Inquiry Letter and Reply

Inquiry Letter

Inquiry Letter is a letter written to request information and/or ascertain its authenticity. A letter of inquiry deals with various matters like job vacancies, funding, grants, scholarships, projects, sales, pre-proposals and others. The term is common in various business setups as it implies fund request or pre-proposal information. Owing to this usage, the term may be considered exclusive to these setups alone. But that is not the case, to this effect the below definition offers a justified meaning.

A.     Inquiry Letter Definition

A document requesting information sent on behalf of an individual or an organization for their own respective purposes, which can be mutually beneficial to the recipient and the sender.

The term ‘Inquiry’ is same as ‘Enquiry’. The former is more commonly used in U.S. and the latter one is more common in U.K. There are some other terms which represent the letters; these are Letter of Intent, Letter of Interest, Query letter, Prospecting Letter, Pre-proposal Letter and Concept Paper. The term ‘Cover Letter’, ‘Business Letter’, ‘Request Letter’ and ‘Sales Letter’ is also applied to an inquiry letter especially when the objective is same as that of letter for inquiry.

A letter of inquiry serves to facilitate business operations and satisfaction of the sender. Inquiry letters remove any misunderstanding and are time savers, especially when two parties want to reach an understanding. The communication towards this effect resolves the issue without any delay. With relation to it being a ‘Pre-proposal letter’, the inquiry letter is also termed as a ‘Condensed Version of a Proposal’. It is the outcome of the purpose of the letter which highlights the points of a proposal instead of a full-fledged proposal.

On an individual’s basis, these letters are sent to companies that are willing to hire but haven't advertised job openings. It can also be a letter addressed to editor in-charge of a publication proposing certain literary work. It can be a letter from a student who is vying for a seat in a college or a business that provides an internship. So, the objective of an enquiry letter is same but its projections and audiences are different. Same goes for its method of delivery, it can be sent via paper mail or electronic mail

B.     Format of Inquiry Letter

Inquiry letter is a kind of letter of request or a request for information about a product, service, jobs or other business information. In general, the general function of this letter is to respond to an advertisement of information sources such as newspapers, magazines or electronic media about a product / service when we are interested in the information obtained.

Usually start is a first step in building a business or cooperation of the two parties, namely the provider of products / services and buyers of products / services.

In this letter, there are some things that are discussed by the provider of the service / product which is the question of the buyer in order to help the buyer itself to find out information about the products / services. These things include: a. Name and type of product b. Product specifications, namely; type, size, quality, capacity and others; c. Unit price. d. Discounts; e. Method of payment from the buyer to the seller; f. How to delivery of the product from the seller to the buyer, and g. Ease of which may be obtained by the buyer, such as warranty and others.

C.     Inquiry Letter Samples

ANDI CLOTHES    & CO Jln.Kaliurang No.23 Yogyakarta INDONESIA 15 february 2015 Distro cloud Corporation Pasundan  Raya Street, No. 15 Jakarta 1240 Dear Sirs, We are a boutique located in Bekasi , and we were interested in your distro cloud shirt medium size product. Therefore, we will appreciate it if you can send us a very detailed explanation of the product complete with your catalogues, price list, term, sample of design, and payment. We would also to know if you are offering any trade discounts. If you can quote us your favorable prices, we would like to place our order as soon as possible. We are looking foward to hearing from you.soon. Yours faithfully,   ANDI CLOTHES &CO ANDI SATRIO Purchase Manager

Reply of inquiry letter

Distro cloud Corporation Pasundan  Raya Street, No. 15 Jakarta 1240 16 january 2013  ANDI CLOTHES  &CO Jln. Kaliurang No.23 Yogyakarta INDONESIA Dear Mr Andi Satrio We thanks you for your inquiry about our Distro cloud shirts product. We are enclosing our catalogue together with prices and terms, for your review and are confident that this catalogue will provide many of the answers you have inquired. We are also pleased to inform you that we will allow you a 10% discount on order of 60 pieces. We hope you will find our prices and terms satisfactory and expecting your order as soon as possible. If there is additional information you would like to know regarding our products, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be most happy to be of assistance. Yours faithfully, For Distro cloud Corporation Aris Tobing Sales Manager

 From the example above letter, it can be seen that parts of the inquiry letter is:

·         Masthead (header)
Listed address, if an agency / company, at the head of the letter can also use the letterhead of the company / institution where you work and simply write the destination address of the company.\

Letter dated (date); Examples of the above letter: 15 february 2013

·         Opener (openning)
Opener always begins with a greeting. In a letter opening depends formal / formal.
Examples for non-formal: Dear Rara
Example for formal: To Whom It May Concern

·         Reference (reference)
The first paragraph is always preceded by a reference that you meet about the company in question. Reference can be advertisements in print and electronic media or any other business information you get from business colleagues who work in the company. The expression commonly used are as follows:
With reference to your advertisement (ad) in ... Or
Regarding your advertisement (ad) in ...

·         Request information
After the reference, you can continue to write the application you want to get information. The expression commonly used are as follows:
Would you please send me ... Or Could you please send me ...
If there is any other information you want to know, you can write the following expression: I would also like to know ... Or Could you tell me Whether ...

·         Cover and signature (signature)
The expression commonly used on the cover are:
Sincerely Or formal expression which is also commonly used are: Yours faithfully
After writing the cover, include the name and position (if you are a staff member in a company).

Reference :

http://ahmadfahriblog.blogspot.co.id/

https://targetstudy.com/letters/inquiry-letter/inquiry-letter-examples.htm