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welcome to business english pod a great way to improve your english skills on the goal.problems and more problems.sometimes business seems to be all about dealing with problems.and when dealing with problems over the telephone.
we need to be especially careful in our discussions.since we can't see the reactions of the other party.today we'll listen to business people discussing a delivery problem over the telephone.
then we'll review the language that's used to establish relationships,discuss the problem and come to agreement on a solution.
like any phone call you make in another language,it's always a good idea to have a simple plan of what you want to say before you make the call.here's a general plan for discussing a problem over the telephone.
first,start with some introductory small talk.,this is especially important if you are discussing a problem or some bad news as it relaxes the receiver of the call and helps establish the relationship.
then move on to introduce the problem.it's best not to go into too much detail at this point.just state the basic FACTS and the details can be discussed as the call progresses.
the receiver of the call should next try to clarify the exact cause of the problem.start by asking open questions to get a general idea of the problem and then confirm the details with closed questions.
you can check our previous podcast for more on questioning techniques.after clarifying the problem,confirm your understanding with the caller.
then you can start to make suggestions or give advice as to how the problem might be solved or avoided in the future.once you have agreed what action needs to be taken and who will do what.
thank the caller for their help and close the call.哈哈哈。Eric Martin bbd industries yes,Eric,this is brenda,brenda mills from clarendon steel. we met at the EU manufacturers convention last year.
do you remember our meeting at the pub after the convention was finished,brenda mills?brenda m mills oh,yes,of course,of course we had a great conversation. did you ever get to the world cup like you planned?
now,unfortunately,i couldn't go,I had a sudden business trip that lasted the whole month.well,I hope you were able to watch it on TV. I sure did,but none of the TV stations had the games in english.
but that's life anyway. I'm calling to ask for a bit of a favor,I hope you don't mind sure no problem.what can i do for you?
well,i've got a bit of a problem right now with one of our development projects. this project is on somewhat.
a tight schedule and we're having delivery problems with one particular set of bearings,OK? and are these parts coming from US.
yes,indeed we did receive some of the bearings according to the promised delivery schedule and they were fine. no problem with the parts themselves.
but we haven't received any parts for the last three weeks. well,did you have a chance to talk with our shipping department?
perhaps there are some shipping delays. oh,there's no problem with shipping,I talked to the Sales Department,and they told us all shipments are on time.
it seems,though,that they're the shortage of these parts and that the larger customers are receiving all available parts. and so I thought,perhaps i could give you a call.
you might be able to give us a bit of help,you know,May be shifting some of these parts deliveries our way at least for a few weeks.yeah,I see the problem that is a tough one.
all of our customers have been ordering that particular part,it seems that every manufacturer uses it. I really don't know what the production schedule is for those and who is in line for deliveries.
but tell you what i'll do brenda,i'll go talk to the production and sales people and find out if I might be able to send a few more to you.
would that help every additional part helps we appreciate anything you can do for US? well,then i'll see what i can do and get back to you before the weekend.
how's that minnie thanks Eric that'd be great call me any time at my office or my mobile phone we'll do take care by now?you too叫。not all problems are solved this easily.
but brenda helped herself by preparing for the phone call and following the procedure we talked about at the beginning.now let's take a look at the process. brenda used to discuss and solve her problem.
at the beginning of a call,the caller should be sure to identify himself.if the two parties have never met,the caller is usually more direct and states the purpose of the call right away.
hello,this is James from duroplastic s,and I'm calling about a recent Bill.hi my name is angela and the receptionist told me you handled travel accounts.
when the two parties have met before,it's very useful for the collar to get the other party to remember them.notice how brenda makes sure that Eric remembers her by reminding him of when and where they met.
here are some additional ways to introduce yourself to another person that you already know.hello,this is John from Vancouver. we met last week in the museum.
hi,this is janice,you May not remember me,but we talked last month about furniture.hello,this is frank's.
from ACE investments,you called me last week about bonds.once you've made your introductions,it's important to establish a friendly relationship.especially when discussing problems.
brenda recalls a positive experience they shared,and this puts Eric in a good mood.after that comes some small talk,that's not directly related to the business they're going to discuss.
it's important to have this small talk to establish a personal relationship.some good things to discuss are weather sports travel shared hobby sands,ave personal subjects.avoid controversial or negative subjects.
here are some good opening lines for small clock.health weather today.I see that your football team is doing pretty well this month.how's your travel schedule? where have you been this last week?
after a minute or two of small talk,it's then OK to bring up the purpose of a call.usually there is a bit of a pause after the small talk and then the caller tells the other person why they're calling.
well,the reason I'm calling is that.sometimes the receiver of the call can say so.what can i do for you to move the call to the business part of the conversation?when there is a problem to be discussed.
the caller should be careful to use language that clearly states the problem,but which also uses softening words such as a little.or slight to introduce the problem in a more diplomatic way.
you don't want the receiver of a telephone call to think that the conversation is going to be a big problem for them.brenda uses the phrase I'm calling to ask a bit of a favor.and then she talks about a little bit of a problem.
Eric then says that he's willing to help or at least listen to the problem.here are some other ways to minimize the problem or make it sound more diplomatic.I need a little help on this issue.
I wondered if you could give me some assistance on a certain matter.ti thought i could get a bit of advice from you on a slight problem.brenda then briefly summarizes the problem.
at this point,Eric could ask open questions to get more information.open questions are often called wh questions because they begin with wh such as who.what,where,when and why?
these questions get more information than simple,yes or no questions.here are some good examples of good open questions that you can use to gather more information and clarify the problem.
what's the critical stage in your production process?why do you have to have all the parts before you begin the first stage?after the basic problem is understood.
it is then discussed in more detail with Eric asking follow up questions to clarify each bit of information friend er provides.listen again to how Eric uses closed questions to clarify the exact cause of the problem.
OK,and are these parts coming from US?well,did you have a chance to talk with our shipping department,perhaps there are some shipping delays?after the problem is understood,the callers discussed possible solutions.
in this case,brenda suggested that some of the orders could be moved so that she can receive an earlier shipment.here are some other examples of making suggestions.is it possible to move the meeting to Monday?
why don't we ship the parts by air to make up for lost time?maybe you could reduce the price on the second order if we increase the quantity.perhaps we could ask the designers to send us another layout.
once the suggestions have been discussed,the two parties agree on future actions to solve the problem.they close their conversation with a summary of their agreements.
tell you what i'll do brenda,i'll go talk to the production and sales people and find out if I might be able to send a few more to you.
listen to how willis used in these statements to indicate an instant decision about a future action.usually,the phrases I will or you will are abbreviated to isle and yule in spoken speech.
OK,i'll finish those reports and send them to you tomorrow.so i'll pay for lunch and you'll pay for the tickets,OK ay?all right,then good,we'll both sign the contract on Wednesday afternoon.and finally come the farewell statements.
there are many ways to say goodbye in english,in fact sometimes english speakers will also say goodbye in other languages just for fun.such as with chow,which is goodbye in Ltalian or OS ta lago,which is good bye in spanish.
here are some common ways to say goodbye in the telephone.goodbye,talk to you later.right now,take care good talking with you choose.and now it's time for us at business english pod to say goodbye as well.so.
until our next podcast,we'll say OS tala go,chao di jin and have a good one.thank you for listening to business english pod,we'll be back next week with a new podcast.