Chapter 11 Customer Service Strategies 259 G-W Learning Mobile Site Visit the G-W Learning mobile site to complete the chapter pretest and posttest, and to practice vocabulary using e-fl ash cards. If you do not have a smartphone, visit the G-W Learning companion website to access these features. G-W Learning mobile site: www.m.g-wlearning.com G-W Learning companion website: www.g-wlearning.com/marketing/ Coach Read the Guidelines Each of DECA’s prepared events come with a set of guidelines. It is critical that you read the guidelines thoroughly before you begin. The guidelines not only describe the event itself, but also provide each subtopic that you must address. You will learn the judging criteria, how long your presentation and written manual should be, and how to avoid penalty points. It is a good idea to appoint one person on your team to be responsible for the guidelines. This person should not only read them thoroughly, but should also review them regularly. He or she can then check each part of the written manual as it is completed, examining it for possible violations of the rules. Before prepared events go to competition, they will be checked by judges for violations to the guidelines. Simple mistakes, like single-spaced text, hand-written page numbers, and using inexact wording for headings and subheadings, can cost you penalty points. One page of the guideline is titled “DECA Competitive Event Checklist.” This is a list of possible penalties that judges may assess to your written manual. Penalty points can make the difference between winning and losing. Make sure that at least one person on your team becomes an expert on the rules. Visit www.deca.org to learn more information about DECA.