Part 10 - Dealing with difficult clients

Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 1 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com

BBC Learning English
Talk about English
Business Language To Go
Part 10 - Dealing with difficult clients

This programme was first broadcast in 2001.
This is not an accurate word-for-word transcript of the programme.

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 tricky one, isn’t it? The phrases you choose for this situation are
crucial.
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
dealing with someone who is very angry or is being very unreasonable, 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


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 2 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


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 some of the expressions that she used.
David: Well, she begins in a fairly functional, formal kind of way, saying, Can I take
your name? Then when they are both sitting down, she begins to use much


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 3 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


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 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


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 4 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


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 which means to
investigate, and it’s slightly less formal and has a friendly feel. So it’s typically
used when promising 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.



Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 5 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


CLIP

PHONE RINGING

Female: Hello!
Mark: Hello, can I speak to despatch 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 offhand. Let me check for you. (rustles paper). Yes,
part of the order didn’t arrive here at the depot, 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


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 6 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


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 helping 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 incompetence I’ve encountered at your
company is unbelievable! I really do wish I’d never got involved with you in


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 7 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


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.
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


Talk about English © BBC Learning English
Page 8 of 8
bbclearningenglish.com


language that involved reassuring 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.