Which planet is mostly closest to Earth?

Carmela:  We’ll provide you with the most useful expressions used every day at work.  There’ll be new language, so have a pen and paper ready so that you can write down the phrases you hear.   
This week, we’re looking at how to handle difficult customers or clients.   David, this is a tricky¹ one, isn’t it?  The phrases you choose for this situation are crucial.（关键的，决定性的）     
David:  Yes, there’s an expression, “the customer’s always right”, which people who deal with customers are supposed to remember. So it means that even if you are dealing² with someone who is very angry or is being very unreasonable³, it is still essential that you are polite to them and that you choose the language that you use very carefully.   
Carmela:  Well, let’s hear how a typical conversation between a company and a 

dissatisfied customer might sound.  The following is from a training exercise
with the international travel company, Thomas Cook.  Angela Rossella is a
manager is customer services and she’s dealing with someone who has just
returned from one of their holidays.  And the customer isn’t happy.   
CLIP
Angela:Hello, I’m Angela, I’m the customer services manager.  Would you like to come with me and come and take a seat and you can explain to me, what actually is the problem?
Alison:Okay, OK, fine.
Angela:Can I take your name?
Alison:Yes, my name’s Alison.  
Angela:Okay, Alison if you’d like to make yourself comfortable.  As I said I am the customer services manager and I would like to help you.  I understand you are having a few problems. Would you like to just explain from the beginning what’s happened?
Alison:Well yes. I’ve just come back from one of your holidays.  I went to Crete, in Greece, got back last week and the whole thing was a disaster.
END OF CLIP
Carmela: Some interesting phrases used by Angela there with the customer.  David, could you pick out（挑出） some of the expressions that she used.  
David: Well, she begins in a fairly functional⁴, formal kind of way, saying, Can I take your name? Then when they are both sitting down, she begins to use much more polite language.  I think it’s very important in this situation that the person isn’t too direct with the customer, so she uses the expression, Would you like to… Would you like to come with me? ….   Would you like to just explain from the beginning what happened.   
Carmela: And you got the feeling throughout that conversation that Angela the customer services manager, was actually very sympathetic with （对。。。同情）the customer.
David:Yes, she’s used that expression, I understand you are having a few problems. She tries to make the customer think that she is seeing it from her point of view. 
Carmela: Let’s go back to our conversation and focus on some more phrases that Angela uses to help the customer.

CLIP
Angela:Would you like to just explain from the beginning what actually happened.
Alison:Well yes.  To start with, when we got to the airport in, in Crete, we had a two hour wait on the coach, I think there was a delayed flight or something, and… and…
Angela:….Right, that’s quite possible…. 
Alison:…Yes.. And I just can’t work out why you didn’t take us to our hotel and then come back to the airport to pick up the people from the delayed flight.
Angela:Right, I’m sorry for that wait. I don’t know what the problem was. You mentioned a delayed flight there. As you can imagine, you probably weren’t the only family on the coach waiting and to ferry people to and from resort to the airport would have been a lot of extra work and they like to try and keep everyone together who are going on the same flight.  I can actually look into that for you …. 

END OF CLIP
Carmela:David, what were some of the phrases that Angela used there?
David:Well, the first thing that Angela did was to apologise for what happened.  She said, I’m sorry for that wait - that’s very important. She then went on and talked about the situation a little bit.  She firstly explained that she couldn’t comment on it personally. She said, I don’t know what the problem was, but she tried to get the customer to see things from the company’s point of view, using the phrase As you can imagine … Then, right at the end she promised to take some kind of action, to investigate the problem for the customer, by saying I can look into that for you.  Look into, is a phrasal verb（动词词组） which means to investigate, and it’s slightly less formal and has a friendly feel. So it’s typically used when promising⁵ action in this type of situation.  
Carmela: ...which is exactly what an angry customer wants to hear.  Let’s hear another example of someone dealing with a complaint from a customer.  Listen out for the phrases used by the person answering the phone.  You’ll notice the language is similar to what we’ve been looking at so far.  
CLIP

PHONE RINGING
Female: Hello! Mark: Hello, can I speak to despatch⁶ please? Female: You’re through to despatch.   Mark: Right.  Well, I phoned two days ago to say that I hadn’t received delivery of my
order and I’m ringing again to say it still hasn’t arrived.   
Female:Can I just take your name please?
Mark:Yes, it’s Mark Anderson.   
Female:Ah!..I think there’s been a problem with that order Mr Anderson.
Mark:What kind of a problem?
Female:Oh, I don’t know offhand⁷.   Let me check for you. (rustles paper). Yes, part of the order didn’t arrive here at the depot⁸,（停车场，车站，储藏所） so we couldn’t send it out until we’d received everything.
Mark:Well, surely that was your problem to sort out without me having to call back, again. I did phone and drew your attention to this a couple of days ago.  Look I placed this order weeks ago.  It’s just not good enough.  

Female:Yah, I’m sorry about this Mr Anderson.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience, but I can assure you we’ll do everything we can to send this out to you today.
END OF CLIP
Carmela: Well, there were some phrases that we’ve heard before there. David, can you just remind us of that language?
David:Yes, first of all the person dealing with the complaint investigates or looks into the problem. She says, let me check

for you. She then apologises - I’m sorry for the
inconvenience. And finally she promises some action - I can

assure you we’ll do everything we can.
Carmela: Well, so far in both conversations all the people have been really quite polite.  
But as the conversations continue you’ll hear both customers becoming slightly
angrier. In this next section you’ll hear lots of language for helping⁹ you calm
down that angry client.   

CLIP
Alison:I just think it’s a disgrace because my children were extremely tired and nobody offered a bottle of water or a sandwich or something.  I mean…
Angela:…OK…. 
Alison:..are you…are you that bothered.  You clearly don’t have children if you think it’s something acceptable to sit on a coach for two hours at 11 o’clock at night with extremely tired children.  
Angela:Alison, it’s not going to help if you start to get angry, and I do, yes, I do have children, I do appreciate what you’re saying.  I really do want to help you and I think that we just should take this piece by piece and talk through it.  I am here to help you.   
END OF CLIP

CLIP
Mark:Why should I believe you now, when we went through all of this two days ago? Honestly!  The stupidity and sheer incompetence¹⁰ I’ve encountered at your company is unbelievable!   I really do wish I’d never got involved with you in
the first place.     
Female:  Look, look it’s not going to help if you get angry.  As you can imagine, we 
have hundreds of orders coming through this depot every day …. I take your 
point that you shouldn’t have to call us again, and I do understand that 
you’re angry, but if you could just remain calm, then we can sort this out for 
you.  
Mark:  …  We…. 
Female: … I am here to help… 
Mark:  You know, I’m already looking into other suppliers.    
Female:  … OK … if you could just give me an hour or so,  I’ll look into it and I’ll find 
out exactly what’s happened and I’ll call you back.   
Mark:  Well, just make sure that you do phone me back within the hour.  Because if 
you don’t I’m going to cancel the order and our account with you and I will 
want a full refund（全部退费）. 
Female:  OK. Mr Anderson I can assure you I’ll sort this out, I’ll call you back before 
2 pm.  
Mark:  Great. I look forward to hearing your explanation! 

Slams phone down.      

END OF CLIP
Carmela: Well, lots of complaints there, and both customers sounding quite angry. David, what language did they use to calm the customers down?
David: Both people made it clear that there was no point in the customer getting angry. It’s not going to help if you start getting angry ….was the expression we heard. And they also wanted to make it clear to the customer that their job was to assist. I am here to help, was the expression we heard. And there was lots of language that involved reassuring¹¹ the customer that they were being understood and that action would be taken. We heard the phrases I take your point and I understand, as you can imagine, I can assure you. This is the kind of language that angry customers need to hear if they are going to start calming down. 
Carmela: Well, that’s almost it for this week.  Thanks again to David Evans and to you at home for listening. I hope you can join us again soon for more Business Language To Go.
(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

2 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

3 unreasonable   

adj.不讲道理的，不合情理的，过度的

参考例句：

• I know that they made the most unreasonable demands on you.我知道他们对你提出了最不合理的要求。
• They spend an unreasonable amount of money on clothes.他们花在衣服上的钱太多了。

4 functional   

adj.为实用而设计的，具备功能的，起作用的

参考例句：

• The telephone was out of order,but is functional now.电话刚才坏了，但现在可以用了。
• The furniture is not fancy,just functional.这些家具不是摆着好看的，只是为了实用。

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 despatch   

n./v.(dispatch)派遣；发送；n.急件；新闻报道

参考例句：

• The despatch of the task force is purely a contingency measure.派出特遣部队纯粹是应急之举。
• He rushed the despatch through to headquarters.他把急件赶送到总部。

7 offhand   

adj.临时，无准备的；随便，马虎的

参考例句：

• I can't answer your request offhand.我不能随便答复你的要求。
• I wouldn't want to say what I thought about it offhand.我不愿意随便说我关于这事的想法。

8 depot   

n.仓库，储藏处；公共汽车站；火车站

参考例句：

• The depot is only a few blocks from here.公共汽车站离这儿只有几个街区。
• They leased the building as a depot.他们租用这栋大楼作仓库。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 incompetence   

n.不胜任，不称职

参考例句：

• He was dismissed for incompetence. 他因不称职而被解雇。
• She felt she had been made a scapegoat for her boss's incompetence. 她觉得，本是老板无能，但她却成了替罪羊。

11 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。