounts.

• This week, California Coastal Cabinets (CCC) has two important jobs scheduled. The first job is scheduled to start tomorrow, Tuesday, for a family on Mission Street, which will likely to take 2 to 3 days to complete. The client is having a family reunion to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary at their home over the weekend, and so the job absolutely needs to be done before then. The client previously agreed to a 2-3 day time frame for the countertop installation, so long as the job is completed BEFORE Friday.

• The second job is a corporate account for TechTask that is scheduled to start today (MONDAY) and is likely to take 1 to 2 weeks.

• Victor has just discovered this morning that the tile shipment he was expecting for the corporate job (TechTask) has been delayed. Victor tried to let Valerie know about the delay, but he could not get through to her personal phone when he texted her and left a voicemail when she didn’t respond. He then went off to a downtown business meeting and will be out of direct communication contact until late this afternoon.

• The late shipment means that California Coastal Cabinets (CCC) currently has only enough materials to start one of the two jobs that are scheduled for the week.

• California Coastal Cabinets (CCC)’s supplier is usually timely with deliveries, and Victor is fairly confident that the additional tile shipment will probably arrive by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. However, in the past, shipments have been delayed by longer than just a day or two, so he does not want to take any risks, given the importance of the Mission Street deadline of Friday.

• Before he left for his meeting, Victor insisted that the Mission Street job must be the top priority in this situation. He wants Valerie to immediately change the order of the two jobs and begin working on the Mission Street job first, rather than the corporate job.

Task:

Write an email message to Valerie that informs her of the shipment delay. The message should explain why Victor wants Valerie to delay the corporate job and begin the Mission Street job instead. The message should also tell Valerie to confirm that she understands the situation by replying to the email, and to confirm she will proceed with the Mission Street job immediately. Also, the message should explain that if she has any questions or concerns about Victor’s instructions, he will be out of contact until late afternoon and unable to respond. The email should be between 300 and 400 words and must be properly formatted.